First Fawn

The morning of May 30 was gray and soggy in the Big Woods following the 2 ½ inches of rain that had fallen in the previous few days; more was both threatening and forecast for the afternoon. In spite of the dripping leaves and the prospect of getting thoroughly soaked if a hard rain began, I was slowly walking along a trail through the woods. 

I’d been looking at the view, such as it was, through the trees into the valley below when there was a faint whimpering sound from the other side of the trail. And there, less than 50 feet away stood a white-tail doe that I’d never noticed. She didn’t run as I stood looking at her and then I saw movement near her feet – it was a fawn, the first I’d seen in 2019.

The fawn staggered, on shaking legs, toward its mother as she turned to walk away. When the fawn drew near, the doe gave a gentle kick toward the fawn with her rear foot as if to say “Don’t follow me. Get Down!”

The doe took another step, the fawn made another wavering approach and received another gentle kick –

With that, the doe gave a snort and bounded away as the fawn crumpled to the ground. A fawn’s spotted coat is excellent camouflage; even from a mere 25 feet away it’s difficult to quickly pick out a fawn on the leaf-covered ground –

As fawns do, this fawn remained immobile as I slowly circled around it, taking photographs from a distance. That immobility is a defensive mechanism, for with those shaking legs young fawns couldn’t outrun even the slowest predator.

Although I’d initially thought the fawn might be a newborn, it was perfectly dry so it must have been at least a few hours old, perhaps as much as a day. In another day or two the fawn will be up and running whenever danger approaches.

Two hours later, as I made my way back to the car, the fawn was gone; the doe had returned to move her young one.

Good-bye Barns

Most of the barns to be seen along the roads of northcentral Pennsylvania were built between 1850 and 1910. Some, but apparently not many, are older and there are also some of much more recent vintage. 

The majority of the older barns are those called “Pennsylvania bank barns” which have access to both levels from the ground, they have a forebay where the upper level of the barn extends over the lower level on one side. Bank barns were usually built on sloping ground with the forebay on the downhill, preferably south-facing, side. The forebay shelters livestock from rain and snow.

Bank barns are found in the areas that were settled by people migrating from southeastern Pennsylvania who were of German ancestry. Somewhat similar, but older, barns exist in southern Germany and parts of Switzerland and Austria.

The northern tier of counties in Pennsylvania were settled by people who moved west from southern New England, their ancestors had come from the British Isles so they built barns in the English style without a forebay and sometimes on level ground. Many of the barns of both styles have been modified and had additions over the years.

Some old barns host barn owls –

Most are inhabited by bats and mice, which attract black rat snakes –

Agricultural practices have changed markedly since the old barns were built, farms have gotten larger or been abandoned, new equipment and agricultural practices have made many of the barns inefficient or obsolete. Insects, decay, wind, fire and gravity have had their way with the barns and the old barns are expensive to maintain. Many, many old barns have succumbed and more are deteriorating or disappearing each year –

 

It’s sad to see them go, for many are works of the builders’ art with hand hewn timbers held together by mortise and tenon joints and beautifully laid-up stone foundations. Some owners have the desire, and funds, to preserve their barns for posterity but many more do not.

May - LARGE and small

May is a month of rapid change, a month for wildflowers – and a month for wildlife: for migrating birds and for the birth of young mammals.

One of my camera traps has been aimed down the trunk of a long-fallen white pine for quite awhile. This has been a good location for a camera trap; last winter the camera took photographs and videos of gray squirrel and bobcat, white-tailed deer and red-tailed hawk and during May it continued to produce well.

When I last checked the camera it had a number of videos, some not worth keeping and some worth keeping and sharing. Here are the better videos from the month of May – raccoon and pileated woodpecker; white-tailed deer and raccoon again; and then, at 1:33 into the video, an insect (my best guess, and that’s all it is, is that the insect is a wood roach) and more deer; and the prize, a short-tailed weasel.

This has been a good location for a camera trap, we’ll see what the future holds.