Anyone for chinese?

I have a huge stock of deer pictures. Red, Roe, Fallow and Muntjac. There are as yet are no wild Sika Deer local to me to add to the collection, though give them time and I am sure there will be. One deer I have been thinking of trying to photograph over the last two or three years though is the Chinese Water Deer. I have seen two on the estate in the last two years, and though they are slowly but surely starting to colonise the area, I needed to look further afield for more numbers to maximise my chances of getting some shots.

I had a couple of places in mind and after a bit of research I made plans to leave early one morning for the hour plus drive to a reserve which seemed to offer the best chance of at least seeing one, even if I could not at first get any shots. Chinese Water Deer are primitive in evolutionary terms. The buck's lack any form of antlers but instead have developed huge canine teeth. These tusks are their primary weapons and can measure over two and a half inches long. They are also most unusual in their breeding with the doe's giving birth to "litters" of five or more young, though this is the exception rather than the norm, with the usual number of two or three being born. It is also believed that the population of Chinese Water Deer in England, represents about  20-30% of the worlds population as they are "near threatened" in north east China and Korea where they originate from. The Chinese Water Deer in Britain are,just as the Reeves' Muntjac, escapee's from private collections with the odd purposeful introdution too.

As is my habit, I arrived at the reserve well before first light and had a coffee waiting for it to get light enough for me to move. I never wait for it to get light enough to take pictures, just light enough to see what is going on. I have often done this and have been able to get close enough to deer to be able to watch them, and wait with them for it to get light enough to start taking pictures. A lot of people go out so intent on just getting pictures, they never learn anything about the animal or bird they are trying to get pictures of! You will get far more pleasure out of a picture if you have learnt about the animal or bird and their habits, than you will by just getting a lucky shot.

When it was light enough, I had not got a hundred yards from the truck, when I came across the first Water Deer. It was just crossing the path into the reed beds, and though there was nowhere near enough light to get a shot, I wasn't at all bothered as I had at least seen one and I was right in going to the reserve to find them. And if there was one, I should see some more with a bit of luck.

As it turned out, luck was really on my side. In the next hour, I was to see ten more Chinese Water Deer! Not only that but I even managed one or two shots of them too! It was forcast to be a good sunny morning, and as the sun came up through the trees, I was able to get a few shots of three or four different deer out in the open before they disappeared back into the shelter of the woods and reed beds. I never got anything exceptional, but I was pleased with my first attempts, and left the reserve very happy.

Three days later, I was back. This time though I never really got any good shots despite seeing nine different deer. Things just did not go right, but that is all part and parcel of photographing wild animals. There was however plenty of other things to photograph around the reserve. There was another introduced and escaped species about in abundance which I had not photographed before, Egyptian Geese.

There was also several Herons about along with other duck and geese species as well as Marsh Harriers, various small birds and a couple of Bitterns. The Bitterns I never got pictures of as they were too far off and in flight. On the whole though, I had had a good couple of days somwhere different and with a different challenge. It had been worth every moment and I will not be leaving it too long before I return to try again for the Chinese Water Deer and all the other inhabitants of the reserve.