I've Been Waiting For This

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I've been waiting to see this.  I noticed an anxious doe prancing the edge of the field from the neighbor's mailbox to just beyond my mailbox, about 50 yards or so.  She was so nervous and then I saw why.  Her little fawn was following her and she was looking for a place to safely cross the highway onto our side of the road.

 She pranced back and forth, looking, always looking behind, then ahead, tail high, waiting for the perfect chance.  By time I grabbed the camera, I thought she'd be gone, but no, she was still searching.  What I had not noticed because of the trees, but what she could plainly see, was a car to her east and a truck pulling a boat to her west, parked on the highway, giving her clear passage.  Finally she crossed with her fawn fast behind her.

 This morning I saw her in the far side of the corral grazing.

 She was keeping a close eye on Bill as he pounded the pea fence posts in the garden, but kept an even closer eye on her fawn who was lying next to a fallen tree.  I'd seen her on and off all morning.

 Later, on my way down the driveway to get my mail, I saw her hunched over in the field across the road, most likely nursing.  Again, I turned back to the house to grab the camera, hoping to get another picture of her fawn.

She immediately did the distraction thing, walking slowly away and hoping to divert my attention from her fawn. 

 I stood next to a tree,  and she finally turned and came back for her baby, fully aware of me.

 She watched the traffic and me the entire time she let her fawn nurse in the center of the neighbor's field.

 OK, time to go, little one.

 After nudging her fawn and chasing mosquitoes, 

 they finally had enough of my curiosity, and began to slowly walk toward the woods for some peace.  Can you see the fawn's head?  He's the little brown spot behind his mom.

 The doe stopped one more time, looked back at me as if to say, 

"Did you get enough pictures of my baby yet?"

Can you see where her fawn found safety?  He's between her hind legs, all safe from the nosy lady with the camera.

That's what I was waiting to see.  Every spring a doe has her fawns, sometimes two, at the edge of our corral, right where she and her mom and grandma were born.  We've been here 34 yrs. and every spring we watch and wait to see the first bouncing fawns.  We've learned by watching them, that if the doe has twins, she will lie her fawns down in different places, never together.  It heightens the possibility of at least one survivor to carry on the family gene pool.  Once they get a bit bigger and faster, then finally, we will see the twins frolic in the fields...together.  Now to survive the wolves and the bears.  Even the babes of the woods have much to learn from their mom.

And that's the way it is today.

One more note.  I planted my radishes and onions the 25th and today, the 29th, they are up!  Super day as I finished planting each row of our garden.  Now to decorate the deck with pots of flowers.

Have a great weekend!  Start early!