Thursday 25 August 2005

Summer fawns

The recent cold snap has moved on, and in its wake, we have been enjoying some warm and wonderful sunshine. The last two days we saw temps in the seventies. As I sat out on the porch in the sun yesterday, I was reminded of last year, when September turned out to be a nicer month than August. I wonder if we will be treated to some more of that warm weather in this next month?

On Monday, I turned on to our side road from the Gunflint Trail, and a little fawn dashed across the road. It still had the reddish brown coat that I have come to recognize as their summer color. The spots were almost faded on it. It reminded me of another fawn that we had seen earlier this summer. Greg and I were on our way up the North Loon Lake road, and we spotted a doe and a fawn in the road. As we approached, the mama took off in a flash, and the baby dropped to the ground just like a pancake! It dropped with its hips splayed apart, and seemed to be trying to get as flat and as invisible as it possibly could. We got out to look at the little guy (gal?), and we decided that it must have been very very new to this world. I had always heard from the DNR that if you encounter a fawn all alone in the woods to just leave it. It is not unusual for the does to leave the little ones for short periods of time. In this case, we were able to get pictures of the fawn, and observe it for some time, before going on our way. When we passed by a little while later, I looked to make sure that it had moved on, and sure enough, there was no sign of it. It feels odd to "interrupt" nature sometimes, as we had inadvertantly done, and I can only hope that it all had a happy outcome and the little one got back together with its mama.

The birch trees have begun to change some, flashing yellow, and even dropping some leaves. This doesn't seem to be widespread, but it is noticeable in some spots. It feels strange to see leaves on the ground in August! The maple trees on Maple Hill just outside of Grand Marais are beginning to turn also. They are showing the first hints of orange and red. This seems to be right about on the schedule that I remember in years past. Ready or not, here it comes......the seasons keep on changing, whether I am ready to move on and be done with them or not.

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