Deer

[porphyry]

Today Madeline and I went outside in the late afternoon to water the flowers. We don't do this as often as we used to because this summer has been neither excessively hot nor dry. Around four o'clock, we headed outside. Once there, we immediately saw a doe and her fawn standing at the edge of the woods. Late afternoon is usually the best time to see deer, for they tend to sleep during the day and come out to eat (my flowers, sometimes) in the evening.

The doe did not run away with her baby not far behind as usual. Both the mother and her fawn merely looked at us but showed no signs of fear. As Madeline and I went down the sidewalk, though, the mother deer began to walk, even with us, the length it took to go to the end of the walk where it meets the drive. I had also brought some things with me I wanted to put into our older car, and even after we reached the car and I had opened the door (Madeline saying, "I want to drive!"), the mother deer was still even with us, the fawn still grazing, alone, at the edge of the woods. The mother approached the car and stopped about three feet from the car. Finally, her fawn approached her and they both proceeded, at a walk, into the woods.

I have never seen such behavior in deer. I assume what the mother was doing as she walked in tandem with us was making sure she kept herself between us and her baby, but she also obviously did not perceive us as a great threat, or any threat at all, really. I have heard of mother deer becoming aggressive if she feels her young is threatened, and I sensed she might have gotten so if I had approached her or her baby since she showed absolutely no fear of me or Madeline.

But we like our wildlife just fine, even if they all--the rabbits, the squirrels, and now the deer--have gotten a bit cheeky and not respectful of the predator position humans occupy.

The picture of the impatiens bed above shows how nicely they've come along. The photo was taken about a month ago, and those flowers are now about twice the size as in the picture. I will probably take one last picture of them before the first freeze.

Comments

[leopold-paula-b.livejournal.com]

A poem by Joachim Ringelnatz from Berlin's 1920ies:

Im Park

Ein ganz kleines Reh
Stand am ganz kleinen Baum
Still und verklärt wie im Traum.
Das war des Nachts elf Uhr zwei.
Und dann kam ich um vier
Morgens wieder vorbei.
Und da träumte noch immer das Tier.
Nun schlich ich mich leise -
Ich atmete kaum -
Gegen den Wind an den Baum.
Und gab dem Reh einen ganz kleinen Stips -
Und da war es aus Gips.

(It looses in translation, but here's the general idea:

At the park

A very small deer stood next to a very small tree. Silent and radiant like in a dream. That was at 11:02 in the night. And later at four in the morning I passed there again. And still the animal stood there, dreaming. There I sneaked very quietly - I hardly breathed - into the wind to the tree. And I very slightly nudged it - there it was made of plaster.)

[malkhos.livejournal.com]

That's a very nice poem. Sometimes I read the words and try to get the "sense" of it before I read the translation--even so, our deer are most surely not plaster :) although sometimes they stand so still you'd never know it.

How was your vacation? We actually took a little trip ourselves for a few days; I need to make a post about it with pictures sometime soon.

[malkhos.livejournal.com]

It is nice to have so many animals to watch, even as they exasperate me with their eating habits. And they do keep getting more and more tame since they've figured out we pose no harm to them, and our dog, a beagle, is far more bark than he is bite. Also, I still have it in mind to get a couple of cats soon because our rabbit population is getting out of control and there are absolutely no predators here to keep their numbers in check. I can't even bring myself to not avoid them when they dart out in front of the car.

Thanks about the yard--if I had more time to devote to it, I could create and maintain a larger, more elaborate display; I love to dig, and plant, and weed. Maybe someday.