Don’t Mow the Fawn!

We have a 13 acre pasture that previously was kept chewed down by horses, but now requires regular mowing – 2 or 3 times a year, depending upon how much I want to mow.  This year I delayed my mowing until early July to give the nesting birds a chance.

For a couple of weeks we had been seeing a doe in early morning and evening come to the tall grass just below the pond below our house.  I was pretty certain she had a fawn hidden there.  I had not seen the doe for the past week and now I know why – she had moved her fawn into our pasture.

I had mowed about 6 of the acres and Sunday I was prepared to finish the mowing.  I took one swipe along the exposed edge and saw a small fawn run deeper into the grass.  So I avoided mowing that area any further and went to the opposite corner of the pasture where momma deer heard the approaching tractor, popped up her head and took off for the neighboring pasture.

I mowed all but the section I thought the fawn occupied and then recruited searching help.  Eric, Kathryn and I searched all through the remaining tall grass in hopes we could ‘herd’ the fawn towards the neighboring pasture.

No luck, so I carefully mowed the remaining swatch and decided it was a mystery.

Upon leaving the pasture I drove by this thin line of tall grass which filled a swale I deemed too wet to mow.  Out popped the fawn who ran back to the area where I first spotted him/her.  The fawn sniffed around trying to find it’s previous hiding place.  As I left the field the fawn returned to the swale and laid down to await further instructions from momma deer later that evening.

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