In a Nutshell: Alabama Supplejack

Alabama supplejack (Berchemia scandens) is easy to spot at this time of year in the bare north Alabama woods. It is a beautiful little twinning vine with lovely shaped, heavily veined leaves. These leaves are the quintessential leave-regular in shape, parallel veins, and pleasing in color. Miller and Miller in their book, Forest Plants of the Southeast and Their Wildlife Uses, quaintly call supplejack "tardily deciduous." True to their account, the supplejack around here stubbornly has hung onto its leaves refusing to believe it is deciduous despite several nights with hard frosts and temperatures in the low 20's.

The supplejack, also know as rattan vine, climbs up supports by scrambling up over trees or twining up tree trunks with its pliant vines. It prefers moist soils, but it is not unusual to find it growing on dry, dolomite glades in the Ozarks tangled across the rocks. The lianas are quite strong measuring up to three inches across, and sometimes they throttle the supporting trunk killing the tree. Many walking sticks with a natural spiral form were made by supplejack vine! The "rattan" vines have been used in making wicker in this county, and although I do not think it is being commercially used, for artisans it is a good basket material.

The flowers bloom in May and June. They are non-descript tiny, star-shaped green flowers grouped in panicles at the end of stems. Some places the vine is thick enough to be the dominant pollen used to produce a dark colored amber honey. In Louisiana it is important contributor to the honey crop. The supplejack's small flowers fruit into a syncarpous drupe with a single stone containing two seeds. It is a lovely shade of dark, concord grape-blue and is pea sized. The fruits, although not high in protein, are high in calcium. Many birds eat the fruits, but often later in winter, quail, turkeys, and ducks among them. Mammals eat the fruits too, for raccoon and grey squirrels they are tasty treats. Deer feed on the tender foliage in spring and early summer; in fact, it is a preferred food.

The supplejack in this photo is the same as in the above winter photos. Can you find it? Look in the right hand top corner.

Pam Croom © 2008

References about Supplejack:

Kurz, D. 1997. Shrub and Woody Vine of Missouri. Conservation Commission of the State of Missouri

Lieux, M.H. A 1971. Melissopalynological Study of 54 Lousiana (U.S.A.) Honeys. Review of Paleobotany and Palynology. 13: 95-124

Miller, J.H. and K.V. Miller. 2005. Forest Plants of the Southeast and Their Wildlife uses. rev. ed. University of Georgia Press. Athens

Radford, A.E., H.E. Ahles, C. R. Bell. 1968. Manual of the Vascular Flora of the Carolinas. University of North Carolina Press. Chapel Hill

Elvis Has Left the Building

It was an overcast morning (23 September), and I could not be sure in the low light what I was seeing so I grabbed the binoculars to check. The day had come; I had been expecting it for a few days. The duck food pan still had food in it; Apple was gone. The pan was not totally full so they had eaten last night, but Apple had not returned before daybreak. The fawn had finally followed his mother off, or she had decided it was time and kept him with her. Apple’s tracks had been ranging farther and farther. He was taking on more and more of the habits of his mother becoming more crepuscular in nature. Beautiful little Apple is growing up and is out in the world at his five week birthday!

Why leave at this time? I do not know. May be the visit from Quince and dark doe unsettled Apple’s mommy and she took him elsewhere. Perhaps the visit tugged at the need for a herd, and they rejoined the other does. Perhaps Apple made his own mind up and stayed with his mom. They have been back since to eat, lick at the salt, and drink from the lake, and Quince and dark doe have been back too-I have seen their tracks. I cannot tell if all four deer are coming to the lake together-I cannot distinguish if the track sets were made at the same time or hours apart. Some days it is just Apple and his mommy other days the tracks includes Quince and dark doe.

The imaginary sign hanging over the backyard that read, “SSSHHH fawn sleeping!” is gone. The backyard now is mowed, I can go about making noise with impunity, and I can go where I want without fear of disturbing Apple. Yet, as I occupy the yard fully it now feels so empty. Apple is growing up and all is as it should be…bon chance, mon ami.


