New Fawn

I see Whitetail Deer fawns every year, but I usually don’t find them when they are this small.  This one can’t be more than a few days old.

The doe left her fawn in an area of high grass in the lawn.  This is one of those areas that I don’t mow regularly.  About two weeks ago I cut the tall growth, raked it up and used it as mulch in the vegetable garden.  There’s not much cover, but it was enough to hide the fawn from a distance.

The fawn has no defenses and relies on camouflage to avoid predation.  Any movement would reveal its presence, so it remains perfectly still.

The color and pattern of the fawn normally blends well with the surrounding vegetation.  The combination doesn’t work as well when the fawn is surrounded by a mixture of exotic lawn and farm grasses.

The fawn’s only visible sign of awareness of my approach was a slow dropping of the eye lids.  That makes sense since the highly reflective eye would be quite a visible attractant.

The fawn was about the size of a small house cat.  There was no really good object to use as a size reference, so I held my open hand about an inch above the fawn’s body.  I could have covered the entire animal with both hands.  I’m sure I’ll see a lot more of this guy before summer is over.

A Camera Critters submission.