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I hope that you were lucky and saw the Red…

I hope that you were lucky and saw the Red Deer Stag, late this afternoon. As soon as I saw it I put it on all of the webcam pages. I knew that there was a Stag near the farm, as for most of the afternoon I had heard him roaring. As soon as I had heard him, I realised that the rutting season had come round again. This year has gone so fast that I can hardly believe that it is October tomorrow, with the Stag having one Hind with it I should think that it is the middle of the Rut that lasts for about six weeks. (The Rut is the Deer mating time) The Stag, although he was not fully mature, he looked to be about three years old, very healthy and well built. He will be fully mature when he reaches five years old and will then have a fully developed head of Antlers, a very thick neck, large mane and very well muscled. He will be about four foot tall at the shoulders and weigh in the region of two hundred kilo.

As the Stags get older they get more points or branches on their Antlers. A Stag with twelve points is known as a Royal Stag and are very highly thought of by country people. I should think that is was all to do with Stag hunting. The Stag on the webcam, would have come down from the Quantock Hills, where the main Rut will be in progress. The mature Stags will be fighting between themselves, locking their Antlers, proving themselves to the Hinds, to gather a Harem, that can be as large as forty Hinds. I should think the Stag on the webcam was lucky to have got a Hind being quite so young. Once he had managed to get her, he must have quickly got away from the main rut. Once mated the gestation period of the Hind averages out at about 250 days, 35 to 36 weeks. In May to June the Calves will be born. Normally a single calf, that is why I was surprised seeing on the webcam recently, a Hind with twins Calves.

The Valley is a great place for Wildlife, today I have seen two lots of Deer, Badgers and a Fox. Just now there is an Owl on the post. What a good place it is turning out to be for Buzzard and Owls to get a vantage point to hunt. It was never intended to be a perch, just a point for the wire to be hung from. When I changed the routing of the wire, it was the intention to take the pole down. Although it does at times obstruct different views it will have to stay.

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