Pam Croom © 2008

When an Apple is a Quince!

Late Sunday morning (21st of September), Joe bursts into the room, “Come quick!” This is short hand for there is an animal outside that you need to see. We run to closest window in the bathroom and look out the small window. There in the shadows by the pines is Apple. He strolls a bit and then stops dead with his ears twitching all about. His mommy walks out calmly and stands behind him. Whatever has spooked Apple is of no concern to his mommy. Apple crouches a little and stretches out his neck. His skin is just crawling. The calico has been about the yard of late, and I think that Apple is shortly to meet his first cat. Something much larger than a cat springs out of the touch-me-not screen and rockets past Apple. He spins and takes out after it.

“IT’S ANOTHER FAWN!” I exclaim.

“Did you know there were two?” Joe asks.

“No…because there aren’t two fawns back there. There is no way that there was another fawn that I didn’t know about!”

The two fawns come to a stop, and I blurt out, “Look, there wasn’t another fawn because they aren’t siblings! That fawn is smaller; it is a good week and a half to two weeks younger than Apple.” The new fawn is quickly named Quince, keeping the name in the rose family. Quince is clearly in control bucking and pronking, and leaving Apple behind to eat her dust. She may be small but she is spunky!

“Is there another deer?”

“Must be, she’s probably in the thicket, because it is very unlikely that Apple’s mommy would have adopted an orphan.”

Apple’s mommy slips back behind the touch-me-not to rest in the lay by there behind the flowers. Apple and Quince follow. I watch a while longer, and I am rewarded for my patience. Quince burst through the bright yellow butterflies feeding on the touch-me-nots. The pretty little fawn and the butterflies caught up in her leap are airborne in a carefree dance! Such a sight, the little fawn circling in the lawn her absolute joy uncontainable, the delight of unfetter play translates across species and I giggle for both of us. The youngster finally runs for cover, called back softly by her mother softly in a voice way beyond my hearing from inside the house.

I know that they are resting and hiding, but I cannot help but be drawn back to the window hoping to catch a glimpse once again of such delightful exuberance. Lo and behold, I notice a silhouette by the sweet gum. Is it Apple? Too big. Oh! It is Quince’s mommy. The doe steps out into the pines. She is smaller and more delicate than Apple’s mom is. Her fur is tawny darkening into an almost black back. The beautiful dark doe gingerly strolls beneath the pines and Quince quickly follows running circles around her. Dark doe takes a few running steps caught up in her offspring’s gamboling play. She walks on, but as she passes from protective shade to the exposure of sunlight, she becomes very alert and cautious. The relaxed deer of seconds earlier is gone. Her ears swivel listening, she takes a couple steps pauses, looks, listens. Quince darts about the yard pausing a moment to take a quick lick at the salt rock. Dark doe slowly stalks on; she looks behind her and calls out to Quince to close rank. They pause at the bottom of the yard looking down the narrow strip before the lake there behind the neighbor’s fence. She makes her move crouching slightly, and the two trot off out of sight.

Quince seemed a bit too young to be moved, but perhaps something disturbed them. Whatever it was, it must have been very threatening for the doe to move her baby in the middle of the day! Apple’s mommy was probably not ready to join other deer yet. Clearly, Apple’s mommy is not the lowest stature doe in the herd since it is Quince’s mommy who left the thicket. Apple’s mom obviously did not tolerate her there with Apple yet. May be dark doe is Apple’s older sister. Young does often give birth near their mother’s fawning ground. Her inexperience was obvious since she was moving a small fawn abroad so much during daylight; also, that she is so much smaller than Apple’s mommy may illustrate her youth.

