Be Careful

There's something lurking ...

Actually, lurking is the wrong word.

Hiding may be a better word.

I've learned over the years to be really careful when I start mowing the back forty in early June. The deer have started having their babies, and they'll drop them most anywhere. Including right in the middle of a hay field or grass pasture.

Take a look at this little guy, just hours old:

You don't see anything?   Neither did I when my tractor and mower deck drove past this fawn with the tire and blades coming within ten inches of his/her little body.

A closer look:

Even when I came up to it with my camera, it never moved. Only its chest heaving up and down let me know that it was even alive. 

Only hours old, its instinct is to remain motionless and hope for the best.  Sometimes that works, sometimes it doesn't. 

Mama deer, if you're wondering, will generally abandon their young'uns during the day and will reunite with them in the evening.  Somehow that seems to work.  I rarely find the bones or carcass of a newborn. 

And that's fine with me.

I just wish there was an easier way to spot them before I'm right upon them with my tractor.