It's Mating Season, Deer

Yesterday my daughter ran up to me and whispered urgently, "Mom, there's a deer looking in our window!" I followed her over to the front door and sure enough, there stood a beautiful buck with two point antlers, staring back at us through the glass. I ran to get my camera, thinking he'd probably be long gone by the time I got back but nope, he had just started wandering casually out toward our front yard.


We watched him for quite a while and took several photos. His casual demeanor and lack of concern about us actually made us a little concerned about him. Why wouldn't he run away? Then, we suddenly spied another smaller deer curled up under a nearby bush in our front yard. We couldn't get close enough to see if it still had fawn spots but it didn't look adult-size. (I couldn't get close enough for a photo.) Okay, so why would a buck be hovering around protectively over a juvenile that appeared to be hiding? If this was a doe, she'd instinctively try to lead us away from her baby, but this guy was hovering around and refusing to leave.


We decided to call Sonoma County's wonderful, long-time deer expert Marjorie Davis of the Wildlife Fawn Rescue, to ask what was up. After asking us a number of questions, she figured it out. Turns out it's mating season! The small deer under the bush was probably a young female, possibly not quite old enough for mating. Marjorie said it was probably not a fawn because they've all been weaned by now and can eat on their own.

Regardless of the young doe's age, the buck was interested and he was sticking close by. Marjorie cautioned us not to approach him because he could get aggressive under the circumstances. We continued to observe them off and on over the next half hour or so and at one point, the doe must have made a decision to run for it because just like that, both of them were gone! We looked around the surrounding area but couldn't find a trace of either of them.

But get this! While searching for the deer out back, we instead saw a bobcat trotting through the meadow carrying lunch (a rodent) in its mouth. Too bad I didn't have the camera for that one.

Wow! All these exciting close encounters with nature in beautiful Bodega Bay! It's hard to get any work done around here.

Resource:
Wildlife Fawn Rescue
707-931-4550

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