Buck Roe Deer Behaviour

Wildlife animals quite often come up with some surprising behaviour that might not become noticeable until you get the chance to study their habits for a few days,

The fine buck Roe Deer in the image above has been staying in a field that is several females territory while waiting for them to become responsive to mating,

Roe Deer are notorious for being difficult to get close to and often easily spooked,  Just a couple of days ago this buck charged off across the field taking a Doe and her kid with him because he suddenly realised that I was quietly crouched outside the hedgerow of one corner of their field.

Nothing particularly unusual about that perhaps yet this buck has been sleeping in a very shallow treeline that fringes onto the edge of one of the busiest and noisiest road roundabouts in Cornwall for the last four nights and then he emerges back into the field regardless of traffic every morning without bating an eyelid.

On arrival he usually stops for a bit of a wash and brush up just in case he happens to meet  'One of his girls '  Then goes off to patrol the Hedgerow boundary checking for their scent.

Boundaries checked for females and it must be time for breakfast and it is always a treat to watch a relaxed deer feeding along the browse line of a hedgerow.

Breakfast over and he disappears off into the substantial woodlands bordering the field to look for the females and this is the area that I would have expected him to hunker down in the first place.

So I guess that wildlife is a bit like people when it comes to behaviour and perhaps :

We should always expect the unexpected !!

Another Roe Deer surprise

On the 24th August I reported my surprise at sighting a doe Roe Deer that had been unseen since early June suddenly reappearing with a two month old Kid.

Well early AM today she treated me to another surprise by this time reappearing with twins.

I don't know where she has been hiding them but it was a joy to see them out foraging on dot leaves in the middle of the field

Not perhaps the best of images below but it was good to see that the doe was still supplementing the kids diet with occasional suckling.

It looked like this pair of kids were double trouble,  One minute they were both together with mum and the next they were at opposite ends of the field and tending to give the doe a bit of a run around while trying to keep a eye on both at the same time.

In the image above she had just caught up with one of them and was then immediately stretching her neck high in the long grass looking for number two and I had to smile when number one in the image below aped its mothers behaviour and started looking as well.

Longrock Roe deer and Kid

It was a dreary dawn here in west Cornwall but I decided to look out for the local Roe Deer at Longrock before heading off westwards along the south coast,

Earlier in the summer I had been watching a pregnant Doe in this area but it seemed to disappear during mid June around the time that her kid should be born.

Weeks of occasional watching revealed nothing but today,  Two months later !  Here was the doe and her two month old kid out grazing in the field,

They were four hundred metres from me and light levels required slow camera shutter speed and high ISO but I was so delighted to see them,  Took on the challenge and did the best I could to record the sighting

They were quite relaxed until the doe picked up on my shutter firing while taking the image above and from that moment after looking around she started to slowly guide the kid back towards the hedgerow.

The doe spent a few minutes browsing the hedgerow with the kid tagging along behind and then following taking the image below they just melted out of sight through the undergrowth into the woodland behind before the sun had even risen.

Longrock Fox Cubs

On an early morning visit to Longrock fields I saw this pair of Fox cubs lying out at the opposite side of a freshly cut grass field,

Lens to subject distance was around four hundred metres but light levels were good and I was working from a tripod but after taking a few shots I wanted to try to close the working distance,

The only cover a third of the way across the field was a electricity pole that was surrounded by nettles and small ring of uncut crops so I lined myself up so that the pole was between us and started moving forward a few paces at a time while taking a few single images each time that I stopped.

I reached the pole without being detected but at this point the sun disappeared behind a cloud formation and a breeze was picking up from the east which would sooner rather than later give scent warning to the fox cubs of my presence.

As I moved slowly on halving my working distance to around two hundred metres I could see a distinct reaction from the cubs as they picked up my scent as seen in the image below and that was the beginning of the end of this encounter.

The older of the two cuds started to guide the younger one further along the hedgerow but not without stopping for a leisurely neck scratch just before they both disappeared through a small gap in the hedgerow.

Lively Buck Roe Deer

Just occasionally on some mornings things just all come together perfectly !!

A lovely still summer morning with the first rays of the sun lighting up a silage field and its hedgerow.

Enter a fine lively young buck dressed in his best red summer coat

He is very alert and behaving a bit scatty and suddenly goes off on one for no reason at all

Galloping off across the field he catches sight of a couple of rabbits and chases them off right through the hedgerow and that was the last I saw of him.

Perhaps a bit short and sweet but it is great to capture a bit of behaviour from a fine looking animal in good early morning sunlight,      HAPPY DAYS !!

Longrock Doe Roe Deer

Just three days ago my blog included a report of a lone Buck Roe Deer at Longrock that was out and about looking for local Doe that seemed to be none existent in the area over the last few weeks.

Well this morning I am pleased to report seeing to fine doe's in the same field that the buck had been looking on Tuesday,

Both deer were looking well,  Sporting fine red summer coats and feeding well on their favoured ample supply of dot leaves among the long grasses,

They seemed reasonably relaxed and well familiar with each other but I was not sure if they were new arrivals to the area or part of last years small group.

The early morning light levels were also a lot better that when photographing the Buck on tuesday

Longrock Buck Roe Deer

On my way along the south coast early this morning I called in at Longrock and was pleased to see a nice Buck Roe Deer on the look out for the local Doe's

The sad thing was that there weren't any and the last one that I saw was dead on the local roads.

The fearless Buck created a little behaviour humour though as it sparred up to a mature rabbit and bottled out when the rabbit charged him !

Having taken several mouthfuls of fresh grass the buck eventually wandered off in the direction of Marazion Marsh perhaps hoping to find some females in that area,

The light levels were challenging throughout this encounter and the images not of the best quality but I just love to see these animals during the early morning and every now and again the light can be very good when they show.

Buck Roe Deer

I came across the same Buck Roe Deer this morning that I saw a few mornings ago when he was chasing around after a couple of females in Longrock woods,

Weather conditions were overcast and quite dark and the buck still held ninety percent of his grey winter coat which blended him into the hedgerow colouration but didn't help me very much when trying to find good contrast to compensate for the low light,

In the image directly below he had pick up on the scent and moved off again constantly tasting the air as he tried to find the females,

He checked out all of the long grass areas where the females retreat too lay down but no joy so on he went again.

He eventually stopped to recharge his batteries with a little foraging along a hedgerow browse line and it was at this point that I left the Buck as I was now already running late for a prearranged pick -up