A Quiet Time

The early morning cool greeted me as I bumped along in the electric buggy, cruising down the path into the woodlands. Recent rains made for a muddy slide down the sloped pathway, as most of the soil in this area has a lot of clay in it, which really makes for slick travel, especially by foot. Deer are much better equipped to amble up and down the terrain here, with those handy hooves and long legs. This morning, I noted several small hoof prints on the path. Likely, it was the triplets and their mother who had traveled through. Maybe I would see them this morning, as they tended to browse just a short distance away in the willow area near the slough.

Since becoming a deer mother in 2011, when I took in and raised orphaned Daisy deer, I have come to “know” the local deer population in our area. I might have provided Daisy what she needed that first year of her life, but she took charge after that – introducing me to her world. Walking the woodlands with her changed my hurried and scheduled days, bringing about a calm I had never known. For years to come, I was allowed to tag along with Daisy, learning about the lives of deer, and observing her raise her own young. I also discovered other local does raising their fawns in the spring, and I noted bucks frequenting the area during the rut in the fall. Over the years, deer came and went. Some stayed a time, while others never returned.

FD took this photo. We suffered a drought in 2011 and I was often exhausted after working all day in the heat. Daisy did what deer do – she watched over her “herd” while I slept. My heart just melts every time I see this photo. Daisy was special. She changed my life.

Daisy and her first babies, born June 5, 2013, just across the fence in the neighbor’s woods.

The year 2016 brought us orphaned Emma and injured Ronnie. Ronnie was hit by a combine during wheat harvest. We had him stitched up by the local veterinarian and, thanks to cleansing licks from big sister Emma, his wounds healed nicely.

This year, I was away a lot, traveling to visit family in Nebraska and taking that wonderful trip to Germany. And I have stayed busy entertaining more family and friends since my return. But as I tootled along in the buggy this morning, I felt a familiar tug of emptiness. It hit me this summer, as I worked in the orchard clearing new paths along the slough, that I have not seen Daisy since she took off in late August 2016 after losing her last fawn of the season to predators. That was the same month we purchased the pecan orchard. And then there was Emma and Ronnie. I had not seen either of them since the rut last year. Emma promptly ran off in late October and Ronnie followed suit just a few days later in November. I missed my orchard companions, and I found myself looking for them everywhere I went.

With my travel this year, I missed out on most of the spring deer activity in the woodlands. But thanks to game cameras, we managed to observe two does raising fawns. One had a set of twins and the other produced triplets. A month after birth, the mothers bring their offspring out more, showing them the area while they learn to find good eats and practice survival skills. I do not see the twins so much lately, since they were a few weeks older than the triplets. I feel with a water shortage in the slough and the old river channel, they have probably moved on west, closer to the main river channel. But the triplets are seen almost daily. I have no idea who the mother is, but sometimes wonder if it might be Spirit, Daisy’s first doe fawn. I would have no way of recognizing her anymore. And, these young doe mothers could be Scarlet’s offspring as well. Scarlet still shows up occasionally with her two yearling does from last year. She did not have fawns this year, which makes me wonder if she’s old enough that she won’t have babies anymore. There have also been a few young bucks in velvet visit the feeding station during the night. Soon they will  be shedding the soft velvet from the exterior of their antlers.

Daisy had twins every year. Most did not live due to coyote predation in the area.

Daisy and her twins from 2016. That was the year we raised Emma and Ronnie, and Daisy made frequent visits. She often roamed around the deer pen, making “mama” grunting noises. I got the feeling she was not happy there were other deer in HER pen!

I photograph this year’s triplets often, but from quite a distance. I realize just how fortunate I’ve been over the years to know the deer in the area and have such fantastic opportunity to take great photographs. But I miss my stoic and fearless Daisy and Emma girls. I look at the wrecked shrubs and trees that Ronnie worked over while shedding the velvet from his antlers last fall, and I think how he could wreck everything again, and how it would delight me… because I miss my “kids”. I carry the camera everywhere I go, just in case they decide to return home one day.

This is the mother of the twins. She isn’t afraid of us but, like a good mother, she is wary and careful. I often wonder if she was raised around us and may be the offspring of Daisy or Scarlet deer.

The twins were frequently spotted in the overgrowth of weeds in the orchard. It makes me happy that letting the orchard go wild this year served a good purpose!

The grasses are quite tall now. A fawn bedded down would be well hidden in the orchard.

I found this triplet fawn separated from its siblings. There always seems to be one that is a little more adventurous than the others.

These two bedded down while their other sibling went poking around. They were not bothered by me as long as I maintained a good distance.

It is typical for deer to bed down facing opposite or different directions. I assume it is to keep good watch for predators.

One of the triplets mutual grooms its smaller sibling.

The triplets and their mother generally visit the feeding station between 7:00 and 8:00 most mornings. I see them in the shade of our woodlands some late mornings and often find them close to the old river channel in the evenings. Mama is never far away, though I seldom spot her with them. This is not a detailed shot, but the rumpled look on the coats of the fawns is from a “stick-tight” seed from the Biden plant . The orchard and old river channel area is covered in Biden plant, which has dried in the heat and the tiny flowers stick to everything. Deer and other mammals (and myself) carry the sticky seeds along, transplanting them as they’re brushed off.

Though I know the lives of Daisy, Emma, and Ronnie are as they should be – free and wild – I often wonder where they are. This area of the state is heavily wooded, and the river that runs nearby winds for miles, thick with vegetation and cover. I can’t help but wonder though, whenever we see a short, stout doe on the game camera with a nick in her left ear, that it might be Daisy making a visit. One recent night, I discovered a trio of adult deer – a doe and two young bucks – bedded down in the yard not far from the house, and I wondered if it might have been Emma, Ronnie, and Spike. Later, I saw the same trio in the orchard near the slough just before dark one evening, where they bedded down just yards from the buggy. I called Emma’s name, and even though none of them reacted to my voice, I knew it was silly to think they would come to me anymore. They have been running wild for almost a year now, and I know it is better this way. It is enough to for me to think that maybe they come back home to their old stomping grounds to visit every once in a while, and find the same quiet and tranquility that I do as I roam this little piece of land.

© 2018 Day by Day the Farm Girl Way…