Field Notes : Deer Diary

A few days ago, I felt the urge to head out for a walk with my camera, it's been a while.

A mile or so away, there are beautiful woodlands and breathtaking hills, so that's where I headed.

Quietly, I crept thought the forest, hoping to glimpse a deer. Around two hours passed with no deer sightings, but I was fortunate to watch a woodpecker as it eleganly smashed it's face into a tree.

Still...no signs of deer.

That was until I'd stepped on a stick like a doofus, and accidentally spooked away some red deer hinds that were happily chilling out amongst some ferns.

After cursing myself, I headed deeper into the forest until I came through it and into a field tucked away at the bottom of a mountainous hill.

High up, I could hear the bellowing of the red deer stags.

This is a nostalgic sound for me, I'm taken back to my beginnings in wildlife photography, when the days were spent stalking deer with my good friend Greg as he patiently taught me how to get close to these animals.

The downside to this impromptu discovery was that the hills are steep, and I've been munching too many biscuits lately.

I made it to the top of the hill, and saw a beautiful red deer stag, he had prominent white fur around his eyes , and was stood just few hundred meters in the distance. Out of breath, I began to carefully, and respectfully make an approach.

The last stretch was interesting...slug sliding along the ground with my camera in hand, whilst trying to get into a photo friendly position without being seen, sure took a while. Eventually, I got there and I happily chilled out amongst some ferns and waited...

It wasn't too long before another stag showed up and pushed ol' "white eyes" away.

Drat.

I stayed put for another twenty minutes or so and to my shock and delight, our friend "white eyes" appeared in the ferns just ahead of me.

Slowly, I raised my camera and began composing images, waiting for a photograph to appear. This was pretty thrilling, I felt safe enough and being this close to such a magnificent wild animal reminded me of why I picked up an interest in photography to begin with.

The icing on the cake was seeing and hearing the bellowing, and I managed to capture an image or two that I'm pretty happy with.