Rutting Roe Deer - August 2015

At the start of the July I took the plunge and decided to move in with my girlfriend Donna, we found a nice little cottage just a mile away from where I lived previously with rolling fields at the bottom of the garden and a wide open expanse filled with wildlife just waiting to be photographed. Getting time to explore those fields however proved impossible. If I wasn’t spending all my free time sorting out the garden, moving and erecting furniture I was down at the cricket club keeping the wicket in shape for its each weekly fixture.

By late August I had nearly gone two months without taking a single picture, catastrophe I hear you cry, and I couldn’t have agreed more. Luckily one weekend we had guests, some of Donna’s friends had come down from Cheltenham for the weekend. And having spent the night asleep on the sofa I awoke to a bright warm summer morning. The back fields had been harvested in the week so acres of freshly chopped stubble beckoned. I made my excuses to Donna as everyone else was still asleep and headed off out with the camera. Having photographed Roe Deer near these hedgerows before I hoped I might get lucky again, especially as it was still early just after 7am.

It didn’t take long for my first sighting, I headed up along the footpath and spotted a couple of Roe sat underneath the hedgerow, already sheltering themselves from the warm morning sun. Hoping they might emerge out on to the stubble I positioned myself at the intersection of the hedgerow, where four other hedges met. It proved to be a good vantage point as it was the corner joining point for four different fields. Two still had standing crops so it offered plenty of habitat for cover and for feeding.

A quick scan with the binoculars found Deer everywhere, I couldn’t believe my luck. All were a few hundred meters away but each field had visible targets. I setup my camera ready for the nearest one. The gap in the crossed hedges seemed like a logical place for any of them to walk through so I waited patiently and within minutes I spotted a young Doe peering out at me through the dense wheat crop. She would stand motionless for minutes on end before slowly inching her way out into the open. Where she then really surprised me as she bounded on down towards the gap in the hedge at quite a speed. Pausing just feet away as she caught my scent. Before bolting off through the gap and back out into the Wheat crop the other side.

Several pictures in the bag I was pretty happy, and was soon joined by a chap walking his dog along the footpath. I had spoken to this guy before on several occasions and he gave me an update of what bird species he had seen over the spring in this area. As we stood there talking normally, at times even quite loudly I caught some movement out the corner of my eye, a couple of Roe Deer charging along the track towards us. As they got closer we could see a nice sized Buck chasing a Doe, probably the same one I had just photographed. He was close on her tail and moving at some speed, seemingly oblivious as they both came charging towards us. The Doe eventually dove through a hole in the hedgerow. The Buck was still pretty close behind her, catching sight of us just meters away as he followed her through the hedge.

We were both in a little shock, stood out in the open these deer were not at all that bothered by us, the lengths they’d go to when the bloods up I suppose, like any man! The dog walker chap left me wishing me well for some more shots. Alone again I popped my head around the hedge to see the Doe spring off through the standing wheat the other side. No Buck though, he had doubled back and was well camouflaged among the standing grass verge on the edge of the stubble fields stood alertly among the grass and wildflowers.

I’ve never encountered Roe Deer during the rut before but was pretty sure he had seen me as a potential challenger, no more than twenty feet away from me over the course of the next ten minutes or so he slowly circled me, pausing to sniff the air every now and then and take in the scent along the ground. I happily snapped away trying my best not to make any sudden movements, still shocked this wild beast was just feet away and not spooked by the noise of the camera or my smell. He even licked his lips a couple of times, perhaps I smelt like a female, not something I’ve ever been accused of before.

My wild moment was shattered a couple of seconds later when a loose dog came barreling towards us both, its jogger owner close behind. The Buck sped off across the field to the safety of a nearby plantation.  And the jogger passed by without a care in the world as I gave her a very dirty look! Memory card red hot with shots, and a little more than an hour out of the door I headed home for breakfast with a massive smile on my face. I am still a little shocked by just how close the encounter was and can’t wait to till the annual Roe rut comes again next summer. Hopefully this time I will have far more time to spend with the Deer and maybe get a glimpse at the Bucks going at it. Fighting I mean, going at it in the other sense might have happened to me if the jogger hadn’t of interrupted!

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Roving Redstart

As the nights start to close in with increasing speed, time spent out after work with the camera is starting to be a bit of a juggling act, an hour and a half of good light seems to be about all that was on offer the first week in September. Finally some Wildlife showing up again now though, I caught up with a Roe Doe and her two Fawns one evening as the sun had just gone down, the first deer I've seen on the water meadows in about 2 months. A welcomed sight.

