Some of you who follow me on Facebook may have picked up that a few days ago I reported flushing a Roe Deer Capreolus capreolus doe (Fr. Chevrette) in the orchard. May is the month Roe Deer does give birth, but I thought she was still carrying her fawn (Fr. faon).
The Bee Orchids are out in the orchard.
She isn't now. Yesterday I was walking through the orchard and spotted brown furry ears in the grass. I thought it was the occasional resident Brown Hare Lepus europaeus (Fr. Lièvre d'Europe) at first, but tucked up under an apple tree was a tiny fawn, less than 30 cm long. It must only be a few days old.
A male Provencal Short-tailed Blue butterfly on its food plant Black Medick, which grows all over the potager.
I don't have the best photos of the fawn because I couldn't risk approaching it too closely or for too long.*
Weevils busily engaged in something on a Pyramidal Orchid in the potager.
Of course, this now leaves me with a dilemma. I need to mow paths and under the fruit trees, especially those that will be ripe soon like the cherries. It will just have to wait until the little fella moves on. The mower will scare the wits out of it. Luckily the Aged One won't be mowing for another week either, as his tractor needs a repair. Hopefully we can leave the two orchards as a haven for the fawn for as long as necessary.
Roe Deer fawn in the orchard.
*Something for dog walkers to bear in mind. If you are walking through lightly wooded prairie at this time of year, please keep dogs on leads. The fawns will sit tight until you are within about half a metre of them. Causing them to run uses up their valuable energy and significantly reduces their chances of survival. Under no circumstances touch them or speak to them (the human voice, no matter how soothing a tone you think you are using, is extremely frightening to them).
4 comments:
The wonders of neture!
How wonderful!!
Shows how nice mum thinks your orchard is!!
We have white tail deer rambling around our place on a daily basis, and the does frequently park their fawns while they go off, I guess, to graze elsewhere. However, I've never observed one left for over a 24-hour period. You'll probably be able to get the mowing done. But now I guess you'll want to check the tall grassy areas first.
Yes but that means trundling the mower down there, checking, then trundling it home again if the fawn is there. That's over a kilometre of trundling a heavy mower with potentially no mowing done. The does leave the babies stashed while they go off and feed. They are generally there for the whole day. I suspect mum is sleeping in the orchard overnight, so I am not expecting the baby to move much in the next week or so.
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