Circle of Life

You know you have a reputation when neighbors contact you to let you know about a dead deer by the highway and to offer their sympathy. That happened today. I had noticed deer tracks leading from the highway up our road earlier this week; there is water in the “creek” that runs by our road, but sometimes deer cross the highway to go to the river. And sometimes they don’t cross successfully. (There was no sign that the vehicle had crashed.) The death of the doe saddens me, but I know this year’s fawns are all eating on their own now.

The circle of life has been all too evident this summer. I enjoy seeing the fawns and poults (young wild turkeys), but it makes me sad when I encounter the other side of the circle. In addition to the doe on the highway, within the last month I have seen the bodies of a raccoon, a garter snake, and one of the box turtles that was a regular in the Hollow; all of them had apparently been hit and killed on our narrow gravel road. And one of the neighbors found the body of a tiny fawn with no clue as to how it died.

On the brighter side, one of this year’s fawns seems to admire Buttons (who began eating apple from my hand as a yearling last year) and often follows him around.

And then there is Lippy, one of the triplet fawns. I don’t know if it is her(?)  lip or jaw, but her bottom lip seems to droop. I can’t usually tell the deer apart, but she is distinctive.