Chinese Water Deer:Part 2

The trip to Woodwalton Fen on Friday 3rd December that I mentioned in my previous post produced the long awaited Bearded Tit (unfortunately no photograph, the little blighter was too quick for me!) and also a Marsh Harrier and Common Buzzard, but the close views I got of Chinese Water Deer were quite amazing!

I must have been in the right place as far as the wind was concerned as the two animals shown below came exremely close, one getting as near as 15 feet before noticing me and making a run for it!

Having a good shake!

This photo was taken by just using the camera, without the `zoom` from my spotting scope, showing how close this deer got to me before noticing my ugly mug and `darting` off!

Below is a video of the deer which is in the first two photo`s. Again, this animal got extremely close until vanishing into the reed bed.

The first two photo`s are digiscoped using Lumix FS15 and Kowa TSN-883 x30, the third was hand held Lumix FS15 and the video was videoscoped using Lumix FS15 and Kowa TSN-883 x30.

Chinese Water Deer

An early morning stroll around Woodwalton Fen, an area near Peterborough produced a few birds, not the hoped for Bearded Tits that have been seen recently, but I heard a Cetti`s Warblers` explosive song and got very good views of at least 4 Chinese Water Deer.

This species of deer originates from Asia and was introduced into Britain in the 1870`s, but escaped from the parks in which it was kept and has gradually bred and a thriving population is now present in the east of Britain. The deer in its` native country is becoming increasingly scarce and apparently we now have a quarter of the worlds population in our country!


Digiscoped using Lumix FS15 and Kowa TSN-883 x30