Deer, oh dear!

One of the highlights of my hols was seeing the red deer come down from the hills to feed in the meadow in front of my friend's house every evening. The first hinds and calves would venture down at around 7.30pm and a few stags would join them a couple of hours later. Some nights there would be around 130 deer to see just outside our windows, although we saw only seven stags. The calves had been born about six weeks earlier and would skip about, sparring with each other and annoying their mothers. One young male was particularly feisty, putting his head down to the ground and charging at one of his siblings who soon tired of the game and reared up on his hind legs, fending his brother off by knocking him on the head with one of his front legs. Later, the feisty calf could not resist taking on one of the stags and charged up to him, head down. The stag stood no nonsense: he lowered his head, displaying his magnificent antlers before the calf who was in such shock when he felt his head knock against them that he backed off sharply and scampered to the other side of the meadow to hide behind his mother.