Excitement on the Bike Path

This morning I got out about 7 to do my bicycle ride. Once on the bike path it was pretty solitary. Just east of Lorraine Street, I heard a crack and looked to my right...there stood what turned out to be a Mama Deer. There was about a 4 foot welded-wire type fence in between where she was and where I was....but on my side of the fence stood a baby! Still covered with little white spots. I didn't want to scare it and have it plow into the fence and get caught or something so I just slowed way down and kept moving.

When I reached 30th Street I turned around to come back. Within a short distance I met a guy I know on a recumbent and asked if he'd seen the deer. He hadn't. So I continued on. Of course my negative brain was worrying about whether that baby could clear that fence and would the mother come back and somehow help it. Would it get dehydrated?

As I reached the point where they had been I saw that the baby was now on the other side of the fence...and there were two of them...no, there are THREE of them...and the mother was still down the tree row a ways. I went on down to Lorraine Street and stopped and "played with" my cell phone / camera...I don't use it to take photos so am very unfamiliar with it. And, without reading glasses, I was having a rough time of it. Finally I managed to take a photo of the yield sign and decided that was good enough. So I turned around and headed back.

When I got back two of the babies were on my side of the fence, the mother was still grazing where she had been all along, and the third baby was still on the mother's side of the fence. I stopped completely, took a photo of the mother deer and was beginning to take other pictures. The mother, not in a frightened way at all, gently sprang into the trees behind her. I was still well aware that she was there and probably watching me closely....those are HER babies!

The two youngsters on my side of the fence evidently thought I was pretty funny looking and came walking up to me. They were within about 8 feet of me...just looking and checking me out...I was taking pictures. They went on past me and I didn't want them to go to Lorraine Street so I left and went back to 30th.

Again, turn around....went back. All three babies were back on the other side of the fence, Mom no where to be seen.

I managed to tell several of the morning "regulars" about the event and they were all going to watch to see if they could see them too.

Of course my pictures aren't great. It goes like this, "See those two little spots...those are the baby deer"...."That big spot in the mother deer".....and I don't know how or don't have the capability to download them to my computer.

So...my solution....I put the handlebar bag back on my bike. Got my regular camera ready to go for tomorrow! Hope I get to see them again before they lose their spots. They were soooooooooooo cute!!!!

On my eighth and final trip through that particular section of the path, in almost the same spot, there was what I would consider a LARGE snake with the front of his body about 15-18" out on the asphalt. He was probably about as big around as a silver dollar. (I told my sister about this, and she said, "What kind of snake?" "Snake....big enough I didn't need to know what kind!!!!!")

I also saw a fairly good sized turtle on the path. (No, I don't mean myself...even though I may be a little slow!)

I now really anxious to go tomorrow and see if I can get pictures of the deer. Deer aren't all that unusual of an occurrence around here, but it was just neat to see them and the fact that she had triplets was pretty cool!!!!