December 21st, 2006
favourite moments # 5 – white-tailed fawn
This is a post in a series about favourite moments of nature observation that have occurred over the past couple or so years. It’ll help to pass the time spent indoors this winter as I wait to be back out observing insects, spiders, frogs and others.
This photo of a White-tailed Deer fawn (Odocoileus virginianus) was taken at Foley Mountain Conservation Area on June 5, 2004. Don, Sabrina and I were hiking one of the trails that curves back through the forest after passing by a beaver pond. We came to a small opening in the tree canopy — a spot where the mossy earth was bathed in soft, filtered sunlight. We almost missed seeing this fawn curled up right beside the footpath — it was less than an arm’s length from the middle of the path. Even Sabrina walked right up before seeing it at the last possible moment. Fortunately, she’s a very quiet dog, so she didn’t attempt to disturb it in any way. I paused for a moment to snap a quick shot and then moved on. The fawn’s eyes were actually open and it flicked its ears a couple of times, probably to shake off some bothersome mosquitoes. I expect it realized we were around, but didn’t move. We encountered the mother just a couple of hundred feet away. She seemed unconcerned as she browsed on some low growing bushes beside the path.
The deer around Foley Mountain tend to be rather laid back, or at least, we find them that way. We often see them watching us from their resting spots atop a couple of low hills in the forest, or peering out at us from he shelter of a thicket. We’ve come upon fawns slowly wandering along trails, and one that boldly tracked us for some distance at what it probably considered to be a “safe distance” in the shelter of the forest. I suppose that human activity along the hiking and cross-country ski trails has made the Foley Mountain deer less wary than those that we see here at the farm.