Here, we see one of “our” White-Tailed Deer fawns prancing in our North Field yesterday. She’s one of a pair of twins born last summer who doggedly follow their mother on her rounds in the neighborhood. (Fawn sex assumed.)
These youngsters are experiencing their first winter and seem to be enjoying it. It snowed a few inches here overnight and continues to do so intermittently this morning; but, the twins are large enough now to navigate in the snow. Which brings us to a nomenclature question.
There apparently is a bit of a debate as to whether our twins are too large to be “fawns” and, therefore, must be “yearlings.” As far as I can tell from the biological reports, a White-Tail has to be between one and two years old to be a yearling; hence, their name, “yearling.”
Deer younger than a year, such as the twins, are still “fawns” and fawns do not have to be tiny with spots. (However, they’re cuter and more memorable when they’re tiny and spotted. Here’s an archive image of a spotted fawn taken last August in the same field:
By the way, the noun “fawn” is derived from the Old French word “faon,” which is based on the Latin “fetus,” meaning offspring. (Brooklin, Maine)