Colin Chase of Gray is a busy man, but he takes every opportunity to get out and enjoy the outdoors.
That’s exactly what he was doing on Memorial Day, when he launched his kayak at a pond in Lyman for a 6 a.m. fishing excursion.
Chase spends much of his free time roaming the woods and waters of Maine. He deploys many trail cameras, which have provided some incredible video and photo footage of deer, moose, bobcats, Canada lynx, beavers, American marten, coyotes, ruffed grouse and just about any other animal you could think of.
However, almost everything he has seen, whether in person or on his cameras, takes a back seat to what Chase experienced on Monday.
The black crappie fishing wasn’t particularly productive, but Chase caught a glimpse of movement across the way as he paddled around the pond. It was a deer.
“It was a small buck. I never really spooked him, just sat there and talked to him, ‘good morning,’ that kind of silly stuff,” Chase said.
As the deer moved off, Chase again noticed something moving in the bushes off to his left. This time, it was a doe.
“She stood up, and when she did the fawn just came right out of her,” he said, watching in disbelief. The deer had been born right before his eyes.
Chase, who in addition to his other talents is an accomplished photographer, sprang into action with what little gear he had available — his cell phone.
As he began recording video, he noticed that there was another newborn calf nearby.
“I bought a lottery ticket,” he joked, referring to his good fortune.
Chase spent the next few minutes marveling at what he was witnessing, trying to keep his phone still while recording the aftermath of the births.
“It was beautiful. I couldn’t even believe what I was seeing. I was shocked,” Chase said, admitting that the slow fishing was quickly forgotten. “To see those deer stand up on their own for the first time was awesome.”
Chase said he hung around and watched the fawns for only five or 10 minutes, then paddled off to make sure he didn’t disturb the new family.
Capturing video of a live animal birth is something that has been on Chase’s bucket list for a long time. He almost accomplished that goal in 2019, but instead had to settle for shots of a still-wet newborn moose calf stumbling past his trail camera.
“I must have just missed that one,” he said. “I’ve gotten some nice things on the trail cameras, but I’m not there to witness them in person.”
One thing is for certain, Chase doesn’t intend to get caught without adequate equipment the next time he finds himself stumbling across a once-in-a-lifetime wildlife moment.
“I’ll start keeping my DSLR [camera] in the kayak. It’ll never happen again, though,” Chase said of the event.
Chase admits that as someone who loves to immerse himself in nature, it doesn’t take an event as incredible as the one he saw to thoroughly enjoy his many forays into the outdoors.
“I’m amazed at everything I see,” he said.
But he will never forget seeing the fawns.
“To see it was beautiful. And those little fawns, they stood up for the first time and were so shaky. And they were playing with each other. It was so cool,” Chase said.
He takes great pride in knowing that sharing his video will allow people who have never seen a deer birth, or many other happenings in the woods, to better appreciate the Maine outdoors.
“There’s people who can’t get out in the woods, so that’s kind of my driving force as far as the [ ‘Maine Woodsbooger’ YouTube] channel goes,” said Chase, who has a wealth of videos there.
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