Roe Doe

Roe Doe & Fawn

The next night I did have a pleasant surprise, forced to walk through the cows out in the water meadows due to Fishermen on the river, I came across a new patch tick, and a complete new species for me, one that I had been hoping to catch up with for a little while. A Redstart, a juvenile male, but a Redstart none the less. I picked it up on the thistles around the cattle troughs and was quite startled as this gorgeous red plumaged bird disappeared off across the field in front of me. luckily it stopped on the gate posts to one of the Fishing huts, and proceeded to feed and flit about giving me great views at about 40 yards. What a bird, I must admit nothing could wipe the smile off my face for the rest of the evening.

Redstart

Redstart

Redstart

Redstart

Redstart

Still high on my first new species for a longtime, I had a wander around the Half Water the stretch of river on the other side of the water meadows, a tributary of the River Test and fisherman free for the day. Plenty of birds here, with Great Tit, Blue Tit & lots of Long Tailed Tits frequenting the branches above the water. Little Grebe could be heard further downstream and still escape my lens on every trip, there awareness is by far the best I've ever encountered in a bird. I did see 2 Kingfishers and hear another but both moved so fast a picture was near on impossible. Leaving me to look back across the meadows as the suns got lower and lower, backlighting the below shot of a Cow quite nicely.

Backlit Cow

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Summer Holidays

The river lately seems to be lacking a little in wildlife, maybe its the middle months of the year, that the birds and mammals seem to take a holiday too, and leaves me working extra hard and ranging even further for something to photograph. One particular effort on a rare sunny evening was to silent stalk a Roe Doe and her fawn along the opposite side of the river bank, as they munched away on the surrounding plant life, I tried my best to keep as still and silent as possible, hoping to get them in a nice clear spot with the sunlight shining on them both. I did manage it after about half an hour, just starting to snap away when I here someone walking behind me, typically at that precise moment a dog walker is coming up the path behind me, I look back, Roe Deer gone! I have seen them both a couple of times since but only at a distance out in the water meadows.

Roe Doe

Roe Fawn

Roe F awn

The one constant source of photography material on the river however is the Mute Swan, there are 3 families on about a mile stretch, its just the case of trying to take some interesting shots of them, I quite like the black and white conversion even though it was shot at a high ISO. The second Swan shot was taken in some gorgeous late evening sunshine.

Mute Swan

Mute Swans

A brief Mallard duckling update to show how they are growing up, now banned from the garden by my dad as I quote "they are big enough to feed themselves now, I don't need them shitting all over the patio and the lawn." He was the one who encouraged it to start with!

Mallard Ducklings

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Ducklings & Deer, Swans & Beer

Finally a day of sunshine, and although I was able to get out and about along the river, the wildlife still doesn't seem to want to play. Leaving me resigned to photographing the ever present Mute Swan family. Who appear to have lost a Cygnet since I last saw them, but are still doing well to have 6 now out of 7, 5 or 6 weeks after they were born,

Mute Swan Family 

The one constant along with the rain at the moment is the family of Mallard Ducklings that seem to be living on our lawn day and night, holding my Mum ransom for food. They seem to be pretty daring too, dodging the gauntlet of 3 Spaniels to come a good 30 yards from the safety of the river. Its almost quite funny to watch now as the Dogs appear not to be giving them a second thought until they edge almost to the point of no return. But so far its Ducklings 12 Spaniels Nil.

Mallard Ducklings

Mallard Ducklings

Mallard Ducklings

Mallard Ducklings

After a few beers and a sun soaked BBQ, a late evening walk along the River followed, we paused quite a while trying to make out what had disturbed 2 Roe Deer in one of the Water meadows as they ran at quite a speed round and round in circles. We soon then realised that it was the Buck chasing the Doe in tight figure of eights. A little bit of research proved to be the mating ritual, something none of us had witnessed before. As apparently it takes place usually at first light or dusk.

Randy Roe

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Water Meadow Roe Deer

Lighter evenings and the longer grass left in the meadows in preparation of silaging, is a big help in pin pointing the local Roe Deer population at the moment, the inhabitants of the Water meadows can be seen most nights just peering out from above the sea of long grass. 

Both the Bucks & Does are now in full their full summer coats, a gorgeous reddish orange colour, which looks stunning in the late evening sun.

Roe Buck

Roe Doe

Below are some shots & a video, I took of a young Roe Doe towards the end of may, before I went away, but forgot to post. The grass was a lot shorter then.

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