I glanced out the window again, really not expecting to see any more, when they came back. Dark doe so very nervous making her way step, step, pause across the yard. Quince absolutely confident and fearless, in the wake of her mommy, fools around as they progress. Dark doe pauses before the bird feeders a few yards from the house. It was that classic deer pose of one front foot raised, ears forward, and eyes bright looking to see if it is safe. I reach for the binoculars that hang by the kitchen window to get a better look (sorry-I never think to grab the camera). She is truly a fine looking doe. They pass by the house in that hesitating walk and leave the yard. I wish them luck.

An Apple and a Quince not a bad harvest for such a small yard!

The Big Swim

Thursday (18^th), I had a few minutes before I needed to leave to pickup my cat from the vet’s office. I looked out back and Breckenridge, the Muscovy duck, was waiting by the feed bowl. That would take two minutes so I booked out back to feed him. As I stepped off the porch, I heard voices in my neighbor’s yard. I did not pay too much attention and went on down to the lake. The voices sounded more excited and I looked over to the corner of the fence that showed from behind the arbor vitae hedge just in time to see Apple appears at the corner-he is inside the fence!

Oh No!!!

He was panicked, running about and running into the fence. My neighbor whose house it is was standing up near the top of her yard, and the neighbor next door to her was standing next to the fence. He was saying, “They’ll just run into a fence until they break their neck.”

Yeah, that is helpful! I thought to myself. “Apple, it is ok, " I said softly to him, but he was terrified. “ How did he get in?” I asked.

“I don’t know!!” she yelled back.

I started moving to the gate at the fence’s middle in front of the lake; all the while, Apple was more panicked by my walking past. My neighbor, seeing me heading in that direction, remembered the gate and she excitedly told me to open it. I whole heartedly agreed with that idea. I opened the gate and Apple was now at the top of the yard. I walked up the middle and angled towards him and he ran down toward the bottom, swung around, ran towards the gate, blasted right past it, and slammed into the far side. “Yep, be careful he’ll break his neck.”

Oh so helpful!

Apple ran back , pausing at the corner to look back in my yard, and then ran up to the top of my neighbor’s yard again. I was trying to turn and see him without scarring him much more. My neighbor directed me on up into the yard and Apple ran back down and across and again hit the fence. This time he turned and ran back a little bit slower and found the gate! He darted out, launched himself through the willow fringe. SPLASH! And he was off and swimming! I ran down the yard, closed the gate, and watched him from the shore.

The lake is really just a big pond, but it is pretty big and Apple is a rather small guy. Deer are excellent swimmers. Water is a refuge for them, a way to escape. I do not know at what age a fawn can swim well, but Apple had clearly passed that age. His head held high he swam with sure strong strokes, he did not falter. I was impressed and proud of him. He swam about two thirds of the way across the lake, and he frantically looked around; the area ahead of him offered no cover. He abruptly changed tack and swam about one quarter of the length of the lake to the shore-so far for such a little fellow to swim! Crouching at the shore, he looked up the line of trees and shrubs that border two yards. He bolted up the yard disappearing into the trees. I held my breath. The road, busy with after-five traffic, was just a few yards away beyond my view. No screeching tires, no sound of impact was heard. Good…

I ran back up my yard and out the front door. I drove the long way around so I could look down the tree line to where I last saw Apple. I could not see him and he had not been hit. Hopefully, if he continued across the road he would stop and not shoot past his mommy’s boundary and get lost. Does leave scent trails for their fawns that establish their natal ground boundary. Deer have an interdigital scent gland between the two halves of their hooves. Just as his mommy laid a trail, Apple would have left a trail that hopefully his mommy could use to find him. Saving a fawn and making it to the vet’s on time- talk about twenty minutes well spent!

As his play area has dwindled with rising water, I have expected the doe to move him away, may be even rejoin the herd. Sadly, I fear this will be the time that she will move him now. If she does not move him, I dread the possibility that he will be terrified of me since I chased him; I do not want to see him wildly running off blinded by fear again and I do not want to be the cause that he flees. Whatever happens, I hope he has learned a lesson that fear and caution are good things, but out of control panic can be deadly. Time will tell.

