Roe, Muntjac, Squirrel and Heron
Posted: 30 May 2022
We start this week with two clips of Roe Deer. Late in the second you discover there was a second deer in the area. Then we see the first of three clips taken over successive days of a lame Muntjac. These are interspersed with daytime visits by a Roe deer, a heron and squirrel. We finish with a pair of Muntjac that seem to be courting.
The two clips showing the pair of roe deer were captured at around 20:46 on Monday 23 May. Wait a while and you realise that there is a second deer that follows the first in the second clip.
After some 34 seconds we move to the scene the following afternoon at 16:20. We see what is clearly a Muntjac struggling to walk across the bridge.
After a minute the scene changes again to show a male Muntjac captured just before 08:00 the Wednesday morning. He displays some behaviour I've not previous scene, scraping the ground with a fore paw before walking out of shot.
At 1:20 we switch to watching a squirrel captured at 09:25 the same morning that disappears under the bridge for a few seconds before running out of sight across the bridge.
Twenty seconds later we again see the lame Muntjac captured at 19:45 also on the Wednesday.
At 2:00 the scene changes to Thursday morning at 07:02 and a Roe Deer walks into frame from the North. He stares across the bridge by then walks on.
At 2:33 we switch to the afternoon at 16:19 and watch a heron climb onto the the bridge and then stand there motionless for a minute. The camera failed to be triggered by its departure so we do not know how long it stayed there.
Now we switch to Friday 27 May at 19:21 and, oncve again, we see the lame Muntjac crossing the bridge.
At 3:55 we end the collection with an incident that started at 07:15 on Saturday morning. A male Muntjac arrives on the Poor's Allotment side of the bridge and spends a whole minute preening himself. A couple of minutes later a female arrives. The female adopts a submissive pose dropping her head. She is approached almost immediately by the male. He arrives in frame with its tail erect. His tail drops on the final approach and she allows him to lick her neck, but has he moves further back on her body, her tail is raised and she runs off out of frame. If only we knew what was happening half out of frame. The male's tail is down, but we cannot tell if he is still in contact with the female or just grazing the grass.
