Bambi

Nature is an amazing thing.  Beauty abounds in nature.  

Southeast Alaska is an amazing and beautiful place, full of the glories of nature.  One of the awe-inspiring aspects of nature is the bountiful wildlife in SE Alaska, and in particular on Prince of Wales island where I live.  The deer on Prince of Wales do not have the same fear of people as I am used to from Michigan.  They come into town, often right up by homes or businesses, they are along the roadways grazing in the grass and will stare as you drive past rather than bolting instantly, and they are also not always found in small groups but are often seen alone.  The past week has shown even more of the beauty of nature as it is the time that the does are having their fawns.  

Nearly every evening for the past week I've seen a newly born baby deer along the roadside with it's mother.  A couple have been so new to this world that they were still wet and being cleaned by their mother from birth, or trying to get their feet up under them when they tried to walk.  They will stand right along the side of the road with their mother.  The trend has shown the mothers walking away into the wooded areas to hide when a car approaches, careful to stay where the fawn can see but far enough off to not be in dangers way.  The fawn, not quite so quick yet as it's mother, will gradually follow after the mother deer, looking back between the people that it knows are there and it's mother who has began to make space between them.  Once the baby gets scared it will hunker down in the weeds and try to hide, often losing sight of momma deer in the process.

I do not observe for too long or too near to the doe and her fawn.  I do not wish to frighten the animals anymore than they already are.  It's an amazing site though and one worth taking the time to see if able.  I tried at first to get pictures, but only ever seemed to have my camera on my phone with me.  I began taking my camera anytime I left the house.  The boys have also been on lookout duty when we're out for the does and their fawns and also for the male deer who are beginning to get their horns.  The boys think the baby deer are "so cute" and Zeke continues to say how they look just like one of his stuffed animals and that they're just as small too.  Not quite, but close.  :)