Friday Farm Fun- Fawns Popping Out All Over

It's the time of year when the herd of about fifteen does that hang around our place have babies. The bad part is it is also haying season.

The twins in the hay field

Most of the year, the group hangs out together but when the does are ready to have the babies, they go off by themselves and that's when you know there will soon be fawns popping up everywhere. The does especially like having and hiding their fawns in the tall grass of the hay fields. This makes cutting the hay a bit tricky. The other day when the neighbor cut our hay, his wife walked through the field in front of the swather to check for any fawns because they saw the loan doe eating in my yard and knew there had to be a fawn in the field. Once they came upon the fawns(twins) they chased them out of the field and he finished cutting.

I chased up the same two one night while riding my horse, Bud. I couldn't figure out what he was so interested in through the trees then I saw the two fawns trotting out of the trees and into the fields. The does will tell the fawns to stay put and take off to draw you away from their babies. Several nights earlier while riding, I saw the tail end of a doe through the trees on the west side of our property and couldn't figure out why Bud was so interested in staring a different direction. Then I spotted a fawn trying to make it's way through the gnarly lower branches of a juniper snag. We turned and went a different direction and I hope the doe came back and helped her baby.

You can tell the older does from the younger ones by there size and their attitudes. When I sic Boots. the Border Collie on the deer eating in my yard/flowers, the young ones take off the older ones will face Boots and stomp the ground. When she doesn't back down they eventually turn and leave. But usually at a walk and not a run.

From the pairs of fawns I've chased up around here this spring it looks like it was a good reproductive year for the deer. Not a good sign for my flowers!