Wildlife: First Fawn of the rehab season, 1 by jylgaskin

jylgaskin wrote:
Here is a new shot of Buckwheat. I admit that it is not verry good as it's difficult to photograph any animals when it is sticking it's nose in the camera. I try to sneak shots of him, but as soon as "Mr. Nosey" sees I have something in my hands, he comes running. Right now he is entertaining himself by chasing the ducks and young turkeys around the yard. We have a new Rouen duck and he can still intimidate her. I think he likes the sound of her quacking. He made a pass at the peacock a little while ago, but that bird won't put up with it and flies up into the tree and scilds him. I can usually tell where Buckwheat is just by listening for annother animal complaining. The other night he was missing and I finially found him in the chicken pen. I still don't know how he got in there!

Last weekend I got in 5 Mallard ducklings who's mother was hit by a car. Since Buckwheat has prefered sleeping outside of late, I put them in his pen with a low gate over the door. I turned cold and rainy last night and when I went out to give hism his late bottle, he was cuddled up with the ducks in his pen. They spent the whole night warm and dry.

Well, I think it's time to go rescue that poor duck. Maybe I'll try putting her in with the Mallards. It would be nice if she took to them. Mom Ducks babies are so much older and bigger than they are, they might get squashed and I really don't want them to bond with the domestic flock or it is harder to get them to fly off in the fall. (We went through this last year and now I have a pekin offspring that looks an awful lot like a mallard.)