The question remains how he got inside the fence. I think the gate is too snug for him to slip between it and the fence. A few years ago a tree fell on the fence at the exposed corner where I had seen him. When the fence was repaired, it was about a foot shorter than the rest of the fence at that corner. I suspect he saw something yummy and the fence was short enough for him to jump it there. But once over he panicked and could not find his way back. Getting yourself into something is always easier than getting out-people and fawns alike; I have, more than once, slipped up a cliff face or tree and then once there looked back and thought, “Huh, wonder how I’m going to get down…..” So, I been there and done that and did managed not to break my neck either.

The next day I stayed out of the yard until almost dark. I slipped down to the lake and dumped out the duck food. I eased out onto the dock, listening for the quiet little noises Apple makes moving about in the dense cover. Then I saw him, he was all beautiful, whole, and now nonplussed. He stood there comfortable and sure of himself browsing a few forbs growing up through the shallows. Nonchalantly, he walked away, taking his time, but wagging his tail a bit just to let me know he was a wee bit put out by my presence on the dock. To say I was relieved and ecstatic is an understatement. Not only was he still in my yard, he was not scared of me, and doing his best to show me he was not concerned in the least. So, his mommy was not ready for him to leave the fawning ground! AND, Apple must have learned he can out run me so I am not much of a threat…”poor pitiful Pam she can’t run worth squat!”

Pam Croom © 2008

Continued...Why is there a fawn in my yard? Or where you are born and biology.

PART II Why she chose my yard might also have to do with who she is. Whitetail deer sexually segregate. Does live in matriarchal kin groups (the merry band of sisters) that spend their lives on undefended ancestral home ranges. A matriarchal society may have fawns, daughters, mothers, and may be even grandmothers or great grandmothers. Does with some experience may disperse a short distance away expanding the ancestral range. I suspect there can be several sub-kinship groups occupying roughly the same home range. Ozoga refers to the kin groups as matriarchal societies, which may not be quite the correct terminology from the behavioral biology use of the term, but society, in its common usage, is a very apt descriptive term for these groups. Bucks group in fraternal societies mostly of unrelated bucks with group membership being quite fluid. Does establish their fawning grounds within the larger ancestral range. Social status of a doe within a society, in large part, is determined by her breeding success. The matriarchs are experienced, mature, dominant does who are six years old (or more), probably great grandmothers, and kin group leaders and, are the ones who secure the best fawning ground. A doe new to motherhood will more likely get a less than optimal fawning ground (often next to her mother’s fawning ground). More than likely a young doe will not return to her first fawning ground for her second pregnancy. Senior does may lose their dominance rank in the hierarchy and may have to find new, less than optimal, fawning grounds. Young does generally only fawn a singleton for their first pregnancy. Similarly, very old does may only birth singletons like youthful dewy-eyed does. There has been a severe drought for over a year now and poor environmental conditions due to the drought could cause otherwise healthy mature does to give birth to singletons instead of twins. Both first-time breeding does and senior does will fawn in the later part of the birthing season being later by a few days, even weeks. Young does are inexperienced and less attentive than older does. So who is Apple’s mommy? She is most likely not an established matriarch, although possible a matriarch might have a singleton after a hard droughty winter, she probably would not have chosen my yard (despite the amenities like duck food it is probably not the luxury suite of fawning grounds). She is probably very young or very old since she gave birth to a singleton on less than stellar fawning grounds and that the birth was a few days after the end of the prime birth season.

But which one: young or old? She sticks close to Apple, which may indicate she is older. She seems very worldly-her sneaking skills are very good-almost silent. She also learns very fast; she has learned very quickly that I am not a threat and she no longer bolts away from me when I get to close she just sneaks off nearby. She is very skillful in getting the bird feed out of the little holes in the feeder. She will walk into a semi-enclosed space for yummy begonias. All those skills seem to me to be indicative of an older doe.

