Poppy Seed Muffins

Yesterday, I decided to bake some poppy seed muffins.

I let Bow lick the bowl. While the muffins were in the oven,  I looked out the window and I saw some deer.

It was the doe and the twin fawns.  I went outside to see if I could get a better look.

The doe looked at me. One of the twin fawns decided to go into the back pasture, but the other one kept looking at me. Then the doe decided that she would leave, and they all bounded away.

 As a result, the poppy seed muffins were a little overdone. But Bow did not seem to mind. He ate them with great relish.

The Doe and her Young

I see deer almost every day, but quite often they catch me unaware. They appear in a flash, and there is barely time to glimpse them with my own eyes, much less take a picture. Yesterday, when I went for my afternoon walk in the pasture, I saw two deer in close succession near the southern boundary of my property. One turned east and bounded into the woods. The other turned west and disappeared in the thicket. And, no, I did not get a single picture. But I was glad to have seen them, and I told myself I should content myself with that.

But then, when I was returning home from my walk, a deer appeared in a spot between me and the barn, a place I needed to pass in order to go home. I waited for her to bound into the woods, as I expected she did not want a closer encounter, but she stood her ground and looked at me, almost defiantly. That's when I knew. Somebody else was in the thicket behind her. She was watching out for that somebody else. So I stood there for a while, and she stood there, too, and then I took a few steps forward.

And that's when the little one emerged.

The mother must have given the signal, for the escape into the woods was well timed.

That was a good mother, but it was also a well-disciplined, obedient child, I think. You can watch the entire sequence in the video below.

Deer are more intelligent than many think. They communicate with one another and coordinate their actions. I bet they know exactly who lives on this property. They probably even know about Bow.

They may never have seen him, just as I do not see most of the spiders that spin webs on my property. But just as I know there is a spider by the circumstantial evidence of the web it has spun, who on my property can fail to know that we have a chimp here, when they can plainly hear the vocalization.

The Doe and the Fawn

This morning, as I was puttering in the kitchen getting breakfast ready, I saw a doe and a fawn in the front yard. Now I have seen deer there before, but this was a most unusual sight. The fawn looked like a newborn, unsteady on its feet, so much smaller than the mother. I just had to get a picture!

I grabbed the cellphone and started filming them through the front door screen.

But this was highly unsatisfactory, and even though I could see them clearly with the naked eye, in the camera even with magnification, they were almost invisible. So I decided to open the front door and step out. Big mistake!

As soon as I came out, the doe made a dash for it, but the fawn could not keep up. It was dazed and disoriented and ended up stranded by the foliage under the poplar trees. I could see it clearly, so I decided to go there, and the doe circled back a couple of times, but seeing me, she ran away.

When I approached the fawn, it was doing the closest thing to sticking its head in the sand that it could do. Its tail up in the air and its head hidden beneath the foliage, it hoped I would just mistake it for some inanimate object.

 I did not touch. I backed off and went to the porch, hoping I could get a really good shot of the doe coming back for the fawn. However, when that did not happen after a few moments, I returned to the fawn, who had gotten tired of its initial pose.

I decided the doe needed me to not be anywhere in sight so she could come back and save her baby. I went back inside.

Back in the house, the tea kettle was whistling, and Bow was upset with me. I set up the breakfast things, and before asking me for a food item, Bow spelled: "That was not good."

"Do you mean that it was separated from the mother?"

"Yes."

"Do you think the mother will come back?"

"Yes. Give me an apple."

Bow is practical like that. When I went back out after breakfast, the fawn was gone. I hope the mother really did come back for it. I would have liked to film that, but my presence was not a good thing for the mother and the baby.

I really need to get a good camera with a telephoto lens, so I can film the wildlife without disturbing.