Wary

Roe deer, Heathwaite, Arnside Knott

I would like to say that by fieldcraft I stalked the two roe deer until I was within range. What actually happened was that I was sat in the long grass of the cowslip meadow on Heathwaite, waiting for the sun to come out from behind cloud to illuminate a heath spotted orchid. Gus was lying down patiently waiting with me. A crow calling from a dead tree caused me to look up, and I saw the two does about 50 metres away through the waving grass flowers. Of course, I had the wrong lens on and they were warily looking in my direction. But they gave me time to change the lens, and while keeping a nervous eye in our direction, they carried on slowly moving through the grass occasionally stopping to nibble. Magical moments with wild, wary animals - much more of a challenge than the tame fallow in Dallam Park that I have so often photographed.

This was before breakfast when the Knott is still quiet, and these animals venture out into the open. After this I spent some time in work, I finished what I needed to do, my conscience is clear now to forget about work for the next couple of weeks.

Later we witnessed a rescue of two people trapped in the mud of the estuary, only a stone's throw from the road and the Ship Inn. It's a sobering reminder of how dangerous the estuary can be for the unwary. The man was rescued first, it looked as if he had gone in to try and help the woman, but by the time he was rescued even his arms were trapped in the mud. It seemed that the woman had tried to venture from the hard dry mud further off shore across the deadly, water-saturated mud of a drainage creek to reach solid ground. Still, it was an impressive effort by the emergency teams of Coastguards, police, fire service and Bay Rescue volunteers. But a horribly scary experience for the two people, particularly as we were about an hour away from the tide coming in when they were taken out.