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Monday, June 16, 2014

Finding Bambi

Into the shady reaches
We had several interesting encounters on the Osha Trail this morning.  Not long after we saw a group of kids doing martial arts in a meadow along the trail they caught up to us.  They were an incredibly friendly bunch of young people, and their leader (the martial arts instructor bringing up the rear) asked if "his campers" had said hello to us.  When I told him they were very respectful he seemed pleased.  The reason they caught up to us was because we stopped to look at a fawn Becca had sniffed out at the side of the trail.  It was breathing, and watching us with doe eyes, but it didn't move.  I immediately felt incredibly worried for it, though we couldn't tell if it was injured or just lying very still.  After the campers had passed we went back to have another look at Bambi, though we realized we probably couldn't do much for her if she was injured.  While we were watching her an old-timer hiker and his dog passed by.  I pointed out the baby deer to him, and remarked how interesting it was that all of the young campers had walked right by the deer without noticing her.  He seemed pretty certain that the fawn's mama had left her there and would return later to get her.  He had seen the phenomenon often enough to sound pretty certain of this fact.  All Dr. K and I could do was hope he knew what he was talking about.
Mountain Rose bush

A group of camper kids learning martial arts in a meadow

Not far from here Becca picks up Bambi's scent

This fawn was hiding just off the Osha Trail when Becca found her

3 comments:

Dr. K said...

For a regular Monday morning hike, it was pretty eventful.

Scott said...

Packrat: I'd guess that the fawn was just "lying low" and that its mother was hanging around nearby. I've probably mentioned in my blog that we're overrun with deer here. One of the ideas seriously floated many years ago, before we began to allow hunters to take deer from the preserve, was to simply go around and pick up all the cowering fawns and "dispatch" them. This was before my time with the organization, but you can imagine how well that suggestion was received by most people.

I can't believe Becca and the other hiker's dog were so well behaved. An unattended fawn seems like perfect prey. How could Becca resist? You must exert pretty strong mind control, Svengali! :)

packrat said...

Wow, Scott, dispatching fawns that were lying low was an idea that could never get off the ground!

Seven years of constant working with Becca has brought her pretty much under control; she still has a stubborn streak at times.

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