Early morning Roe.

A 4:00a.m wake up saw me on my way to Thetford Forest in search of some Roe Deer pictures. Arrived in plenty of time to sit and have a cup of tea waiting for it to get light. No teabags! Not a good start. I still had plenty of time so a short drive to a nearby garage was in order. They had no teabags either but they did have coffee. Beggars cant be choosers! Back at the forest and I pulled up in a convenient gateway to wait for first light.

The first thing I saw was a Sparrowhawk that landed on a post just in front of the bonnet. Far to dark to take a photo so I just sat still and watched it till it flew off a couple of minutes later. Then a shape at the far end of the ride caught my eye. It had been a wet and rather chilly night but I was now looking at the first deer of the morning through the binoculars. A Roe, which was soon joined out on the ride by a Muntjac. I decided not to try to stalk up to them as the cover on the edge of the ride was a bit tight and I could always come back to them.

As it was now getting quite light I took a drive up one of the byways that run through the forest to see if any deer were out on the fields feeding. The first ones I saw were a group of Red Deer well into a shelter belt. Had a quick look at them through the binoculars and drove on. I then came across two Roe and then another three a little further on, but again tucked up in shelter belts. Then all of a sudden a good Roe buck ran across the track in front of me and stopped not to far out on the field. Perfect. I locked the focus onto it and... it then ran off again, not stopping this time. Oh well, never mind, I said to myself. Or words to that effect!

After carrying on to the end of the track and seeing nothing else, I turned back and again came across the first two Roe I had seen. They were still in the shelter belt but now with the light a bit better and my ISO on the camera clicked right up to 1600 I was able to get one picture. Not brilliant but it was a start. I then came across the Red Deer again but this time they were out on the field. All twenty four of them. Again I was able to take one picture of the herd together, but it was Roe I was after.

So it was time to park up and try on foot, now it was good enough light. After several years of visiting the forest I have come to know of one or two good areas where you can normally find deer. But not this morning. There was plenty of signs of where they had been about in the night, but now they were back under cover. They are under quite a bit of pressure at this time of year due to stalkers trying to finish thier annual cull and there looked as though there had been quite a bit of activity on this front.

It was now getting on so I decided to have another drive along a different byway I had not been along before. Bingo! Five Roe out on the edge of the forest feeding in a field in a perfect position. I drove on well past them and out of earshot and parked up. A quick check on the wind to see if it was in my favour, which it was, and then a careful stalk through the block of forestry to come out just below them but still at a safe distance. I edged out to have a look. Gone! It was nothing I had done wrong it was just bad timing. I had come across them just as they were finishing feeding and now they had simply gone back into cover to lay up before their next feed in a few hours time.

So with a total of 8 hours out, 8 to 10 miles walked and a round trip of 192 miles I had just two pictures which are not perfect but interesting enough to show. At least I hope so! But on another day things will go in my favour and I will get the sort of photos I want. Thats what makes it the challenge that I actually enjoy. I will give it a few weeks and return to put that theory to the test!!