Wild and Timid

Well, our little pond blog is most often about wild things and 'wild' happens to be the theme for this week's PhotoHunt. I have never posted any photo's of one of our predominant wild creatures that I am sure you are all familiar with. Many of us like to feel there is a bond between us and this creature. We feel a certain familiarity with them as though we can communicate with them and have them accept us into their world.

This photo was taken in the pasture adjacent to the pond just a few days ago. We were surprised this young deer still had such prominent spots. It was alone with no older deer to be seen anywhere nearby.

This year we have not seen nearly as many deer as we would normally see for some reason. And, oddly, many of the deer we see are younger ones. Of course we do occasionally see a single doe with her fawn, but we do not see many groups of 5-8 like we have in most years. I'm not sure why this is the case, but for now I am just considering it is a cyclical situation.

Each year the patterns change. Some years we have 2-3 small groups that pass through at various times during the day. Other years there will be larger groups that we see on a daily basis. It seems as though they have a regular daily routine for each season.

Often this summer we have seen these two young deer below together, but we never see an adult with them. They appear to be several weeks apart in age as the one on the left is significantly larger. It is much more attentive, as you can tell in the photo, and seems to watch over the younger one.

Of course most deer are very cautious, but some (like with many wild animals) can become tolerant of humans to some degree when they realize that we mean them no harm. This particular deer was at the nearby lake which is within a short walk from the pond. It stayed around browsing for at least 20 minutes fully aware that I was only yards away.

We are hoping that this fall and winter we will see a return of larger groups. It's always fun to watch the young ones at play when it is easier to see them through the bare trees. And for some reason they often appear less timid during the winter.

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