This post was inspired by Kuwait who showed his beautiful neighbors of a vixen and her kits who took residence near his place and I wanted to share with you the adorable babies who took residence at mine as of three weeks ago!

As many of you know - and to those who don't - we have recently had one of the worst droughts in the history of Florida. We have had many summers come and go but none so bad where almost every property's water source is nothing more than baked mud and empty swamp lines { usually, they're flooding our roads and is an absolute mess to get through}. Animals have been in a desperate search for water so have been crossing highways or traveling during hours that most unusual for them in search of a drink.  For two weeks we have been getting every sort of native residents taking residence on my property due to our water tanks having a water source plus open horse pastures for grazing access.  One of these residents is a small, gorgeous family of red Whitetail Deer who have recently delivered fawns. The herd consists of three does and three fawns: Moon, Splotch and the third who has yet to be named (There may be a fourth fawn, but we aren't sure yet as we haven't seen it).

My mom and I have been "taking care" of this family of wild deer to the best of our abilities; as of right now, they seem most comfortable residing in our horse pasture near to our house (the gates in every pasture except where my mom's horse is is open for the herd to move through easily) where they've nested and have had fawns born from under our water oak tree. We have dubbed this place their "Deer Daycare", where they drop off their babies then pick them back up after a few hours of foraging.

This morning we woke up to a lovely surprise to see the deers had come up right up to our window! It seems that the mothers are beginning to put trust in us very slowly and have been frequenting here for almost three weeks now with their children in tote to raise them. It has been a wonderful experience watching them nurse, play, graze and generally grow up into does and stags when autumn will arrive. It's a beautiful priviledge we've never seen before and we're both blessed to be able to watch these three grow to adulthood.

I will keep you updated on the family and their antics as we go along! Below are pictures of Splotch and his unnamed sibling with their beautiful mother (sorry for the potato quality!!):

We sadly could only get 2 decent ones today as they were too blurry, we will try again tomorrow if they show up in the same vincity.

MINE!!!!

Oh my God I love deer. They're so cute! 

Link Tree

CUTEE!!!!

AWWWW!

awww!!! 

I just love their little baby spots so much! 

baby deer are so cute! ♥

So stinkin' cute!

They are too cute! Love it so much!

I love deer noses! They're so adorbs! And you should name the 3rd fawn "Bodhi"!!

Deer Journal ~ Week 4 (6/1/17)

We finally got some good, hard showers today, which has been greatly needed! It will still take many more before it returns back to normal, but all of us (and the animals) are taking relief to these welcoming storms. Two light red deer does arrived to our property this morning for foraging, but we are not sure if this is a different herd or the mothers of the herd we have been tracking over the past several weeks. There were no fawns with these two girls, but they grazed in the usual spot by the water oak where the other herd goes.

We currently have two theories as to what's currently happening: the first theory is we have had a native Giant River Otter taking residence in the pasture where the herd likes to graze, due to this and his size {about the size of a basset hound}, we think that maybe the moms feel the otter as a threat to their fawns, so they are keeping them away for now until it either passes through or they can find a new pasture to settle into. The second theory is that, due to having a heavy rain storm last night, we think that these may be the same moms but are just keeping their kids hidden to keep them dry from the rain for now.

I will continue to observe and track these herds and keep you all updated on what's going on so you can follow their journey to adulthood with me!! Thank-you all for the love and support! Glad you like seeing the babies as much as I do! :)

P.S - The kids now have names!! We have decided to name them: Moon, Splotches & Bodhi! If there is a fourth fawn, we've agreed to name it Brownie.

deer!

Deer Journal ~ Week 5 (6/2/17)

More Baby Pictures!!

We have officially reached the 5-week mark and are so excited, we hope you are too! The two herds that we have been tracking now officially have tag names: The Deer Family & Young Doe Herd. This will help us tell you their wonderful adventures and studying their behaviors through adulthood, along with pictures!

This morning, both herds arrived and foraged out at the horse pastures, which is very unusual considering that the two herds do not usually travel at the same times. YDH usually ventures out from their thicket by the 'watering hole' in the late evening (1700 P.M. - 1800 P.M. EST) and TDF takes the longer route from our window to the 'Deer Daycare' pasture in the early mornings ( 0700 A.M. - 0900 A.M. EST) and early afternoons (1100 - 1300 P.M. EST). The male Giant River Otter was not present by their Water Oak today from what we could see, so it would appear our first theory we stated last night is true; they consider him a threat and avoid patroling our portion of their territory while he's present.

Here were our latest snaps of the day for the babies Splotches and Bodhi! (Bodhi is shy and FAST, pardon the bad quality for him!)

As with anything in life, with good news, also comes the bad news; for almost three days now, we have not seen any trace of Moon or his mother, Falina.  While it is not unusal for a doe to part ways with a herd to raise a fawn on her own accord, Falina was always with TDF and never liked to stray from them. The last time that they left they stumbled to a thicket that was not their usual vincity nor a route that TDF had taken and gunshots were heard. We are not sure if the worst has occurred to them {which would be illegal since we are not in hunting season} or they're just laying low for safety before coming back. We have not officially ruled out the pair gone just yet, as it usually takes a week for a family to return. We will keep you updated on Moon and Falina.

Aw so cute! Love the names you chose, too

Awww no moon and Falina!

Adorable!

A new picture has been added to yesterday's update of Splotches, Bodhi and Mom! We currently do not have any new updates at this time, other than there was still no tracking signs of Moon & Falina. We will update you when new information comes in!

The family is starting to get more photogentic so more pictures will be heading your way soon! Enjoy!! :)