Mom said to stay right here and don't move

[Chip Euliss]

It's that time of year to watch where you step!  Most all the does have one of these nearby or following close when I see them at or enroute to my bee yards.

[neillsayers]

Nothing cuter than a new fawn!

[Jen]

Same here Chip, and they are here a month early. Had my 8 year old granddaughter with us for a week. She and I take walks and like to explore. We walked up to an abandoned house just nosing around, she went one way and I went the other, we met on the other side. I spotted a brand new fawn laying down next to the house, frozen still. My granddaughter came barreling around the corner like bull and almost collided with fawn. Fawn never moved. Nice experience for her and I 

[Chip Euliss]

Sounds like you're exposing your granddaughter to the very best--she'll remember that forever.  Moved 40 nucs I didn't need to an outyard this morning.  Had a fawn laying next to a pallet of nucs but (s)he didn't listen to mom or maybe (s)he thought I was a poor forklift driver and decided to run for it

[LazyBkpr]

heheh  I once watched a fellow that decided to catch a fawn that looked just like that..     When he got back from getting stitches he decided he wouldnt try to do that again.. 

[Lburou]

We watched these triplets grow up, have their own fawns, and grow old in and around our backyard.

[Chip Euliss]

Nice picture Lee.  We get deer in our yard everyday but haven't seen them bring in fawns till late summer and early fall.  They like to eat the bird seed my wife puts in the feeders every day.  Our bird seed bill gets pretty spendy at times.

[riverbee]

very cool pix chip and lee, thanks!  it's amazing how you can just stumble across them in the high weeds!

rescued some in the past, mostly during storms/rains and floods on the river. the last one we waded through high rushing waters and pouring rain to a rock/sand bar in the river where the fawn was bawling. the mother was frantic on the other side.  pacing back and forth. the waters were too high and current to strong for the fawn to cross. we nabbed him off the rock bar, within another 5 minutes, that rock bar went under water.  took the fawn back above high water, wrapped him in a blanket and towels, dried him off the best we could. the mother first took off in the woods, but she came back and kept watching from the cover of the woods. he bawled, she called back. when we knew she was there and not going away we let the little guy go, ran straight to her and off they went!   

[Lburou]

...very cool pix chip and lee, thanks!  it's amazing how you can just stumble across them in the high weeds!...

Yes, I have a three week old fawn sleeping next to my hives by the house, it has startled me twice now with its burst of energy to escape. 

[Jen]

Almost stepped right on this sweet fawn. I had a bed sheet of yard clippings slung over my back. Unhitched the fence gate to go empty it, and there it was. I quietly moved the gate back and ran and got my camera and granddaughter. Sure enough she/he was still there when we returned. We whispered and thank you to mama for letting us take a pic of her newborn.

[Chip Euliss]

Very nice Jen.  Is it a mule deer or a black tail?

[Jen]

Now Chip? Do you really think that I would lean over that new baby, not knowing where mom is, and look at it's tucked under tail? 

However, I am a deer hunter, so if the opportunity arose for me to see it's tail I would know.

Mule deer fawn


Black tail fawn

[Chip Euliss]

So you must have both where you live.  California is a pretty unique place with both black tails and mule deer.  And there's at least 2 different races of mule deer.  The ones in the north eastern part of the state are pretty big but the ones in the south central part of the state are pretty small.  My recollection is that they are California Mule deer and they're not much bigger than black tails.  The face on the fawn in your pic told me it was one of the two.  Inquiring minds, I guess

[Jen]

Yes! and they do interbreed as well, so it can be hard to tell. But this fawn is a black tail. We live in black tail territory. I've always known mulies to be just mulies, but hubby says there is a lot of grey area between the two races of mulies, cousins you might say. And the mulies are so interbred that... well... they are just mule deer   

Frankly, and it's a slight difference, I think black tail tastes better 

[Chip Euliss]

Yep, they do interbreed and there are many races of mule deer too.  My recollection is the the black tails were a tastier too.  Here, it's white tail but we have both in the western part of the state.  Every once in a great while, a mule deer shows up near where I live but not very often.