Momma Doe presented her triplets late last Sunday afternoon, and I got to ohh and ahh! She has great timing. She presented her triplets last year three days earlier. Now that's near perfect.
Many of you know how this delight came about. Many years ago our neighbor decided to put corn out to see if deer would come up and eat. The attempt was successful and we've been seeing deer ever since. Jerry and I started putting out corn a few years later and the deer eat at our place too.
There is a safe haven for them between our backyards. Two sides are surrounded with trees and the other two sides are the ends of our yards. We've had as many as 14 at one time, a few bucks, several does and their fawn.
I'll never forget the evening a large buck came and ate under our maple tree. We were in the process of putting in a new split rail fence and the rails weren't up. Jerry and I were sitting out back and this buck just walked right up to the tree. Didn't seem to notice us at all. Below is a not so great picture of Mr. Buck.
And so many other times to remember . . . like the morning one doe was at one end of the yard and another doe at the another end of the yard. Three fawns ran as fast as they could back and forth, back and forth. I'm not sure what the lesson was, but I chuckled all the way too work! (They were way too fast for me to take a picture! The snap below is of this year's triplets. They decided they liked the other side of the gate.)
Another evening Momma Doe had her twins up. When they turned to leave I got up and started walking slowly to the fence to try and get some pictures outside the fence. Momma Doe stopped, looked right at me, and let me take a picture of the family. A great portrait! I have it matted in the living room.
One afternoon when I took a few snaps, the dominant buck was not happy I was there. He kept prancing around, stomping his feet. But I got the snap. We've also seen a few scuffles from both buck and does.
It makes me smile knowing I'll be enjoying the fawn through autumn when their spots disappear. We're able to sit about 30 yards from them. A few years ago we started waving (don't laugh) at them to identify where we were. I do believe they now take it as a sign they're safe!
They're not so friendly that we can start walking around outside. As long as we stay seated and just watch they'll stay and eat. I especially like the below picture of a doe eating in the rain. "Who cares that it's raining; I'm hungry."
As I recently shared in a note, "How I love to see my fawns! It's about the only thing I like about summer!"
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LOVE IT!!
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