Beautiful Bambi

I was driving up our road yesterday noontime when I saw a doe standing  in the middle of the road. As I slowed down a tiny, very young fawn came scrambling out of the brush on the left side of the road. Mama leapt into the brush and the field on the right, but baby could not quickly get up the bank. Either instinct or good training made her instantly fold herself up as small as possible in the drainage ditch by the side of the road. She did not move a muscle, even when I quietly and slowly got out of the car to take this photo. I used the zoom and did not get too close; she remained absolutely immobile.  I drove on a little further and stopped the car again, waiting and hoping that Mama would come back to take the little one away, and I could get another photo. No such luck. I parked the car at our house and walked back, not very far, but mother and child had gone.  It is not often one gets a look at such a new fawn. It was a special moment.

A warning. I would never have touched this fawn because a friend who is an expert on such things told me that if the fawn had the smell of a human on it, the mother would abandon it and it would be vulnerable to predators. We do have a lot of coyotes in our area.