Oh Deer, Oh Deer!

Our camping trip to Stone Mtn State Park, NC included an abundance of deer sightings. When I say 'abundance', I mean abundance! Cole started counting the deer upon our arrival on Monday. By the time we left on Friday morning he had counted 154 deer! Now we don't know if that was the same 10-15 deer over & over, but there sure were a lot of deer in the park. They were quite mellow around people, but still wary enough to be wild. Blake & Ian saw a beautiful 6 point buck (with his antlers in velvet)...but didn't have a camera with them. One deer was very obviously pregnant, and quite bold about begging for handouts. We did our best to obey the park rules about not feeding the wildlife...but did toss some apples out one evening for the deer's enjoyment.



Cole & I walked up to a meadow near our camp & watched the deer. They came out into the meadow every evening before dark. After awhile, they got spooked & ran off. All except one doe who ran in the other direction. So Cole & I strolled over towards the direction she had headed. She was acting kind of weird & very concerned about us sitting on a picnic table watching her. Then we heard it...'meh, mehhhh!' She had a baby fawn hiding in the grass right in front of us! (It was just beyond the pine branch sticking out in the picture.) We saw the grass wiggle & watched the grass 'trail' wiggle all the way back to it's mama, calling to her all the way. It was so new & tiny we couldn't even see it above the grass. I really wanted to see the baby - but it's was pretty cool to hear it.




On Thursday Cole & I were driving back towards our camp after a hike. He spotted another deer just off the road & we stopped to admire her...then Cole realized she wasn't alone. She had her fawn with her! We finally got to see the new baby!!! It was the most precious little thing, all wobbly and bouncing around. We were so excited to see it. We have never seen a new fawn before. We could have stood there all day just watching it, but Mama Deer finally walked away further back into the woods with the fawn bouncing along behind her. What a blessing to see! One of the highlights of our entire trip.
Can you see the fawn!?!