Out again, at last!

It had been a long time since I last got out with the camera. Work commitments had taken over. I had gone out a couple of times in November during the Fallow Deer rut, but with no real success, as the rut had been fairly low key in the forests around where I live. So with a slight break in my work schedule, I decided to get out before first light to see if I could see any signs of the Otters I had tried for at the end of last winter.

I arrived at the lake just as it was starting to break light. There was quite a mist hanging over the water, but I could still see well enough to spot any movement. It was incredibly still too, so any sounds in the mist would be easy to hear. As it got lighter and lighter however, it became apparent that the Otters did not seem to be around. A Kingfisher flew up and down the lake a couple of times, and then a Little Egret appeared out of the mist and settled in front of a Willow Tree down the far end.

As there was no sign of the Otters and it was promising to be a really lovely sunny morning, I decided to head over to Dunwich and sit in a piece of woodland where I was fairly certain of seeing a few Red Deer. I had only driven a few miles from the lake, when I came across three good sized mature Fallow bucks just off the edge of the road. As luck would have it, there was a gateway just around the corner and out of sight of them, that I was able to pull in and get out unseen.

A high roadside bank gave me just enough cover to creep up and peer over. They had by this time started to make their way across the field, but I was able to give them a sharp whistle to stop them and managed to get a few quick shots of them on the frosted wheat field before they decided they didn't like the look of me and trotted of over the skyline.

As soon as I got to the woods at Dunwich, I was seeing deer. I had not gone fifty yards from the truck, when a Muntjac buck stepped out onto the path in front of me. We stood watching each other for a couple of minutes or so before he went on his way. I approached the clearing in the woods very cautiously, stopping every ten feet or so to just look and listen for any movement. I got to the edge of the clearing to find all was quiet. That suited me just fine, and I settled down to await events.

For the first ten minutes or so, I was kept amused by a pair of Green Woodpecker's that kept chasing each other from Birch Tree to Birch Tree, and around each tree. I then heard a very subtle bleating noise and waited for the Red Deer to put in an appearance. The sound was what the hinds and calves use to keep in contact with each other, and is very often the first thing I am aware of when I am waiting for the deer to turn up.

At first, It was a small group of five that turned up. Over the next hour os so though, I ended up seeing twenty seven Red Deer come through the clearing with a variety of hinds with last years calves, along with the odd young stag. Two young stags in particular, I watched and photographed as every so often they would come together and play fight. Nothing serious, but it does help them to sort out the pecking order in their own little bachelor groups and is also a little bit of practice for when they are older and need to fight for real to win their harems of hinds in future ruts. 

The sun got higher and higher in the sky and eventually the clearing fell quiet once again. The pair of Green Woodpeckers were still about along with the odd Wood Pigeon and Magpie.The deer now though had disappeared into thicker woodland. I had only been out for about three hours but it had been a very enjoyable three hours as it was good to be out again at last. Later on in the day when I was elsewhere, I heard my first Chiffchaff of the year. Spring had returned at last, just as I had got out at last!