It’s Twins

I noticed a deer out in my prairie and she appeared to be nursing a fawn. I raced up-stairs to get a better view of them in the long grass. As I watched the fawn feeding I kept seeing three ears. It took a minute to realize that there was a second fawn nursing. When they were finished nursing I could see both of them. They followed the mother as she walked through the prairie and into the woods.

 

Another Fawn

This has been a great year for fawn watching on the farm. We have seen quite a few of them. This mother and fawn came out of the woods in the evening and we were able to watch them for 20 minutes as they wandered around in the back yard. At one point the fawn raced off into the woods then came running back. In the last photo the mother was staring at the woods and snorting and stomping her feed. This went on for a while before they moved off.

 

Third Fawn Sighting

I’ve been having a great spring in terms of fawn sightings.

 

First Fawn of the Spring

I noticed a White-tailed deer doe out in the prairie. From the way it was behaving I realized that it was grooming a fawn. Unfortunately the fawn was not visible.  When the doe moved the fawn was in the open and I managed a few shots before it bounded off.

 

Second Fawn Sighting

This fellow turned up in my lawn. He was all legs and a little gangly.

 

White-tailed Deer Fawn

I noticed this White-tailed Deer Fawn out in the Prairie one evening. It’s mother was nowhere to be seen.

 

First Fawn of the Season

This afternoon I happened to look out the window and notice a doe and fawn in the field. They wandered around for quite a while. It looked like the doe was looking for someplace to stash the fawn. Unfortunately it is early and the grass is the fields is not very high.

 

White-tailed Deer Doe and Fawn

We had been in town and when we returned I happened to look out the window and notice a Doe and Fawn in the yard. It must have just been born because it was a little wobbly on its legs. When ran it was all legs.

More White-tailed Deer photos can be found on my website.

Fawn Watching

I live on a farm with a large yard and a prairie buffer between the yard and the woods. I don’t mow the entire prairie but do mow trails through the prairie so I can easily walk through the area to photograph flowers and insects.

I frequently see fawns out in my prairie late in the spring. A week ago my wife noticed a doe standing out in the prairie and thought it looked a little strange. I went upstairs so I could get a better look at it. I thought something was up but it wasn’t until the doe moved that I could see it was feeding a fawn. We watched as it put the fawn in the high grass and left it.

Yesterday we returned from a weekend trip late in the day. I happened to look out the window to check on the garden and noticed a fawn out by the garden. It was standing in some tall grass. Normally when a doe leaves a fawn the fawn remains curled up on the ground. This fawn was standing up and scratching itself.

Later in the evening I happened to look out at the garden again and noticed the doe and fawn out by the garden. The doe was feeding the fawn. We watched for a while and then my wife noticed a large raccoon walking toward the doe and fawn. Soon the doe noticed the raccoon and chased it away.

We continued to watch as the doe fed the fawn before leading it back into the woods. Just as the doe and faun were leaving we noticed the raccoon heading toward the house. It turned up at the bird feeder and we watched it clean up bird seeds for about a half an hour.

Porcupine Wilderness State Park Adventures

Sunset Union Bay

Yesterday was one of the strangest days I’ve ever had. The day took a strange turn starting the evening before. When I checked into the motel I asked for a 4am wakeup call so I could get up and photograph the 5am sunrise at Lake of the Clouds in Porcupine Wilderness State Park. The clerk didn’t think I could get a 4am wakeup call because the bar closed at 2am (apparently it was not an automated system). I was fine with that. Later, as I was photographing the sunset at Union Bay I remembered that although the Michigan border towns observed CDT, White Pine was on EDT. In other words I should be getting up at 5am EDT rather than 4am. Since I didn’t think I was going to get a wakeup call I forgot about it.

 

Sunrise Lake of the Clouds

Sure enough the next morning I received a wakeup call at 3:45 am (2:45am CDT. This should have alerted me that this was going to be a crazy day. When I arrived at Lake of the Clouds and setup the camera I noticed there were lots of birds around. I moved away from the camera to check out another shooting location and when I turned around there was a bird sitting on the camera. This was definitely a first. Unfortunately I didn’t get a shot of this. To top it off the sunrise was not all that spectacular.

 

Hooded Merganser Family

A little later in the morning I was walking along the shore of Lake Superior at Union Bay. As I approached some rocks along the shore I noticed a  Hooded Merganser moving out into the lake. All of a sudden there was a flurry of movement among the rocks and I saw a bunch of babies dashing to follow mom. They raced as fast as they could and ran right up onto mom’s back. I think there were seven in all and at one point five of them were riding on mom’s back. She seem to follow along as I walked down the shoreline. The babies would dismount and mount as mom paddled down the lake. Another first for me. I was a little far away but I did manage a shot of the action.

 

I then started driving out of the park on South Boundary Road. Something caught my eye along the edge of the road. It was a baby bird and it started to dash across the road in front the car. There wasn’t much I could do and I drove over the bird. I looked in the rear view mirror and noticed the bird lying on the road. I thought for sure it was dead. All of a sudden it jumped up and quickly finished its dash across the road. I think the wind from the car must have blown it over. Another first.

 

A short time later I saw what I thought were some black garbage bags along the road and wondered what was up with that. As I drew closer I discovered it wasn’t garbage bags but a medium sized black bear. He looked at the car and fortunately headed for the woods.

 

Frog

Not long afterwards something hit the driver’s side windshield. At first I couldn’t figure out what it was but it turned out to be a frog. He got himself oriented as I drove along the road and stayed with me until I found a place to pull over and remove him from the windshield. The only thing I can think of was that it fell out of a tree along the road. Another first. This is a shot of the frog through the windshield.

 

Overlooked Falls

Next I noticed a doe and two fauns along the road and was so busy looking at them that I started to drive off of the road. Apparently I steer the car in the direction I’m looking. Fortunately I looked up just as I was about to hit a guardrail. After that I needed a break so I stopped at the Little Carp River to take a few waterfall photos.

 

I thought things would end once I made it off of South Boundary road but they didn’t. Driving south of Mellon, Wisconsin on county GG a small black bear, probably born last year, made a full speed dash across the road in front of the car. I slammed on the breaks but still hit him. I think I must of just hit his hind quarters. He kept going full speed into the woods. There wasn’t any place to stop so I kept going until I found a place to pull over. I checked the car for damage and couldn’t find any. After some reflection I decided that discretion was the better part of valor and decided I wasn’t about to go back and walk into the woods to check on the condition of a wild black bear. Another first.

 

I finally managed to make it home without any more incidents.