Summer Memories: Does, Twins, and Bucks

Winter has well and truly dug in. We have had a string of cold, cold days and nights. While I enjoy the sunny days that accompany the cold, I also find myself remembering those warm sunny summer days when a white-tailed doe and her twin fawns moved through the property. The wildlife camera clips of the twins still make me smile and even laugh out loud. I have put pieced some of the clips into the video below and I hope the video makes you smile too.

A white-tailed deer fawn hidden in the grass

A white-tailed deer fawn

White-tailed deer and fawn

There were at least four bucks that wandered by the wildlife cam this summer too. Two of the youngest bucks raced around the yard and the camera captured that high-spirited young energy as well. The largest buck may have been the father of the twins…who knows?

A white-tailed deer buck with his antlers still in velvet

I am warm and snug this morning as winter moves on towards the shortest day of the year but I shiver a little in sympathy with the animals that survive these cold temperatures without a cozy wood fire.  I think of the deer, but I also think of the hungry cougars and coyotes – animals that must survive the winter by hunting. There will, if these predators are to survive, be fewer deer wandering by when spring comes around again.  Perhaps the fawns of last summer will not survive to spring, but there will be new fawns  – and young coyotes and cougars – born to challenge the odds.

White-tailed deer print in snow

All photos, videos and writing copyright Joanne Siderius, 2013