After Apple entered into his transitional phase like clockwork he started becoming more active using about two-thirds of the edge natal grounds. Apple on Thursday (9/4/08) for the first time ventured to the east side of the dock; he squirted under the dock (because of the drought most of the dock is out of the water) probably in a crouch judging from his tracks. With that adventure, he has now explored about three-quarters of the cover area. He has yet to explore the yard outside of the scrub/tree margin; I expect that will start next week or later when he starts following his mommy more. At eighteen days old he could pretty much out run any predator for a short distance if the need arose. He should have started nibbling some foliage, still; he will not be able to survive without his mother’s milk. He will start becoming active at night some now, and in a few days he should be come more active in general. This is the time that he should start interacting and bedding with a sibling. I still have not seen a sibling; I cannot believe that there are two in that small an area of cover, and that I have not found it yet. Of course, the twin could be very shy and good at hiding. There could be possibly be a twin at the end of the lake across the road in the pine thicket, but as mommy spends all day near Apple, and it would require her to be exposed for part of the way on feeding trips, I doubt there is a twin farther away. As for Apple being a he…well I do not know. If his mother is young or old statistically then the odds are on Apple being male.

How much longer will he be in the yard? I am not sure, but my best guess is they will leave when he is eight weeks or so. Although his mother could move him somewhere else at anytime if she feels threaten or the food situation degenerates, she will probably not move the youngster unless the situation warrants it. She might relocate him if he explores too far beyond the safety of cover. Apple will start following his mommy about some in a few days when he turns four weeks old, but he probably will not follow her around a significant amount of the time until he is at least eight weeks when he will start to travel and also to bed with her. That seems like a natural time to expand his range and for them to leave the yard. Time will tell…

Check out online:

http://www.outdooralabama.com/watchable-wildlife/what/Mammals/Ungulates/wtd.cfm A brief natural history of Alabama whitetail deer.

http://www.outdooralabama.com/hunting/game/deer/deerbook.pdf

A not so brief book, Biology and Management of White-tailed Deer in Alabama by Chris Cook and Bill Gray of the Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources

Division of Wildlife and Freshwater Fisheries (beware this is a large pdf file-not for the light hearted if you have dial-up).

Check out on the bookshelf:

Deer specifically:

Seasons of the Whitetail a four book series: Whitetail Autumn, Whitetail Winter, Whitetail Spring, and Whitetail Summer by John J. Ozoga, Willow Creek Press (1997)- Contains a lot of scientific research made readable for science and non science types.

Mammals in-general:

The Wild Mammals of Missouri by Charles and Elizabeth Schwartz (the Missouri Conservation Department Gods!!!), University of Missouri Press (2001). A terrific guide (not pocket sized) to mammals and pertinent beyond Missouri-for much of the Midwest and eastern US. The drawings of paws are very nice for trackers as they are exquisitely rendered and lacks the problem that some photos can have of lighting, fur in the way, and photos of preserved or dead specimens in questionable conditions. Life histories of the animals are given beyond the couple of paragraphs of most guides. It contains skull drawings, dental formulas, and pertinent natural history information. I love this book.

Wild Mammals of North America: Biology, Management, and Economics edited by JA Chapman and GA Feldhamer, Johs Hopkins University Press 1982. I would describe this book as a science encyclopedia. The book offers concise scientific literature reviews describing as the subtitle states- biology, management, and economics of each species. This book is more appropriate for science types, but a great entry into the world of science lit for non science types.

© Pam Croom 2008

Why is there a fawn in my yard? Or where you are born and biology.

