What's in YOUR Backyard?

Sue, our head housekeeper, zipped over to Red Pine Monday morning. Dave, in charge of the garbage run, pulled up in front of the cottage, and hefted the garbage can. He stopped. And put it back down.
"Hey, Sue, did you see this?"
Well... THIS is a little visitor who was superbly camoflaged in the iris and lilies in the garden at the cottage.












THIS is the same brand new fawn that Nancy saw along the shoreline on Sunday.

The doe will hide the fawns, who have no scent at this stage, and she'll leave them for a long time. How long? Well, just over eight hours on Monday. Nancy had a call in to the Aspen Valley Sanctuary, asking them what was normal, since 8 hours seemed a little excessive to us.
No wonder people think the fawns have been 'abandoned', and pick them up! The first thing the Sanctuary staff asked, in alarmed tones, "Did anyone touch it?"












Well, no. We kept away (except for sneaking in to take photos... but who could blame us, and we do have telephoto lens!) They then advised us that 8 or 9 hours was NOT unusual, and not to be concerned until it was closer to 24 hours... A fact which prompted one of our guests, Michelle, to ponder whether that would work for her, with her two young girls...

The fawn was long gone with Mom by then, for sure.

David took most of these pictures, which show how well hidden she really was curled up against the cottage. She was under the eaves, so the light rain that day never fell on her, and the iris and lilies made a nice pillow. As Carol said, with a sigh, 'if they're not eating the gardens, now they're sleeping in them!'

But who could ever be cross with this little creature?
Not us, for sure. We're delighted she spent the day with us.