Sometimes You Just Need Wildlife in Your Life
Monday 14th October didn’t start off well. I had been told about a location to photograph mushrooms and had been shown pictures the person had taken on their phone, and I was excited to check it out. They showed me pictures of species that I had never seen, and I was looking forward to photographing something new.
I arrived at the location and straight away realised I was off to a bad start when I saw that the woods were fenced off and there were ‘Private Land’ signs on the trees. No worries, there was a second location a short walk away that I had been given details of.
It was lovely to listen to red kites calling as I walked along the track to the next wooded area, and they helped fuel my optimism for what I would hopefully soon find to photograph. However, that optimism was short lived as when I reached the gate to the area it was locked with a sign saying that it was closed to the public to protect the area. It was clear from the wear on the gate that people were climbing over regardless of the sign, but I respected the wishes of the landowner and stayed out. Walking back, the kites were still calling, and they were landing in a field to my left, some of them flying close by as they as they joined the others. It would have been a great opportunity to photograph them, but to rub salt into my lack of photographic opportunities wound, I had a macro lens on. What a waste of a morning!
After lunch I went to the hide to check the feeders. I had my camera with me, but wasn’t going to stop long as I could feel a headache coming and was generally feeling a bit grumpy. There was just a simple shot of a nuthatch that I wanted. After topping up the feeders, I set up the perch for the nuthatch shot and got comfortable in the hide for what I decided was going to be only 20 minutes or so. Quite often a nuthatch will appear quickly. But continuing with my run of bad luck, after 15 minutes there was no nuthatch. But then a deer walked out from the long grass at the back of the set up.
I’m sure there’s something tasty here . . .
It looked up at the hide for a couple of seconds, then headed over to feast on bramble leaves. I got stuck into taking some stills and shooting a bit of video as it made its way along the brambles towards the pool. Of course, by now the nuthatch was in, exactly where I wanted it, posing exactly how I wanted it. And where was I? In the wrong window! It didn’t matter though. Being this close to a young buck that was completely relaxed was well worth missing the nuthatch shot for, and anyway, I wouldn’t have moved the camera for fear of disturbing the him.
The buck eventually made its way towards the woods on the left and I returned my attention to my nuthatch perch. As I listened to the nuthatch taunting me with its call from the woods and felt my headache become more prominent, I noticed something move off to the left behind the teasels. It was the young buck, and it was sat down having a rest. It then closed its eyes and dozed off! I couldn’t believe it. Never did I think that we would have a deer at the hide that was so relaxed that it would go to sleep!
I really did want to leave, but there was no way I was going to disturb the young deer, so I remained watching this fantastic animal whilst it just sat there, completely at ease with its surroundings.
Time for a power nap!
Eventually it got up, had a bit of a stretch and I was happy in the thought that I could get home to take some headache tablets. But the encounter wasn’t over yet! He walked back over to the brambles for more of the succulent leaves, again making his way towards the pool as he feasted. Then he walked across the lawn area to check out the new log pile and then approached the hide. He got to within around 12 foot of the hide before turning and heading for the cover of the woods. Finally, I was free to go!
The whole encounter lasted almost two hours and was totally worth suffering through a headache for and even worth having a hen pheasant land on one of my new trees, snapping the very top of the tree. It was a lovely experience and completely changed my mindset about the day. Wildlife had made me happy.
A short video of the visiting deer