Part I

Apple is now a few days past his three-week mark of life. His birth date may seem rather late to many, but here in Alabama, according to the Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, the majority of deer births occur from late July into mid August, but any where from April to November is game. John Ozoga, in his book ¬Whitetail Summer, relates that researchers have designated three phases of a nursing fawn’s life. A fawn’s first phase is the seclusion phase which last the first ten days and while they weigh less than eleven pounds. The next phase is the transitional phase, which last approximately from ten to fifty days and within a weight range of eleven to thirty-three pounds. The last nursing phase is the juvenile ruminant phase where the fawn is aged fifty to one-hundred days old and weight range of thirty-three to fifty-five pounds. Apple now is long beyond the seclusion phase and into his transitional phase.

In the seclusion phase, a fawn moves little; what activity he carries out is during the day when most predators of fawns are inactive. The fawn stays hidden, which is its main defense against predation. This part of a fawn’s life is when it is most vulnerable as it may not be able to out run predator. The mother does not stay with the fawn in order not to draw attention to the youngster. A newborn fawn is nearly scentless if the mother stayed next to the fawn she would leave a substantial scent trail for predators to follow. The mother will run away from the area the fawn is in if disturbed; this tact may draw predators away from the baby. At this stage, the fawn is utterly dependent upon the mother. He will nurse two may be three times a day. The doe will groom him, and during the grooming session, she will nuzzle the fawn’s rump to evoke a voiding response of the bladder and gut and then she will eat the waste to minimize scent around the fawn. Apple during his seclusion phase only used two bedding sites; one just beyond the button bushes in the grass by the lake edge and about ten yards away, the one up on high ground by the ditch. I found his tracks only to those two sites bed sites.

In many references, the size of a fawning ground is reported as twenty to thirty acres. For my doe’s fawning site, this seems unlikely. West up the hill going up Green Mountain is a neighbor hood giving way to thick, steep, woods. Abutting the mountain to the south are some fields mixed with housing. Directly east and north of my yard is quite an expanse of housing. Directly south are a few houses that turn from house to corn, and soybean fields that extend eastward to the lowland area of the Flint River (the farm field area, sadly, is slated for a school and housing district with two hundred plus houses). There are pockets of trees in there and some edge habitat and a few yards that probably offer up yummy browse in an area that would be twenty acres, but it doesn’t seems a large quantity of high quality deer browse and fawn cover habitat. Where Apple’s mommy chose to have him is perhaps a fifteenth of an acre of edge habitat and quality cover (quality deer browse flourishes in edge habitats).

So why is the north side of my yard so appealing? Cover for one thing. Browse is another, of what is available, it is pretty good and includes landscape plants (my begonias and tomatoes, located near the house, are gone now). The neighbor’s fences fronts the lake, but leaves a corridor that they keep mowed with a narrow scrub margin next to the lake providing passage, cover, and browse. This year a dead spruce tree opened up the sky and the apple trees had a bow-busting bumper crop, and her tracks regularly lead up to the tree where she is browsing on twigs, leaves, and fruit. The over grown garden offers browse for the doe, and an overgrown adjacent field also contains some eats (deer are selective browsers and generally do not eat grass except for tender new shoots). Across the street to the south are a large garden to pick through, a small apple orchard, and a large fig bush for desert. Of course, the doe is packing away a pound or two plus a day of the ever-present duck food, and if she gets really hungry she is deft at working the bird feeders for food. Importantly, the lake’s waters-edge presents another rich transition environment for browse, water (lactating does require supplemental water daily), and a protective barrier. Always keep in mind that whitetail deer are ecological generalist-in other words they live pretty much everywhere and have learned to live where humans live. Predators are limited. No coyotes traipse about the yard. The yard has not been part of a fox’s range since the cheeky fox lived here two years ago. Despite a young grey fox attempting to steal BBQ this spring; he has not seemed to hung around and made the yard part of his territory. Bobcats are certainly down in the lowland area about the Flint, but they do not habituate my yard. Dogs rarely are seen roaming about. Our new neighbor has an affable yellow lab who is pretty oblivious to the world (and the fact there are deer next door). When they moved in they installed a wireless fence and the lab is restricted to his yard. However, the mere presence of his scent may keep predators such as fox out for a while, at least until they figure out the dog is not a threat.

