Bill Cochran is a Roanoke Times outdoors columnist.

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Bill Cochran's Outdoors

Recent columns

• Less freedom at Hatteras for surf casters
• Here’s the scoop on hunting shed antlers
• Want more grouse? Get used to hearing chainsaws
• Sunday hunting bills aplenty, but some hunters hold out
• Column archive

Bill's Mailbag

• Hunting for a book on rabbit hunting
• More comments on Sunday hunting
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Bill's Field Reports

• Winterize your boat? Heck no! Keep on fishing
• Senator gets attention of DGIF
• Field reports archive

Resources

• Trout stocking schedule

BILL: Just thought I would pass along my first fawn sighting of the year. Tuesday, June 16, along 1-81, of all places, off the shoulder coming down the mountain from Christiansburg. I am seeing lots of deer in the day and in the rain while on the road this week.

SAM: Would you believe I am yet to see my first fawn of the year. I’m seeing does that obviously have fawns, but not the fawns themselves. I don’t believe there are any fewer fawns; they are just more difficult to spot. All the rain has created an abundance of cover and farmers are slower getting their hay crop harvested due to the wet weather.

“By the time fawns begin following the does in late summer, I expect we will have a normal fawn crop,” said Matt Knox, deer project leader for the Department of Game and Inland Fisheries. “I think you are right about fawn visibility and the fields being so heavy in growth.”