Parenting

Each time you see hinds at this time of year you wonder about the young deer. Have they already given birth or are they just about to? Recent years have suggested that hinds keep in single sex groups in the early parts of the year but become more solitary approaching the time to calve. But that's a tendency rather than a rule and there have been exceptions. This solitary individual was startled as I walked through the woods and was later seen in the middle of the bracken.

Further off were a pair that I've seen before. I admit they have me puzzled. For a week or two, seeing them from a distance, I've thought they were both young deer, male and female.

But a closer view this morning makes me think they are the mother and young stag that have been around for nearly a year. She is larger than him and if looks are a guide could be calving any time soon.

There has been something anthropomorphically appealing about the closeness of the relationship. But how long will it last?