Fawns

[MattM37]

How's your local herd doing? Around here I seldom see many fawns in May, but everything seems to be a couple-three weeks ahead of schedule and we'll be seeing fawns soon.

Speaking of fawns, here's what not to do with one, not that any of us needed telling.

Couple Ticketed for Taking Whitetail Fawn Into Walmart | MeatEater Conservation (themeateater.com)

Where do these people come from?

[jhjimbo]

Another thing not to do. One evening my Sister was driving home in the Adirondacks. On their small two lane road a fawn was in the middle, trying to get up on the slippery black top. My 14yo Nephew jumped out of the truck and proceeded to the fawn when it hauled off and kicked him right in the chest - just about knocked him out. He backed off and the fawn slid to the edge where the Doe was waiting for it.

[jhjimbo]

No sightings of anything in the normal places - don't know why?

[FirstBubba]

Fawning season and "leaf" season pretty much coincide here. By the time does start dropping fawns, the trees and understory have leafed out fully. Makes spotting much of anything questionable.

Turkey season ended May 16th. Just yesterday, I spotted two HUGE toms on the edge of a wheat field! Wouldn't you know it?

[MattM37]

No sightings of anything in the normal places - don't know why?

Same here, fields are empty even at dusk, but I think it's because there's lots of new stuff budding and growing back in the woods now. Plus a lot of the fields are just plowed dirt now, and farmers are out planting, making noise, raising dust, etc.

[FirstBubba]

Same here, fields are empty even at dusk, but I think it's because there's lots of new stuff budding and growing back in the woods now. Plus a lot of the fields are just plowed dirt now, and farmers are out planting, making noise, raising dust, etc.

A deer's normal diet, browse (or "mast") is in full production right now. If you're having wet weather, deer don't have to move far for food, water and cover.

[fitch270]

It’s always been a custom on my mom’s side to decorate the family graves on Memorial Day weekend. A few years back my aunt came to get the kids to see a fawn curled up under a big maple in the local cemetery. I’d bet it wasn’t much more than 24 hours old. By the time we got there it was drawing a small crowd of old ladies, one of which kept repeating “the poor thing”. I made a point to let them know it was fine and that it’s mom was probably pacing just off in the nearby woods. We took a couple quick pics and backed off. When we finished up with the flowers the fawn was still there without an audience. Any other weekend it would have been a great spot for the thing to hang out.


One of the coolest fawn sightings I’ve had was a set of triplets with their mother. I’ve only seen that once.

[labrador12]

On POW the Blacktail fawns are everywhere. My favorite sighting in a long life was a cow moose with triplets. It doesn't get cuter than those beauties.

Let's GO Brandon!!!

[fitch270]

The Kid went turkey hunting this morning, nothing was happening on the hill so he went to check out a few public spots doing the run and gun thing. He walked up on this one and might have stepped on it had he not seen it first. He held out his phone to take a couple pics then tuned 90* to get away from it. Kid said it never moved other than its ears came up and turned his way.



Turkeys were out but uncooperative.

[MattM37]

The Kid went turkey hunting this morning, nothing was happening on the hill so he went to check out a few public spots doing the run and gun thing. He walked up on this one and might have stepped on it had he not seen it first. He held out his phone to take a couple pics then tuned 90* to get away from it. Kid said it never moved other than its ears came up and turned his way.



Turkeys were out but uncooperative.

I had a close encounter myself that day, fishing my way upstream. Heard the rustle, looked down, and there goes the fawn up through the shallows. It had been lying in a clump of last year's bamboo right at the water's edge -- the new bamboo was 3-4 high and pretty much in full leaf, perfect cover. The fawn scampered about twenty yards, looked back at me, then curled up on the bank right there in another bamboo clump. Luckily the whole river was pretty shallow right there so I could wade to the other side when I moved on upstream.

Nice little adrenaline rush when you hear something right behind your bare legs like that. Visions of enraged snapping turtles, angry beavers, etc.

[FirstBubba]

"... Nice little adrenaline rush when you hear something right behind your bare legs like that. Visions of enraged snapping turtles, angry beavers, etc. ..."

A while back, the wife and me were crappie fishing. We were catching a few along and I was working up and down the rip rap.
The wife called me over.
"What's that sound?", she asked.
I stood real still and listened.
It sounded like a broken air hose, probably not 30 feet away.
It took a second to locate, but I finally spotted the hen goose (Canadian) sitting on her nest under a bush in the rip rap. She WAS NOT happy!
"Come with me.", I told the wife. "I don't think you want to fish this close to her!"

The rip rap is about the size (+/-) of an ice chest. Making your way across them is treacherous at best, being chased by a po'd momma goose is a prescription for broken bones, contusions and lacerations! LOL! Maybe even a concussion. Granite boulders are VERY unforgiving!

[bowhunter75richard]

Being in a farming area, I often hear stories from farmers about fawns getting killed during periods of cutting alfalfa during times of about a few weeks after fawns being dropped. It is a sad tale, but they will not move after being placed by the doe and very difficult to see when the alfalfa has some height to it.

[MattM37]

"... Nice little adrenaline rush when you hear something right behind your bare legs like that. Visions of enraged snapping turtles, angry beavers, etc. ..."

A while back, the wife and me were crappie fishing. We were catching a few along and I was working up and down the rip rap.
The wife called me over.
"What's that sound?", she asked.
I stood real still and listened.
It sounded like a broken air hose, probably not 30 feet away.
It took a second to locate, but I finally spotted the hen goose (Canadian) sitting on her nest under a bush in the rip rap. She WAS NOT happy!
"Come with me.", I told the wife. "I don't think you want to fish this close to her!"

The rip rap is about the size (+/-) of an ice chest. Making your way across them is treacherous at best, being chased by a po'd momma goose is a prescription for broken bones, contusions and lacerations! LOL! Maybe even a concussion. Granite boulders are VERY unforgiving!

I was dumb enough as a teenager to go walking across a breakwater in flip-flops. On a wavy day no less, when the rocks were nice and wet, sometimes with the water actually flowing over them as I fished my way along. No broken bones or skull fractures, but after one slip I ended up doing a split that left me hobbling on a matched set of pulled groin muscles. Honestly, I think I might rather have a broken bone -- that was the worst physical injury I've ever had, I think. Years later, at 38 or 39, I joined an adult indoor soccer league and pulled them again -- this time, on the night before the first day of deer season! I couldn't even hardly get out of bed opening morning, much less hunt. Went the following weekend and could move through the woods, but pretty much just went through the motions, since I couldn't have dragged out a deer to save my life.