At Home in the Woods: Fawns and willows

But the strange part of all of this is that I sighted no fully spotted fawns! These five looked as if they had almost fully shed their spots and no longer had the gangly quality of fawns. Their hides looked as if they had donned a very old tattered fawn-shirt, with a few remnants of the spots showing. In past years I recall seeing an occasional fully spotted fawn at this time of the year in the deep snow. However, in all cases he was alone with his mom, and she was breaking a trail for him through that snow and keeping a sharp eye on him to see that he was doing what he was “told”.

I’m surprised at how quickly these growth periods pass by. But then again, we all know how a young hoofed animal falls out of its mother’s womb, is licked and urged up onto its feet quickly, and is feeding at its mother’s breast, and walking with its mother immediately, albeit in a gangly fashion.

So how old are these young ones that I am seeing today? Obviously, I have a lot to learn about the length of the growth periods of mammals and birds.

I am left to wonder how the herbivores feed themselves in this snow country, and how they enable their young to prosper. It is not like they have fields of clover to munch on the whole year long.

Of course we have the river willow here, the single-stalked willows on the river banks spread along the river banks for miles. I expect that deer would have a taste for them, although they might not be their gourmet meal. And there I see cottontail racing on by. He, no doubt, feeds on them, too.

I must add that “river willow” is my name for them and would not likely be endorsed by any botanist. We locals tend to invent names to serve us.

I understand that there are more than 40 species of willows. They have obviously been adept at inventing cousins by the dozens.

I recall meeting one gentleman who told me he was a willowist, whose life work had been the study and teaching of one species of the willow. Well, that certainly heightened my respect for the enormous value of the lowly willows to the human race, as well as to the herbivores.  

James Alger, who lives in Fargo, N.D., has been a summer resident of the Leech Lake area with his family for over 50 years. Over that time he has grown to love and appreciate the people and the woodlands of this area.