One Of Those Nights....

[sussex 5,777]

Tonight see me at the small farm just up the road to me , slightly later than planned I pulled onto the camping field (closed now) at 5.40 .As we made our way to the seat I've named the Heineken seat( because its probably the best seat I've got) in the paddock , the plan was culled....sheep in the paddock ...sod it ..next plan was to get in the clearfell seat ,cutting right into the field were there is never any deer to get to the wood the I was greeted by the sight of four deer , heads in the hedge at the bottom of the field ,I tucked into the hedge on my right and watched...4 prickets ,getting flat down (difficult with a rotund belly), putting the dog on stay I edged my way forward I needed to make about 70 m to get a clear shot as the field dipped away,40 m on I glanced over my left shoulder to check the dog was were I left her( she always is)to be greeted by the sight of her trembling ,very slowly I turned to look right , standing in a gap in the hedgerow a doe, fawn & pricket were all staring at me ,at no more than 20m , the doe barked her alarm , tore of followed by the fawn & pricket ,I raised my head in the hope the other four hadn't heard her call ....they had & were heading out the bottom left of the field as fast as they could ..

getting up & now walking across the middle of the field to reach the wood asap ,once undercover the first thing I noticed was the first fall of chestnut leaves, bone dry & impossible to walk over quietly I crunched my way to the seat ,as I got to the clearing 2 does & youngsters were almost in touching distance of the seat,my only choice was to deliberately bump them ,I sent the dog forward just enough for them to see her,they watched for a few seconds then turned & pronged away without the warning bark ,at last I climbed in the seat , nearly 7pm , their was a clash of antlers, only for a few seconds & with no grunting i reckoned a couple of likely lads having a spar before the main event ! the does where now out in the field ,still on their own they trotted out of sight .

Being surrounded by woodland you loose the light fairly early so was on my way back sharpish , back through the chestnut leaves , seemingly making more noise to the field were there is never any deer ...a very deaf bucks backside was m away , the last ten minutes of stalking light was spent looking at his arse walking away through the same gap as the three earlier ....as i reached the camping field the silhouettes of 10 or so deer could be seen walking past the vehicle ......just one of those nights

[beast 1,884]

we all have those nights! just some more than others......!