Spring Fawns
By Michael Erlewine
Headed out to the Legend Ranch at 7:00 AM yesterday morning.
This time, instead of visiting the side of the ranch where they raise deer with invitro, etc., almost like cattle, we went to the other side, to the hundreds of acres where they let the deer run wild, create their own babies, and this is the time of year when the fawns are born and spend much of their time just quietly resting in the woods, almost invisible.
It’s like hunting morel mushrooms, essentially a figure ground image that has to be sorted. The youngest fawns hardly move at all, and after a few days they are much the same, but if you get too close, they get up and walk or run away. The fawns eat about ever five hours and then rest.
Today we saw about 9 fawns. I include a photo of the one I got closest to. We drove down what seemed like endless roads, even driving through a running stream and up the other side. And then we walked, walked, walked. I carried a relatively light lens, while my fellow camera friends were carrying long and very heavy telephoto lenses, the better to see the fawns with.
As for me, I am more a close-up photographer, so I had probably the only wide-angle lens in the group (20–35mm), yet the others were ready to shoot long distance, and I was not. With my lens, I was at the mercy of waiting until the telephoto lenses had their fill, so I could walk closer and potentially frighten off the fawn.
It worked out, as we eventually came across one fawn that was so newborn that he had not learned to run away, so I got some photos too.
In addition, all this time I was fighting the Canada wildfires and the air index hovered around 65, which was tolerable, although I did have one coughing fit.
The trip was very much because of Rob Benson, a well-known taxidermist and expert on the ranch. He made it all happen, and I thank him for that. He also spotted almost all the fawns.
Anyway, we walked and walked. I very much liked this side of the ranch, where everything was naturally wild. The deer there are relatively safe, but the fawns, not so much. Even within the fenced-in ranch, there are coyotes, bobcats, and many predatory birds, especially raptors.
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[Photos by me.]
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As Bodhicitta is so precious,
May those without it now create it,
May those who have it not destroy it,
And may it ever grow and flourish.
