Fawning over the same old rut

© harrington

Hi. For the past week plus, we've been trying to understand and answer the questions from a bioregional quiz called Where you at. Today we're at Question "12.    When do the deer rut in your region and when are the young born?" According to the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources, "White-tailed deer mate from November to early December. Their young (often two fawns, weighing eight pounds each) are born seven months later." That would make fawning time in May or June. Most years that would have fawns being born after Minnesota's late spring snowstorms. There are folks who interpret rut differently. Some break it down into a number of specific phases. Others look at seasonal patterns. In any case, it's important to learn

How to See Deer

  by Philip Booth

Forget roadside crossings.
Go nowhere with guns.
Go elsewhere your own way,

lonely and wanting. Or
stay and be early:
next to deep woods

inhabit old orchards.
All clearings promise.
Sunrise is good,

and fog before sun.
Expect nothing always;
find your luck slowly.

Wait out the windfall.
Take your good time
to learn to read ferns;

make like a turtle:
downhill toward slow water.
Instructed by heron,

drink the pure silence.
Be compassed by wind.
If you quiver like aspen

trust your quick nature:
let your ear teach you
which way to listen.

You've come to assume
protective color; now
colors reform to

new shapes in your eye.
You've learned by now
to wait without waiting;

as if it were dusk
look into light falling:
in deep relief

things even out. Be
careless of nothing. See
what you see.

- See more at: http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/19783#sthash.pCzUXIfM.dpuf

Thanks for visiting. Come again when you can. Rants, raves and reflections served here daily. If you're interested, tomorrow's question will be          "13.    Name five grasses in your area. Are any of them native?