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.