THE CURIOUS YOUNG ROE DEER.
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A frosty morning with no wind, just a gentle breeze greeted me when leaving the cottage, a short walk to the woods from the farm I could spot movement on the high field in front of me, a closer view revealed a young roe deer that had jumped in there and was now scouting the fence line for a way out, I ran as quietly as I could to the bottom of the field to set up my camera, crossing the burn that runs between the fields I looked up and lost track of it, I slowly moved up the fence line that runs upwards to the top and it was heading down, straight for me.
Knowing I had virtually no cover and the deer would probably scarper at the scent or sight of me I hit the ground flat on my chest and lowered the tripod as low as it would go and trying to control my by now erratic breathing (asthma) I waited for it appearing into view, it came happily trotting up out of the dip and to my surprise it kept getting closer, a look all around, sniff the ground and then move a few metres, it did this till I had to move my arm to set the focus on the lens, it ground to a halt and just stared at me, my arm was getting sore as I didn’t want to move and scare it but wanted it to get closer, it did, we must have been 50ft apart till I could hold my arm on the lens no longer, I let out a sigh of relief and it spun round and took off towards the top end of the field, I moved myself back out of the field to let it calm down, I was so happy to get so close to what usually are very skittish animals who run first and look last if they feel threatened, and got some nice photos of the experience.