Old Dean Common

This evening I went for a walk over the common and was delighted to see a young male roe deer.  He was grazing about fifty feet away, glancing up to look at me now and then to check I wasn't a threat.  I stood still and watched a while, until he decided it was time to go and sprang neatly over the wire fence, quickly vanishing from sight in the woods.

The wire fences around the common are a new feature to contain the cattle that have been introduced as an environmental measure. http://odcog.org/whatsnew.aspx  I saw them last time I went for an evening walk over the common.  I could hear something large moving towards me but at first I didn't know what it was as it was obscured from view by shrubs and trees.  Then the lead bullock caught sight of me at the same time I saw him.  Curiously, solemnly, we stood and looked at each other until the other bullocks caught up with him.  They also spared a glance my way before lowering their heads to the lush green grass in the clearing.  Surrounded by his herd, the lead bullock also lowered his head and began to graze, moving forward step by step as he did so.

I enjoyed both of these encounters with grazing animals.

Last weekend I had a lovely stay with my daughter in Bradley Stoke (near Bristol).  This juvenile blackbird is a regular visitor to her garden - it appears to have some sort of deformity, or possibly a tumour on the neck, but nonetheless seems able to feed and to fly normally.