A place to hide

On my descent into town today I take a new route and come across this hide. I decide to try it out having recently watched many videos of wildlife photographers whiling away their time in hides and getting fantastic photos. 

After just ten minutes I already notice the difference. As I am hidden from view in most directions the birds soon resume their normal behaviour and I notice much more activity than when I am walking or sat on a wooden bench. In the distance I notice a number of birds slowly moving towards the hide, feeding off the ground. At first I think they are pheasants, then partridge but finally they turn out to be wood pigeons. Still, although they are common I never see them on the ground, they usually flit from tree to tree high up and so I have yet to photograph them. A jay lands nearby but its hidden by tree branches, I take some snaps despite knowing they will not be much good. There is a lot of activity but hard to pick anything out.

 

Then a I hear a rustling sound coming from behind the hide. It’s not possible to see in that direction unless I poke my head out and that rather defeats the object of being in a hide. I wait, then suddenly a hare goes bounding down the track towards the wood pigeons and they all take flight. Beyond the wood pigeons I can see an animal of some sort feeding on the grass verge and it is about the size of a deer. It looks up as the pigeons fly past and then continues nonchalantly feeding. It is too far away to be identified but I keep an eye on it while setting my camera up on its tripod. Then it begins to amble towards the hide stopping now and again to feed on the grass. I take a couple of quick shots, and inspect the zoomed in screen. 

It’s a female red deer, I can hardly believe my luck. Then the deer looks up suddenly, something has disturbed it. Somewhere to the right of the hide I can hear something big approaching as twigs snap and tree branches are swept aside. It is quite close to the hide but on the opposite side of the track to the deer. The deer is frozen to the spot, its head turned towards the advancing commotion. Suddenly it takes flight, leaping away from the track down a steep hillside of pine trees where it disappears into the dark forest below. 

Now my attention is focused on this new visitor. Between the trees I can see something moving. It stops and I peer into the darkness trying to gauge its size, then I see a pair of eyes looking in my direction, I wonder, has seen me. I move away from the opening, hoping not to attract its attention while still keeping it in view. It begins to move slowly towards the hide and a shaft of sunlight catches the grey fur of what looks like a wolf. It slinks out of the trees onto the grass verge and I grab the camera and fire off a series of shots, it clearly is a big wolf. It heads straight for the hide and I am sure it has seen me. It crosses the track and then it is directly under the hide. I peer down the ladder and there he is looking straight up at me with teeth bared and making deep growling sounds. Saliva drips from its mouth and it attempts to climb the first rungs of the ladder … my heart is in my mouth and beating like crazy...

Well, it would be if it was true but alas, I saw neither deer nor wolf. However I have seen hare and deer before and many years ago I was confronted by an animal, which at the time I put down to being either a deer or wild dog. We were maybe ten meters apart, staring at each other in surprise. All I could see between the foliage was a grey head that was bigger than a deer looking at me. The idea that wolves existed in the forest at that time was pure fantasy, which was why I put it down to being either an odd looking deer or wild dog. However now this area has been designated a wolf protected zone so who knows what may be encountered in the future and maybe that was a wolf that I saw back then.

Watch this space.