Morning Mud Bath

I was nearing the field gate in the Half way wall on Porthgwarra heath at sunrise and met the mature Red Deer Stag coming the other way, He seemed to be in more of a hurry than me so I gave way like you tend to do with anything with a set of metre wide antlers,  This majestic looking animal trotted on down to a semi dry pond and started to hoof and gore at the muddy pond bottom and observant viewers might note that he was getting quite excited about it,  Before long he was rolling in the muddy mess that he had created and when he came back up he looked a right mess,  He leisurely walked away looking really pleased with himself and at the top of a rise he looked back down with his back to the rising sun and he was instantly majestic again,   I was delighted at having witnessed a form of animal behaviour that I thought I would never get to see,  Happy Days !!

Early morning Call

I was on the heath at Porthgwarra early this morning looking for the Red Deer which proved a little harder to find than the last few days but it was not until I eventually found them that I realised it was because they were lying down asleep,  As the older deer awoke sensing my presence it looked around for the younger stag which was out of his sight line,  He bellowed but received no reply and started looking all around in a concerned manner,  He was soon on his feet sniffing the air and calling once again and it was nice to see him relax down as the younger deer rose and came trotting towards him in response to his calling,  I was stood out on the open heath within forty metres of the older deer throughout this behaviour and it is nice to be able to report that neither of the deer showed any concern regarding my presence,  I then watched as they both ambled off up into the higher heathland together ending for me what had been a very pleasant encounter.