The babies are out of the nests and hiding places that wild moms use to hide them from predators in the early and most vulnerable part of their lives. This mother with twin fawns is knee deep in water at the Cheyenne Bottoms. A lot of people are surprised to discover a thriving deer herd in our marsh. Jim Glynn got beautiful pictures of a doe with triplets. This herd roams the farm land adjacent to the refuge and also feeds on the Nature Conservancy ground that is nearby.
It is legal to hunt deer in the Bottoms. There were some interesting new regulations implemented  state-wide this past year. Crossbows can be used during archery season and the 223 caliber shell is now legal for deer hunting. The concerns with these new rules are that a lot more deer will be taken with cross bows and more deer will be wounded with the now-legal smaller caliber rifle bullet. The 223 is the common shell size for the so-called assault rifles and is a fast bullet that produces minimal recoil and is perfect for rapid fire weapons. I have a Thompson single shot barrel in that caliber that is spot-on with a scope and fun to shoot. I’m not convinced that labeling a gun as “assault weapon” is fair or truthful if it’s not used for that purpose. I used a sling shot to assault my cousins in our youth when we had raging wars using corn kernels as projectiles. That game probably wouldn’t survive the scrutiny of today’s leisure-time activity, but we had lots of fun.
Our doves in KC are have new babies in the nest. This is their 3rd brood this year. Bluebirds are out of their boxes, and a lot of the other birds have “teen-age rebels” on the verge of leaving their parents forever. Life is a never-ending continuous process that we can follow daily in our beautiful marsh. Don’t you dare miss it!!!
Doc Witt is a retired physician and avid outdoorsmen.