First Fawn of the rehab season

Just wondering how the little fellow is doing now haven't heard from you in a while.

Me too? from the number of views 500+ you must have lots of lerkers

Here is an update so you can all see how Buckwheat has grown.

He is such a cutie.. Please keep us informed.

How cute they all are. I love the wild animals. We only have one Squirrel in are area.

makishi,

You just take a ride up here to Michigan and we'll fill up your car!

So sweet...he looks really healthy, too!

makashi..............you need to thank God for small favors....can you supply you more squirrles when the supply that jylgaskin has given you runs out.... LOL

Deann

Can I give some of mine away? I have fox, red, black and gray. I will even throw a few chipmunks in as a bonus.

cpartschick.......Ya need to take a number......and I believe your behind me....LOL

Deann

Lordy!!! Am I the only one that enjoys having a dozen in my yard (right here in the city)??? I buy Black Oil Sunflower seeds by the 50# bag. I usually go through a bag in about 2 weeks. I always enjoy watching their antics. Especially when the dogs go out back with me.

When I open my back door, I can count 30-40 dove, several wrens, sparrows and house finches, along with a half a dozen squirrels (at any given time) that go in every which a direction. It's like SCRAMBLE TIME!!!! HAHAHAHAHA I just love it. And I don't mind helping feed the critters. The grand babies just love it in my yard. :-)

Janet

Here's a nest I saw someone building the other day.

Janet your definately not the only one. I have several threads I visit where we have been enjoying the squirrels in our yard. We have been lucky to have a blonde tail join the family this season. Mine are even brave enough to come tap on the front window and tell me the feeder is empty!

They add quite a bit of joy to my days, not to mention entertain the cats watching from the windows.

Debbie

They are cute rats. Don't let the pretty tail fool you. Really I am glad some people can enjoy them, we are just over run here. Just be careful...they are wild animals.
Deann, I have number 3 right?

Why does everyone hate squirrles and chipmunks. We feed them all.

I have been planting to attract, so put me on the list for receiving, I think they are cute.

They are cute and full of fleas. They also eat bird feeders and dig all over. But that is what squirrels do. It is hard to feed the birds without feeding everything in the woods. It is a good way to see wildlife though.
A quick story. My mom loves the squirrels. A few years back my grandfather at 99 was trapping squirrels and letting them out at my mom's house. All of a sudden she was over run and was having all sorts of problems. My grandfather confided in me what he was doing. I still have never told her.

ROFL, what a Grandfather thing to do! I was laughing, as that sounds like something my brother would do (Shoe!).

I have had to rehab baby squirrels, and I was really suckered in when the little guy sat up, wrapped his paws around my finger while eating from his dropper. That was all it took.

The way I look at it is they are all a part of nature, and they are entitled to eat too...even if it is in our bird feeders. I guess everything needs some help now and then.

With me being an animal person, DH has picked up some of it also. We had a young squirrel get "hit" out front and it was stunned. DH went out and picked it up with the shovel...the little guy sat up, licked his tail several times....pretty much thanked DH...and scampered away.

Guess there is good and bad in everything.

Debbie

I like the squirrels too, but the noise the dogs make when the bushy tails are teasing and tormenting, I can live without!

Then today I noticed that my tulip bulbs are being eaten again. :-(

My 80 lb dear Isabelle is terrified of the squirrels for some reason. Her first encounter with one was when she was about 2 months old....and very small....I think she has that in her mind and not know she has grown to a huge moose!

Debbie

Fawns are aways a delight to see in the woods. They jump and play like puppies and seem not to have a care in the world.
Yesterday we went for a canoe ride up the river. We use the trolling motor, to go up and then glide back down to the house. It is a nice quiet restful ride. Well, yesterday it was animal kingdom. We saw all kinds of animals up close. I never take the camera, due to being in a canoe and the accidents that can happen, so I always count aloud the pictures I am missing as we travel. The motor was starting to run out of battery power in a shallow section of the river when a fawn jumped out into the river to rid itself of deer flies. We enjoyed watching, turning the motor down to keep still in the current. The mama came out and hurried her little one to the edge after spotting us. We started again to go up the river, watching the two, when all of a sudden another fawn leaped out not 10 feet from us and started to frolic. We watched as the little guy played, then spotted us, then he turned and started walking towards the canoe. I kept muttering "ohmygosh" as this little guy was only a foot from the tip of the canoe. I thought he was going to hop in. He changed his mind and leaped around somemore settling on the opposite shore. We eased back slowly and snuck out, as we didn't want to disturb them further. Like I have said I have seen many fawns before, but this was by far the coolest encounter we have ever had. Poor DH had one hand on the trolling motor and one hand on the big choc lab in the middle of the canoe. The dog was as surprized as we were I guess and behaved for once. (we just found the last quill in his face from last week, I hope, and he brought us a baby raccoon that very morning)
I am now trying to figure out how to water protect the camera. I ran out of numbers of pictures I could have had on this trip, from osprey, kingfisher fishing, eastern box turtles, to the deer encounter. I have the pictures in my memory though.

How is Buckwheat doing??

he's going to be a majestic creature when he's all grown up.

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.)

thanks for the new photo...i have been lurking:)

Oh gosh, he's so adorable and such a personality!

I'm staying tuned for more . . .

Aaaaaaaaaaawwwww He's beautiful!!

Cute picture. Nice to hear update from the "zoo"

jyl, I just happened on to this thread. So glad you do what you do for the animals and are able to save so many. And I do appreciate the pictures. I live in desert area, the only trees close are ones I have planted.

