It started raining yesterday. We knew it was coming, they told us to expect a rainy weekend. And they were right. It rained all night and all day today. But, this morning, we had a visitor exploring the garden in the rain.
Camouflaged in the lower left corner is our fawn. In the upper right corner is it’s Mama.
This morning Keith watched both of them jump into the fenced part of the garden before he left to get groceries.
It was raining, not hard, but steady, and they were getting their fill in the overgrown garden.
When I got up, Mama had already jumped the fence and the fawn was still inside, munching away.
She remained close to keep an eye on her little one.
The fawn was very busy eating.
It made the rounds of the enclosed space.
Moving from one corner to the next.
And Mama would follow it.
Always paying attention to any sound she heard.
I watched them for over an hour at least.
Here her baby comes to meet her at the fence.
She ensures he is safe.
And she knew I was snapping pictures of her from up the hill in our sitting room while they foraged in the rain.
And she knew when Keith came home from grocery shopping. But it had been quite a while that the baby had been in the garden and me being the silly worrier that I am, I made Keith go down and open up the gate so that the fawn could get out, just in case.
And even though he was super quiet they both got spooked, but he opened the gate enough for baby to come out. Mama was still watching carefully from the other side of the garden.
After a while, our spooked little fella timidly came across the garden and exited through the gate.
And the next thing we knew, he was coming up the hill by the wood pile.
At this point I headed outside to the carport to continue taking pictures in the rain.
And he looked right at us several times.
And he chowed down on the weeds along the path by the firewood.
He was soaking wet, but didn’t seem to care, he was filling up his belly.
I love the pattern in his coat from his spots.
Every so often he would shake himself off like a dog and continue on munching away.
We have had fawns in the past in our yard, but this is the first time we have been able to watch one so closely that was active. Usually they are just babies lying in the underbrush and then Mama takes them away somewhere else.
But we had several hours with this little guy this morning.
And after coming up by the wood pile, he proceeded to the wisteria arbor. And yes, Mama was still below in the garden, paying close attention.
There he munched on the violets.
Violets are a favorite.
You can see how close he is to entering our upper back yard.
Still soaked but enjoying the violets.
And some dandelions.
Munch, Munch, Munch….
And he always kept an eye on us, just like his Mama.
He looks like he is talking, but he was just munching.
And then he went through the arbor and started munching on our toad lilies. Thank goodness we have a ton of those!
We still could not believe how long we were able to enjoy watching this little fella.
A Mama and baby living in our back yard here in town. It still amazes me.
And then, he was off.
He quickly headed for the hydrangeas.
And then disappeared. And so did Mama, at least for the rest of the day. And it continued to rain all day. Had it been sunny and nice, Keith and I may have been out away from home and missed this entire event.
Thank goodness for rainy day explorers!
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