Bambi...

Look who I found in a hollow tree at Chatsworth Park....

Just home from a two day fieldwork trip - very tired now so more to follow tomorrow....

Edit: added several days later - life has been very busy!


After a very well cooked breakfast, we headed back to Chatsworth for our second day of fieldwork in the Deer Park, a private part of the Estate. I'd been impressed by the veteran trees I'd seen in the wider estate, but they paled into significance when compared to the quantity and quality of trees in the Deer Park. Most were huge veteran oaks, with hollow trunks, dead branches, lightning scars and a whole host of interesting features, valuable for a range of associated insects, birds and bats - and the stuff of fairytales. One twin stemmed oak was a good 7m in diameter, if not more, and must surely be about 1000 years old...

The park is lightly grazed by herds of female fallow and red deer, which gives an excellent structure for nesting birds, including several pairs of redstarts. Many of the fallow deer had fawns, and we inadvertently disturbed several, which had been hidden in the bracken by their mothers. I was walking quietly along when I spotted this tiny fawn washing itself, hidden away in a hollow tree. It was too preoccupied to notice me and I was also downwind of it, so it didn't catch my scent. I approached very gently, and to my surprise it stayed put, looking at me inquisitively, but apparently unperturbed. I walked slowly by, taking four photographs as I went. It was such a special moment for me, and I was so glad that I didn't disturb it - it remained just where it was after I'd moved on.