Roe Stag | Deer Diary - Roe, Red and Fallow

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28th May 2008 – Young Roe Stag [Harry]

Tuesday, June 3rd, 2008

Tonight was a real treat! I had wanted to visit this new piece of woodland I had had my eye on for a while. I left work on time which gave me enough free evening to explore this new place not too far away from my usual haunt.

One of my early encounters with a young deer happened on a Sunday afternoon about 5 or 6 months back. I was on my own creeping down a path i had found that cut through the main woodland that i regularly visit. Three quarters of the way down this path i suddenly found myself in front of a young roe deer – only 8 feet away from me. I couldn’t believe it and the deer was equally as shocked. I gradually lowered myself to my knees so as not to look threatening. I spent 5 mins 8 foot away from this wild animal – she was frozen with fear but gradually got used to me whilst i was gently telling her that it was ok. This encounter was before i purchased my camera and i deeply regretted that i didn’t capture any pictures of this extremely unusual meeting. I didn’t think i would get another opportunity to get this close to a wild Roe Deer again…

Then, along came Harry! I cut up through the new woods and came across an open field with a path running along the side. I immediately got distracted by some noisy woodpeckers – young woodpeckers that still hadn’t left their nest. I stood there for a while listening to their noisy requests for food and got a fleeting look at Mum and Dad as they flew close to the nest but wouldn’t feed the young whilst i was about – so i moved on.

As soon as i turned around i spotted a deer feeding to the side of this large field. I am still new to stalking but i thought i would give it a go. I managed to creep along to an opening in the fence that gave me access to the same field as this one deer. There was enough long grass to allow me to get close enough to a group of trees that i could then use as cover. After several minutes i managed to get close enough to the tree that gave me barrier between the deer and me. This gave me enough time to work out the best route to get close enough to shoot some good shots of the mystery deer – at this time i got my first shots and saw on the camera display that it was a young buck. There were some stinging nettles in front of me that i had to crawl through to get to another tree that would give me the best position to start taking photos – so i got on with it.

After a few stings from the nettles i had managed to position myself behind the tree without getting spotted. The young Roe Stag was eating the grass with his back to me – once i started taking a few shots he quickly realised that he wasn’t alone. He looked over but i was hidden enough to hide my human shape – it left him feeling comfortable enough to try and work out what i was…

I was as close as i could ever hope to be (Roe are the fairies of the forest, you are lucky to see them) and was excited about what pictures i might get – i had to be quick and react to this rare opportunity before he did a runner! It is really common for me to get a deer in sight and loose it before I can even get the camera to my face.

I wanted to react quickly without scaring him away to get as many pictures as possible. To my amazement this Roe Buck (Harry) started to walk towards me, licking his nose to work out what i smelt of. I hid in the grass next to the tree and poked my head up to capture a shot here and there – i was surprised and fascinated to see Harry doing the same thing, popping his head up and down to catch a glimpse of me. Once he got too close he ran away – this happened after about a minute. I was gutted… But then, he returned getting even closer, determined to see who i was.

This same procedure of coming up to me – getting too close – and jumping away continued for about 20 mins. It felt great and i managed to send out a couple of text messages telling Mum and girlfriend what i was doing, “a young Roe Stag was playing with me in a field!”.

It was one of those moments that you savour as they don’t happen all the time and i am pleased to say that i got some good pictures, take a look:

Harry taken from the stinging nettles (far away to begin with):