May is the month when fawns are born but it’s rare that you ever see them.
Fawns hide from predators by not moving as they sleep in dappled sunlight that matches their fur. Their mothers move away from them so the adults don’t attract attention to their fawns’ location. At night the family reunites.
Sometimes the family picks a “hiding” place that’s visible. In 2011 Jennie Barker found a fawn in her suburban Pittsburgh backyard.
On Throw Back Thursday, read about her discovery at: Two Mornings of a Fawn
(photo by Jennie Barker)
Wow, thanks for this trip down memory lane, Kate. It’s hard to believe it’s been 7 years since I took those pictures. Since then, the deer population in our neighborhood has exploded. They’re eating things they used to shun, like crab apples. We fenced in our bird feeders to keep the deer from emptying them, and we fenced in the smaller trees and shrubs so that the males can’t strip off the bark by rubbing their antlers on the trunks. I still love seeing the fawns and I’m still careful to watch for them.
Thanks for the update on the deer. The population has exploded in Schenley Park, too. Every time they plant a tree they have to put it in a fence. 🙁