Aki keeps a respectful distance from the fawn’s corpse. She sniffs and pulls back, then leans forward to sniff again. Still beautiful, even charming in death, the little deer died along the road after being struck by a car. I think about marks made in beach gravel by a deer that must have been panicked by our approach. The caution it showed might cause it be more careful when crossing highways.

Discordant bird chatter distracted me from the deer tracks. Two belted kingfishers were in the midst of an aerial dogfight. Maybe “ballet” is a better word to describe the way the two birds weaved in and out of each other’s flight path, sometimes almost touching salt water. So much life.