While cooking lunch yesterday, Monte saw a doe and her fawn right outside the kitchen window. Mom seemed to be standing guard while baby was walking around in the planting bed around the big red oak.
After a few minutes mom slowly wandered out of view. We couldn’t see baby either, but thought maybe mom had been putting the fawn in a safe place so she could go off to find food. We have seen similar behavior before several years ago – I posted about that time here. Apparently, a doe will leave a healthy fawn on its own in a safe place for up to as much as twelve hours, while they forage for food.
Turns out that is exactly what was going on. I walked out front to see if I could spy the fawn, and sure enough, it had tucked itself in a deep hollow in the planting bed created by a new row of limestone Monte had placed there a few weeks back. Safe and sound.
It was a pretty good hiding place. When driving by the house later that night, I could only see the tips of the fawn’s ears above the limestone. At 1 AM, I walked outside to check, and, sure enough, baby was gone. Mom came back as promised.
Sheila365 