Yesterday morning, I decided to check out one of the nearby natural prairies to see how the wildflower display was progressing. I was pleasantly surprised to see a lot of different wildflowers in bloom. Over the winter, this area was expanded by brush-hogging a lot of the invasive plants (esp. sumac and wild plumb) down. As a result, there were many wildflowers blooming in places that were only “heavy brush areas” last year. One of the dominant wildflower species in bloom right now is the Spiderwort, with literally hundreds, if not thousands, of plants in bloom … what a sight!
But today’s post features what I saw just a few minutes later. While hiking around and checking out all the nooks and crannies, I looked further down the prairie and saw a White-tailed Deer (Odocoileus virginianus), and standing right next to her was a young fawn! Even though we have thousands of deer in the state, it is always exciting to see a young fawn! But after watching for a moment, I saw something else stir … wait, she has twin fawns! Boy, this was getting better by the minute. Mom took a moment to look around, but apparently didn’t notice me (I was dressed in full camouflage, as I usually do on my outings). She then took a step forward and turned around. Alas, behind her was a third fawn! This was a first for me. I’d seen single fawns and even twins, but never triplets! And just think, I left my “big guns” (telephoto lenses) at home, in lieu of taking my macro lens for wildflower closeups! But, I had brought along my point-and-shoot camera, so I pulled it out and began taking a few images. I didn’t get many images made before mom led the 3 youngsters off into the woods. I stayed still (hard to do with this exciting encounter!) until they were out of sight. Then I went back to wildflower photography. But here are a couple of images I managed to capture with my point-and-shoot camera:
I’ll likely be back at the prairie, with long lens in hand, as you read this post. I’m hoping to grab some better shots of this family! :o)