In the bittersweet hour at day’s end, just before dusk descends, the stage here on the Cutoff shifts to Act III; the mood changes, the tension builds, the lighting begins to fade – and the knights of the forest come into view.
So it has been this week. If I watch deliberately, I can see them, emerging, one by one, from tall oak forest. First, a doe will appear, her young fawn trailing behind. She will suddenly bolt across the road and I know that not far behind are her suitors.
I watched the other night as one of the “boys” took his time crossing from our neighbors’ yard, through the brush, into ours. With his crown firmly in place, he displayed a steady gait and a regal posture. A fawn was frolicking behind him; possibly the same youngster I spied just outside our living room window at the crack of dawn, so close was he that the window pane was all that separated us. The fawn was cheeky in the misty morn, and so was the one come dusk, nuzzling up to his elder as if nuzzling up to his mom.
Both buck and boy were aware of my presence and both simply ignored me; like other boys I have known. Soon, very soon, two other bucks appeared, then a doe. While to some the lyrics “doe, a deer, a female deer” might have come to mind, my own inner voice seemed to want to sing “the boys are back in town!”.
These photos are blurry. Just remember, I’m a novice whose view of nature is often one of awesome impressionism.
