Numbers

One solitary deer, a red deer hind, just where I was looking out for a roe deer. She had carefully chosen a spot where she could lie down with least chance of being seen while managing to enjoy the warmth of the morning sun after a chilly night.

In parts of Scotland deer have been encouraged to increase to provide target practice for shooters. This has affected the landscape and helped to create a treeless waste.Several hundred miles further south it is sheep and cows that destroy the wild vegetation along with the employers of outfits like wildlife trusts who make phony claims they are 'managing for wildlife' while they are actually managing for farming subsidies. This is so blatant, that they shoot deer to give their cows and sheep even more opportunity to graze. With such people wildlife comes a distant second to domestic farm animals.

We need to remember that when decent conservationists, who do exist,  say there are too many deer they are not referring to this area where there are actually not enough. And they have been a beautiful feature up until the time the local managers got busy. Now it is the farmlife that needs culling. Those who manage the land under the banner of Sheffield Moors Partnership cannot claim any true status as conservationists. They are land managers whose wish is always to control. Those deer shot by the Eastern Moors Partnership could have been encouraged to spread over a much wider area. I wonder how many have been killed this year. We've certainly seen very few around here.