Fawn rising

Deer diary

Watch the Wildlife Rescue Centre hand-rear orphaned roe deer fawns in series two, episode eight of Born to Be Wild, BBC Scotland, available on iPlayer

She chose a cradle on the edge. A fawn rests where she left it: russet fur dappled with white infant smudges, immense ears high, soft eyes turned on me. Its backdrop is woodland and its hooves almost touch a public footpath created by people; no doubt the doe exploits both, squeezing under a stile built by human hands while searching for ivy and bramble. Her offspring watches me with perfect calm, a marvel of instinct keeping it so still that even the dog beside me – hastily leashed – fails to spot it.

Roe deer, most elegant of phantoms, tiptoe along many edges: woodland and farmland, past and present, urbanisation and nature. These double-sided messengers bring the wild to our gardens and testify about