First Fawn - First Rattler
April 21, 2008 by richfletch
Saw a pair of fawns yesterday. First of the year for me. Whenever I see my first fawn of the season, I can’t help but count back to the date it was conceived. I’ve been told that the blacktail gestation period is about 7 months. Various internet sites say it’s about 200 days. That sounds about right.
So, an April 20 sighting would mean the fawns were conceived no later than September 30 meaning that the breeding could have taken place during the end of last hunting season. Yes, I guess there was some rutting going on.
Also saw the first rattlesnake of the year this weekend. He was cold and motionless, but ready to spring into action as soon as the weather warms. Our ranch hosts plenty of rattlesnakes and we see them primarily in May and June. That’s when we survey for Alameda whipsnakes. We don’t find a lot of whipsnakes, but we do see quite a few rattlers.
Can I add something about this majectic mammal?
A deer is a ruminant mammal belonging to the family Cervidae. A number of broadly similar animals from related families within the order Artiodactyla (even-toed ungulates) are often also called deer. Male deer grow and shed new antlers each year, as opposed to antelope, which are in the same order and bear a superficial resemblance to deer physically, but are permanently horned.
Depending on their species, male deer are called stags, harts, bucks or bulls, and females are called hinds, does or cows. Young deer are called fawns or calves. A group of deer is commonly called a herd. Hart, from Old English heorot ‘deer’, is a term for a stag, particularly a Red Deer stag past its fifth year. It is not commonly used, but Shakespeare makes several references, punning the sound alike “hart” and “heart” for example in Twelfth Night. “The White Hart” and “The Red Hart” are common English pub names, and the county Hertfordshire is named after them. Whinfell Forest once contained a landmark tree called Harthorn
The history of the word deer was originally quite broad in meaning and came to be specialized. In Middle English, der (O.E. dēor) meant a beast or animal of any kind. This general sense gave way to the modern sense by the end of the Middle English period, around 1500. The German word Tier, the Dutch word dier and the Scandinavian words djur/dyr/dýr, cognates of English deer, still have the general sense of “animal.” The adjective of relation pertaining to deer is cervine.