A year of Red and Roe Deer at Bel's Wood

I have enjoyed watching the deer throughout the year both live at the wood and through many videos and stills. I have put together this series of images captured over the year to show the difference between red and roe deer and to show something of their lifecycle.

Red deer female March 2021 with juvenile from last year

Their long faces and thick necks distinguish a red deer from roe deer. They also bigger but not seeing them together means this doesn't help as much as you might think when looking at photographs. In the flesh there is a difference with the red deer being noisier and they feel like a larger animal when running through the undergrowth. The red deer is the largest land mammal in the UK according to the British Deer Society https://bds.org.uk/information-advice/about-deer/deer-species/red-deer/  

Mature female red deer at night  

Standing in profile showing the shape makes for easy identification 

Roe deer are slighter and they have a distinctive face with white patches on their chins either side of their mouths. Here is a male with horns with velvet on them. The male roe deer remain in the wood while the male reds only appear in the rutting season. The colouring of the different deer is also distinguishing with the red deer being red - helpfully.

This is a female roe deer and their distinctive bottom markings show nicely here and also the fact that the females are slighter than the males although with a mix of ages that is not always clear.

I was very excited to capture this piece of footage in June 2021. I did not know which deer family they belonged too until I captured this footage below

The videos below show red deer with their young. 

Then I picked up these lovely coloured photographs during the day. The spotted pattern on the fawns is an effective camouflage in the dappled sunlight. When they standstill they disappear.

Just as I thought I was getting clear on the difference between red and roe deer I picked up this footage in June 2021

This is a male roe deer with clear face markings and distinctive horns and is rust coloured while footage from earlier in the year shows them as stone grey. Their coats change colour to be far more similar to red deer in the summer so you can't rely on colour when you just get a fleeting view of them running.

I have captured young roe deer although not as tiny as the reds.

Here is a juvenile roe deer in September 2021 who will be 3 months or more old and look quite independent here with no sign of their mother.

As Autumn came last year I could hear that the red stags had come down to the wood during the annual deer rut. I had never seen a red stag on the land so was and caught this still and video of a male stag. It is frustrating not to have caught the whole profile of his antlers - I am now pretty adept at getting the height of female deer right. 

I was glad not to bump into him but would liked to have caught his whole profile including his magnificent antlers.

He is a fine specimen with rippling muscles. The barking I heard indicates there was more than one in the wood. They barked all night - it was an amazing experience to be so close to these large mammals -  I stayed safely tucked up away from the action and did not see anything.

This roe deer has returned to the more stone colour than the summer rust colour by October.

While this more mature male roe deer in October still has a red hue.

These are two recent videos from June 2022. One roe deer crossing the beck and one red deer once again with young in tow - and very young by the looks of things.