Front Porch: Adorable fawns almost make up for all of our missing blossoms

Every year we are treated to the sight of baby deer hidden away in the tall grass in our undeveloped au naturel backyard. We call it the fawn in the lawn experience.

This year, we had a special one of those moments.

Late in the spring a big doe wandered into the yard. She was easily recognizable from the other deer that pass through, as she was taller than most of the deer we see and also had a larger head and ears. She stood up on hind legs to reach the leaves on our apple tree for a bit of a snack. We could see that her belly was pretty large. Then off she scooted.

The next day she was back again for another bite of the apple, so to speak, but then she made her way to the back wall of our house and laid down. We guessed she was ready to give birth.

Our house is a daylight rancher, with a backyard sloping downhill. Where she chose to nestle was just below our bedroom window, one story above. We could check on her often by looking straight down, but we had to approach the window stealthily, as she’d react to our reflection in the glass.

There was enough light overnight that we could make out her form, and by dawn (which was too darn early that time of year), she had moved maybe 10 yards. No baby yet. When we checked a few hours later, she was gone.

A day after, I was out on our deck, which is also one story up off the ground on the same side of the house, but at the opposite end. I was out there doing some exercises as part of my physical therapy following knee replacement surgery, when I thought I saw something out in the tall grass down the slope.

I couldn’t quite tell what it was, so I got my phone and used the camera to zoom in on the spot. Sure enough, there was the tiniest baby fawn. He (or she) was curled up in a tight brown ball, with white spots, and two ears protruding. I’ve never seen one so small.

Last year, there were twin fawns that a mama deer would park back there throughout the spring and summer while she was off foraging, and they were fun to watch when she did so. We enjoyed seeing the babies vie for a good nursing position when she came back for them, and how she’d be patient, but only for so long.

I tried to take of a picture of this year’s newborn, but he was curled so tightly and was so small and the grass so high, and all I got was … well, nothing that resembled a deer. And at full zoom, it was kind of blurry anyhow.

The weeks went by and we didn’t see him again. We saw mama – that apple tree must produce tasty leaves – as she came through, but not him. No chance for a newborn photo or even a nearly newborn one. We hoped he was OK.

And then, many weeks later, I was on the deck and again spotted a familiar something out in the grass. It was indeed a now-bigger fawn in the lawn. My phone was in my pocket, so I slowly took it out, went to full zoom and snapped a quick shot. Baby was quite aware of my movements and had his eyes on me, so I was the picture of slo-mo movement.

Not the best photo in the world, and certainly not National Geographic quality, but still one for the memory album.

Little fella, I knew you when you were brand new.

I am now in that transitional period in my relationship with his mother and all the other adult deer that pass this way, when I go from appreciating them to waging war on their marauding through my front-yard flowers and rhubarb.

Last year, I tried some new products for the nonedibles – a tablet in the soil, which the plants take up through their roots and make the flowers taste bad to deer. I also had a new organic spray for the leaves. And I had pretty good success maintaining a halfway decent flower garden.

That was last year. Deer, as a wildlife biologist once told me, get habituated, and what works one year may not on another. Oh so true.

I am fighting the good fight, with a barrier around some of the rhubarb and a new organic spray for the flowers. Still using the systemic tablet for the flowers. Not sure what’s working and what isn’t, and I am having some success … but I’m losing many more blossoms this year.

The deer eat off the flowers (especially on the geraniums) and leave behind a nice tall and naked stem. I am not amused.

But I shall not go DEFCON 1 on the mama deer. After all, every spring they delight us with those irresistible babies.

If only they weren’t so darn cute.

Voices correspondent Stefanie Pettit can be reached by email at upwindsailor@comcast.net.