Why not choose the low land habitat down the hill at the Goldsmith-Schiffman preserve to fawn; it is great deer habitat-lots of edge, great browse, cornfields, water, and cover? Coyotes, foxes, bobcats, and feral hogs found there are threats to fawns to say the least. You might wonder how pigs are a threat; feral hogs will eat about everything including stumbling upon a small hiding fawn and eating it (they would not hunt them down, but if they found one they would probably eat it, as they would ground nestling baby birds, and small turtles etc.). Hogs also very effectively compete with deer for browse and mast like acorns. Another reason not to fawn down there is that there already are many deer there.

to be continued...

© Pam Croom 2008

The Apple of his Mommy's Eye

Our yard is a small part of the home range of a merry band of deer sisters. This past winter they would drink at the lake, sometimes raid the bird feeders, and bed down in the sedges near the willows to ruminate during the night, but NEVER, and I mean NEVER did they bed down there during the day. Late spring/early summer they moved to a different part of their range and the girls’ tracks disappeared from the yard and lake edge. Eventually, as summer settled in, they returned to drink and sometimes ruminate between the touch-me-nots and willows. A few weeks ago, I noticed that the deer tracks had dwindled down to one deer. For a fleeting moment, I wondered about why there was only one deer, but something else caught my attention and I never returned to that thought to give it due consideration. By the next time I noticed the single track, the solitary doe’s presence had became settled in my mind with no thought of the others.

It was heating up on a Tuesday (19) afternoon this mid-August, and I glanced at the thermometer on the porch to confirm what I already knew-it was hot. In the hazy afternoon air framed between the vertical and horizontal supports of the porch and the window sash a large brown blob appeared down near the lake. I moved closer to the window and focused harder…harder…yep it was a deer in the yard, eating duck food at one o’clock in the afternoon! That seemed sooo wrong-they NEVER stay in the yard during the day!

Bang! I was hit by a realization. I grabbed the binoculars to confirm my revelation. Suddenly it all made sense! The curious single deer tracks made sense. A doe in preparation to fawn will establish and defend a fawning ground driving off her female relations. The reason a doe would dare expose herself away from cover mid-afternoon in my yard came into focus. She was a very hungry new momma who had just left her newborn after spending those first few hours cleaning, nursing, and bonding with him-learning the smell of his almost non-existent scent. The binoculars revealed I was right! Her milk had dropped and her udders were full; she had recently given birth. THERE WAS A FAWN OUT THERE SOMEWHERE IN MY YARD!!!!!

She polished off the duck food and leisurely strolled along the scrub, nibbling here and there, and then she stopped, crouched, and slipped through the scrub down to the lake. I gave her a bit of time to settle down, and then I set out to find her. I quietly stalked up to the dock and eased out on it. I peaked around bushes and there she was quietly laying behind the scrub on the lakebed. One of the pesky adolescent Carolina Wrens outted me and alarmed once. The doe looked up and sniffed the air, but was not too concerned at a single bird alarm call. The wind was with me and I retreated quietly without frightening her.

I knew, by this point in the life of her newborn, she would not be staying with the fawn, but would be close by. Given the limited cover, I just knew where the baby would be. I quietly approached the high ground along the ditch, and there he was on a small clear patch of brown earth, surrounded by weeds, tucked next to a downed branch. He held his head erect, his little nose quivered as he smelled my presence, but he did not spot me as he kept his head perfectly still. He was the perfect apple of his mother’s eye! Since his mommy’s tracks showed me she had been chowing down on the apple tree, I christened him “Apple.” Apple appeared to be a perfect fawn with four legs, a tail, two ears, a button nose, and beautiful spots on a field of red-brown hair. I have yet to find a twin (deer usually twin). I have not beat the brush, so to speak, looking for another fawn; I did not want to disturb Apple and his mommy. Time will tell after seclusion when deer twins come together if there is an Apple II.

© Pam Croom 2008