The Woodlanders...

Philadelphia 4th disappeared into the wood, as many a heifer has done before her, and found a charming spot under some towering Red Oaks to calve.
The wood covers 60 acres and I chose to start looking for her at the top; she chose to calve at the bottom.
I was a bit concerned, not to say worried, that she might be needing help, but it was such a beautiful day that I couldn't help enjoying myself.
My purposeful meanderings took me past Beech and Hawthorn, Douglas Fir and Redwood Cedar, Turkey Oak, Ash, Maple, Hemlock Fir ( I think!) and multitudinous, fascinating and dangerous-looking fungi.
Philadelphia had already licked her new son dry and fluffy and he had suckled and settled down to sleep.
She had penetrated so far into the wood that it would have worn her calve's little legs out to be force-marched back to rejoin the herd so I carried hay to her and over the succeeding three days she ate, fed him and he grew and slept.
By the time he was strong enough to walk, (or run) a marathon, they had become so accustomed to their woodland existence, the didn't wish to leave it.
Perhaps the most interesting thing was that the calf believed he was the only calf in the world.
If ever I was a bit tardy, carrying her daily hay, she would walk home and remind me but the calf did not accompany her.
One day she clearly told me that there was something amiss; not much amiss, but something I could help her with. She finished her hay and then walked back towards the wood. Jamie, the young man who works for us, volunteered to follow/accompany her and soon saw that the calf was the wrong side of a fence and could see but could not reach his mother.
Jamie laughed when he recounted to me what happened next.
He approached the calf, to guide it back to its mother, and the tiny little Hercules head-butted Jamie from sheer bravado_conscious, no doubt, of being the only Male in the 'jungle' and fiercely protective.
We are looking forward to watching his reaction when he finally meets all the other calves on the farm: all of whom are larger than he is.