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A Backyard Maternity

Ward

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A Few Intimate Moments with a Deer and her Fawns

Videography and Photography by Deanne

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2019 brought us a few indelible memories one morning  in May.

For the month of April,  a young doe was a frequent visitor to our backyard. The animal ignored the roar of the tractor and the presence of 2 people doing the job of maintaining the property and hunkered down in a quiet spot under a cedar tree. She seemed to have  a purpose in abandoning her normal gregarious grazing behavior across a wide territory.

One morning in May the reason for her unusual behavior became obvious. Under an apple tree in the backyard she paraded her newborn. There, she gave her fawn a bath, licking it to remove the odour of its new birth as a preventative against predators in the area.

We had a delightful 2 weeks of observation of the Doe and her 2 fawns. They left the backyard when the fawns became physically capable. They return periodically to dine on leaves from apple trees in the backyard.

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One hour after our discovery of the maternity ward in the backyard, Nature presented to us yet another delightful and intriguing tableau: a Canada Goose family, gander, 4 goslings and a goose resolutely parading, this time from the front yard, down the paved road in front of our home. (See video after the photo gallery).

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Gallery of Jane Doe and the

Jane Fawnda

Family

Videography and photography by Deanne

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