Deer, deer me!

[NightHawk]

On many of our walks around the New Forest we encounter deer.  Very shy and secretive, it is a very fortuitous occasion when you actually see them close up.  They usually see and smell you long before they are spotted and they make a hasty retreat.

Whilst out today we saw a very impressive sight.  Walking along a public footpath through a farmer's cornfield, we saw a stag with two of his hinds.  The stag had awesome antlers, but sadly we could only see them at a long distance away on the other side of the field.  He, of course, had already seen us and had his head up and looking in our direction.  Too far away to be any real threat to them they just continued to watch us.

Unfortunately, we didn't have our binoculars with us today so couldn't get a closer view for ID purposes.

The New Forest has always been renowned for deer.  With the largest areas of wild heathlands and ancient woodland in lowland Britain, the New Forest is an ideal place to support populations of deer.

Four species of deer live side by side - Fallow, Roe, Sika and Red.  You might see an occasional fifth, the Muntjac, an escapee from private estates.    Red and Roe are the only species native to Britain.

One of these times I'll have to take my digiscoping equipment out with me, and clad in my camouflage gear sit patiently for the perfect moment.  As is normally the case, and attested by many wildlife photographers, you can spend hours, days, weeks and months even waiting to get a great close-up shot.
I'll probably have just as much luck whipping out my digital compact camera and grabbing a 'quickie' when I least expect an encounter to occur.  Who knows 

Either way, it's great to see them just roaming about in the wild without the threat of them being hunted by humans for sport.

Laurie.

[Eric Hardy]

How wonderful, Laurie. You are certainly getting some treats in your new surroundings. I think you will need an awful lot of patience (and luck) to get a photo. We of course are plagued by muntjacs, as I think I have mentioned before. They had all our crocuses and tulips this year   . I had to chase one out of the garden at lunch time. Not so long ago we were motoring on a very minor road through a beechwood near us and spotted a couple of roe deer hinds quite close by. I stopped the car and we watched them for quite a time. They seemed to have no fear of the car and looked at us with curiosity. I suppose they would get no human scent with us being behind glass. At one point I wound my window down to see them better but by then they were quite relaxed. Unfortunately I did not have my camera to hand. 

[NightHawk]

A treat indeed Eric.

It's also wonderful to see the New Forest ponies (many with foals at the moment) just wandering across the roads without a care in the world.

Sadly though, there also road signs posted on several roads giving statistics of horses killed on the roads from the start of each year.

Unnecessary deaths caused by idiotic and reckless/dangerous drivers going too fast without any regard for the wild ponies or for other road users.

We see this all the time on our travels.  Cars speeding past other drivers, and not just out-of-the-area tourists doing it either.  Local registration numbers are a giveawy.  But even tourists planning their holidays here should be aware of the ponies roaming freely, so there's no excuse.  The main speed limit along the Forest roads is 40 mph, which we think is too fast anyway.  It should be 30 mph.

I'm sure I must annoy these 'speeders' who I see coming up fast in my rear-view mirror.  I keep to the speed limits at ALL times (as I've always done anyway) so for a short time I keep them slowed down.  At the first opportunity they put their foot down and go screaming past though.  Annoyingly, there are never any police cars about to catch these morons, and they never seem to get hurt when they plough into unsuspecting horses - they get away with it unscathed.

Unfortunately, these bad drivers are everywhere.  It's just sicker and sadder that in this particular environment they have little regard for wildlife as well as other humans on the roads.

Anyway, I'm getting down from my soap-box now (having made my point clear  ) but still continue to enjoy this wonderful and beautiful area of the country.

Laurie.