Velvet

Starting to think weird behaviour is normal and I'm blaming Blip!

This morning started off with throwing open the curtains to a lovely sunny day and seeing about ½ mile away 2 Roe Deer; not readily accessible but in view. A few hours later they moved fields. On 'blip alert' I trotted the camera down the lane but the hedge was too high and thick and even leaning over the top bar of the gateway far too far away. A cheery,'Hello Hilary what are you doing? You into photography are you?' came from the postman - how did recognise me/my bum from that angle?

Tootled back to grab the car which would give me height and parked it adjacent to the hedge. Chucked a cushion on the roof of the 4x4 to balance the lens, stood with my muddy boots on a mac on the seat and leant over uncomfortably as the top corner of the door pierced my backside to give me some stability. Had to reposition the car a few times to avoid brambles, twigs and branches in the frame meanwhile waving happily embarrassed to the odd neighbour making out I was perfectly sane and do this all the time.

Back home on the computer I soon realised I had to go back having seen something odd about the antlers on the stag. A fresh angle of approach meant getting down and dirty.
Crossing the sodden fields, negotiating barbed wire, crawling in a watery ditch and sliding under the tiny gap beneath a stock proof fence was supposed to give me the element of surprise. It didn't really work because as soon as I was in their field, even with the wind in the right direction, they knew. Well the doe saw me coming - he, on the other hand couldn't see out of the mane of velvet falling over his face.

I've never seen, the velvet coming off the antlers like this with them still blood red. Although it is a distant and highly cropped shot I had to include it. I am sure all you lot who live in the highlands find this no big a deal but it entranced me! He clambered up onto his legs and gracefully went through a hole in the hedge, gambolling off.