It Happens Every Spring

I can tell it is spring at last outside.  The baby animals are showing up.  We saw several baby animals (or hints of future baby animals) this past week.
 
Baby #1: Fawn
The first was a young fawn in the hay field across the road from our house last Sunday.  Something in the grass appeared to fascinate him, because he circled around one area for quite awhile.  When he got spooked, he bounced a few feet away on gangly legs which seemed to have springs in them, then came back to that spot a few minutes later.  I didn’t see the mama deer; she was probably in the nearby trees keeping an eye on her baby. 
 
Babies #2: Ducklings
Then a few days later, I stopped at an intersection on the edge of town and saw four little ducklings trying to cross a busy road.  Luckily, the first car they encountered also saw them.  It stopped and waited for them to cross its lane.  I held my breath for a few minutes as they crossed the second lane.  But the cars whizzing by managed to avoid them.  When they were safely on the other side of the road, I also had a break in traffic and was able to continue on my way.
 
Babies #3: Kittens
The next day, I glanced out a window at our back yard, and saw a familiar stray white cat.  This wild cat has been hanging around for more years than I would expect for a cat living outside on its own wits.  But this time, she looked different.  Judging by the larger-than-normal belly she was displaying, I suspect we will have some baby kittens around in the near future.
 
Babies #4: Turtles
Last evening was the final encounter.  I looked out another window, and saw a mama turtle preparing to lay a batch of eggs about ten feet from our front door.  She had already dug a hole by the time we noticed her, and was in the process of filling it with white eggs.  Then it took about another hour of laboriously using her rear legs to cover the eggs with dirt before she was done.  She crawled (fairly quickly, I would think, for a turtle) across our driveway to the trees on our side property line, and disappeared.
 
All of these special sightings served to remind me how amazing Mother Nature can be.  Now that the weather is finally getting better, the animals are having the babies which will assure the continuation of their kind.  How smart of them to wait until winter is long gone!

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