Well, I'll Be

Was out in the driveway with Thing Two and Petunia earlier.  As we rounded the corner by the front sidewalk, we heard a very loud cawing sound out of the blue, sort of like a crow or raven's call but not quite right for that.  I craned my neck to see what sort of bird was on the garage roof, but seeing none up there, mentally shrugged my shoulders and went on about my business.

A few minutes later, I was back outside hanging the flag on the front porch when I heard the noise again.  It startled the heck out of me.  I turned and saw a tiny rickety baby deer standing in the strip of shrubbery between the house and front walk!  I had no idea deer even *made* noise, let alone noise that loud at such a young age.  I backed away carefully so as not to scare it further, ducked into the house and came back out with my phone.  I didn't want to get too close to it, but did manage to get the pic below using the zoom.

Not the best shot in the world for obvious reasons, but you can see the deer's hind end (the white tail) and hind leg right by the solar light in the middle of the picture.  It's actually looking over its shoulder  back out toward me, but you can't see that in the pic.

As a side note for those who don't happen to live in deer-infested rural areas as we do, it is very common this time of year to see unattended fawns.  The mother deer leave them where they are born during the day for the first few days until they are strong enough to keep up with the mother as she forages, returning for them in the early evening.  As a mother myself, this bothered me a lot when we first moved here (what halfway decent mom leaves her baby alone all day????) but this appears to just be how it's done.  Nature red in tooth and claw and all that. The fawns generally stay still and quiet until she returns--like I said, I've never heard one 'yell' to defend itself before!  This one was actually sheltered, too, which was very considerate of the mother...probably half a dozen times now I've woken up in the morning to discover a brand new fawn bedded down smack in the middle of my front lawn!  The first time that happened I checked on it through my front window all day long, but it never moved...at dusk the mother came back and it was gone.  I'm no fan of deer, between the ticks they carry, the devastation they wreak on my garden and the crashes they cause by suddenly dashing onto the road, but I *hate* to see the babies left alone and defenseless.  Hypocrisy?