Fallow deer

Dallam Park, Milnthorpe, Cumbria

Best viewed large.

The Dallam Estate keep a herd of fallow deer in the Park. I wasn't looking for them this morning, I was trying to get photos of trees with long shadows in the early morning sun. As I said the other day, the Park is on low rolling hills, and as I came over a brow, there was the herd.

They were all sat down when I arrived, but as I changed lenses, they stood up. They kept together in a tight huddle, all the while watching me keenly. Every now and again, one would try to make a break, perhaps hoping the herd would follow. But the rest stood their ground, and the nervous ones would merge back in.

The herd here is made up largely of does with a few young bucks. The bigger mature bucks keep their own company in a small herd elsewhere in the Park.

Clearly this is a managed herd, more approachable than truly wild animals. There are fallow in the woods nearby, presumably a population established by animals escaped from Dallam. They are much harder to get close to.

If I was lazy yesterday, today I was even worse. I spent an hour or so ambling around the Park then went home for breakfast. I had a trip to Leighton Moss in the afternoon, and this yielded two more bird species for the year.

I was listless sat in the hides, there were too many people, and the man with the massively enormous telephoto lens was wedged in his usual corner of Lillian's hide taking photographs of what looked like individual feathers on herons 100 metres away. Leighton Moss is wonderful, but I prefer my birding with fewer people around - even if there are less birds.

Finally as the light was failing, I stopped to look at the little egret roost. It was empty, and I wondered if the birds had moved further south during the spell of severe weather. I haven't seen one since before Christmas, whereas in recent winters they have become ubiquitous on the marshes around here.

New birds today: shoveler and water rail. Total for 2011: 74 species.