Seeing Lots of Little Deer With Spots Lately

This week I received an email from a local hunter who attached a photo of a spotted fawn near his place of employment. I also saw a spotted fawn dead on the side of the road this week, hit by a car presumably.

I also talked with someone who saw two spotted fawns this past week.

It is now the beginning  the third full week of July.  This to me seems to be a little late for does to be dropping fawns.    I always thought that it was around the first week of June that they began to readily drop their fawns.  I began to wonder why this was the case.  Is it due to the rut beginning later than normal this last year?  Maybe because they were from immature does from last spring not going into estrus until later in December.  Or maybe they were from does that were not bred the first time around last fall.  I have heard that does that are receptive and don’t get bred the first time around will eventually come back into estrus a month or so later.

If any of these are the case, which is quite possible, I just wonder how viable these little deer will be come the later part of fall or in full blown winter.  The survival rate doesn’t seem to favor them making it through a harsh winter here in Michigan.  This may just have been a coincidence of hearing or seeing four such little ones this late in July, but it just makes you wonder what was going on last fall.

Is anyone else seeing late fawns this year here in the Midwest, or is it like I said just a coincidence?