INCIDENT TWO: Interesting
A few weeks after Pi’s fawns “got in trouble,” the two families decided to take another shot at navigating that same path together, but this time it was daylight and it went well. They were going the same direction, and it was after both some browsing and playing time. The reason it’s of interest is because I got to follow them in the daylight and see behaviors from them that I don’t usually get to see.
I’ve intentionally tried to be just a bit of background noise to the deer and part of maintaining that distance has meant being somewhat clandestine or at least non-assertive when taking photos. But this time, I followed them even though they didn’t exactly like it and reminded me of that for the whole walk. Exacerbating things, it had been a cool morning, and I’d grabbed an ankle length, light purple, flowy, “duster” thing and thrown it over my clothes. I know the deer mostly know me by scent, but they also see my form, and this morning, it did not look at all like anything they had seen here before. I thought of none of that until later.
The behavior and body language I saw includes three typical things: foot stamping, head fakes, head shakes. Deer will sometimes do what I think of as head fakes if they’re not sure how to respond to your presence (looks like they’re bobbing their heads). It seems like a way of checking whether you’re going to be a problem or not, i.e. whether you’re watching them with some purpose or just there incidentally and uninterested in them. They almost seem to be “pretending” to eat or “be busy” and not notice you for a moment, and then they pop back up and look right back at you. Like they’re trying to catch you at something. I assume they would then bolt if you’d moved closer to them. I dunno. They’re definitely doing something there. I’ve seen it outside of this video, but Pi does it very clearly in the video a few times. There’s also some foot stamping. Even one of the fawns gives it a try right at the end of his appearance. It’s definitely a practice stamp. Those foot stamps are sometimes issued with head shakes to emphasize the “get away” message. Though the deer issue these warnings during “our walk,” they do so in a pretty mild way— except maybe the very distinct message from Pi right at the end.
At the start of the video below I had, again, heard a ruckus outside and grabbed my phone. It was the fawns— all four of the fawns— playing together, zooming around in the backyard. Pi was in a far corner of the yard (toward the tricky path), and I could hear the Auntie bleating out of view from the opposite of the backyard. She sounded pretty serious, and the fawns reacted to hearing her by pausing briefly and then resuming their play. But boy, when the Auntie came through with her little tail popped up, they immediately took note and got in line. I’ve seen this before, seen an adult deer do what seems like “hush” the kids and command them into whatever change in behavior was needed. I’m not sure whether, this time, the Auntie was ready to move them to the next “activity” or was making them calm down because, again, their super power is being quiet, hiding, and running away and they were doing the opposite of that. Maybe it was some of both. Or maybe it was the temporary metal squeal of some obnoxious machinery that started up and ran for a bit across the river. Pi and one of the fawns immediately paired up and headed for the path when the Auntie started bleating. But the other fawns procrastinated until she actually arrived on the scene. Watch for that tail flag they follow.
Out of view of the opening of the vid, Pi and one of the fawns leave the back yard just ahead of the Auntie and the others, heading toward the path to the paddocks. As the fawns stop playing and follow the Auntie, I zip through the house to get ahead of them and the video rejoins them in the same spot where the fawns had climbed the roof and right before a little jog to the left around a hoop house leads to the “opening” of the paddocks.
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