It has been extremely hot and dry for two months. This morning I decided to go out in the nearby hills for a drive as it was slightly cooler. Here is a picture I took of 3 fawn, the mother is just out of the picture. It is the first time i can remember seeing triplets.

Donna S

I love the photo of the triplets!

Yesterday, on the way home I was at the end of our block where there is an empty lot. I noticed a doe and her fawn grazing so I stopped. She didn't seem afraid so I opened my window to see if it was one I could recognize. I called several names and she looked up at me, so I assumed that it was Rosebug (a doe I raised last year). There was something odd about the way she was standing, but I couldn't figure out what it was.

When the fawn came up to her and she walked a few steps, I could see that she was missing the lower portion of her right hind leg about from the hock down. She was not limping heavily like it was a fresh wound; more like she just had a short leg. The fawn was healthy and though a bit thin, the doe was too. I have no clue what happened to her or how she has survived so well, but she seems to be coping well. Now I know why we have seen signs of a doe and a fawn close to the house all summer (not unusual as my does tend to come back to drop their fawns nearby).

I sat and watched them for about 10 minuts before they strolled back into the woods. I'll have to make sure that I keep extra food out for them as I imagine that she will stick close to home where she feels safe. I wish I could do more for her.
Even though she has suffered what she has, it sure makes what I do seem worth it when I see one of my animals in the wild with offspring. Deer are down in this area and each contribution to the gene pool helps.

There are 2 babies living behind my neighbor's hay shed. One is old enough to have lost it's spots and the other is still spotted. Is there any chance that there is a mom leaving them there during the day and coming for them at night? It's so odd. But we cannot get our hands on either, just leave them a little horse food (originally it was for the one back when it was spotted still).

PS really enjoyed reading this thread.

This message was edited Jul 15, 2007 2:49 PM

Could the one without spots be the mother and she is just extreemly small. If they are twins, one would not shed it's spots before the other unless it lost all its hair and it grew back. (very unlikely). Deer are subject to genetic mutations and aberations just like any other animal and we once saw a buck with 4 points that wasn't much bigger than the 4 month fawns. We asume that he was probably some sort of dwarf as he seemed healthy and others who saw him said he never got any bigger.

Although deer will frequently "adopt" an orphan and raise it with their current fawn, there should be no more that 4 to 5 weeks between them at the most. By this time of year, the does aren't "hiding" the fawns any more. They will usually have them nearby and will travel together.

I'm really not sure what to tell you on this one. You'll just have to keep an eye out for them. If you want to leave treats out, they love grapes, carrots (cut up small for the fawn) swiss chard and I've had some that will do anything for dry dogfood or pepermints. Keep me posted if you learn any more about them.

No, I don't think so...it had spots not a month or so ago, they can't have babies that soon can they? Or can they? O. 4 or five weeks between ?what? There were 3 together the other night standing in the road just a little ways down from this area. Deer are everywhere here. I get off work at midnight and have to drive really slow down my road because there are always deer everywhere. I'll see if I can get some pics tomorrow. They sleep there during the day so I might be able to sneak up or at least catch them running off.

Deer start dropping fawns as early as the first week in may and as late as the first week in July with most being born in mid June. I would say this must be an early fawn and a late fawn. Buckwheat started an early shed when the weather was so hot a week ago and he will probably loose his spots by August.

Does start herding up with the other does and a few of last years fawn bucks about now. You '' see fawns playing in groups, especially in the evenings and early mornings. Since mine has no other fawns to play with he chases me, the dogs, the chickens, the ducks.... Right now he is pushing one of those big exercise balls around the yard with his head.

Well, turns out it's twins! I don't know what happened to the other young one....but these are young and came to visit

Closer

the other

15 minutes later....mom came! YAY! They went bounding up to her and then they all ran off!

Do you think our season being longer has anything to do with it? It's warm here until.....jan or feb. But I am seeing a ton of fawns on the roadsides on my way home (midnightish)

The third fawn may have just had a play date. You very well may have a longer season for fawns. If the weather stays warm longer in the Fall here, some does will not come into estrus untill it cools down and we have a batch of late fawns. Our deer poplulation in this area, is way down and it is difficult for hunters to even take a deer. We have a lot of orchards here and they are allowed to kill a tremendous ammount of deer (many are doing it in the spring and summer figguring that they will kill the doe and the fawn with one bullet) There are still a good number of deer in the suburbs where they have become a problem, because no one can hunt there and they are provided wth lots of tasty ornamental plants. It's a pretty difficult situation. Other than my small herd and their offspring) that stays pretty close to the area, we aren't seeing many wild deer at all.
Great photos, by the way. Keep an eye out, you may very well see the older fawn with them again.

The babies can jump my fence! They came through this morning on their way back from the lake/large pond. I've been slowly replacing the top strand of my barb-wire fence with plank. Now I really want to hurry it up!

We have a lot around here. There's a "ahem" guy two doors down with a pair of dobies he lets loose on them and he stalks them. Many times they chase the deer into my pasture where he can't shoot em and the dogs can't get to em. But someone is logging nearby so it seems that there are more than ever out and about everywhere. I have to drive about 25mph down my street on the way home from work because lately there are at least a dozen on the roadside grazing.

Are yours the whitetails? I saw a pair of black tails down here for the first time ever the other day. I thought we only had the whitetailed deer....

Here is one my friend Jodi found on the roadside. They finally found a rehab place to take it - The Wildlife Gameranch in Lilburn (I think Lilburn it used to be at Stone Mountain Park) - but their deer roam the ranch and will come right up to you as if they are dogs.



This message was edited Jul 23, 2007 10:36 AM