Spotting Muntjac & Fallow Deer in Spring

A little earlier in the year before the young leaves opened, I disturbed two Muntjac deer (or conceivably the similar but rarer Chinese Water Deer) in our lower orchard on my first day at the cottage after returning from holiday. Both species are expanding their ranges in England having both been imported from China and released (illegally) to the wild in the south of England. (Chinese Water Deer are apparently now endangered in China, where they live along the Yangtze). Both are very ancient species with the Muntjac apparently native in Europe around 15 million years ago, but now widely considered an invasive pest by farmers and foresters.

The bottom of our orchard is also a favourite spot for Fallow deer, which lie up during the day hidden in a broad dry ditch between orchard and forest. We deepened this ditch in January and incorporated it into a new small scale flood prevention scheme to protect our neighbours in the valley below, using stone riffles and dry catch pools to slow the water runoff; while carefully retaining the historic banks alongside and their ancient trees and ground flora. These coppiced oak trees are thought to be up to 600 years old and many were probably used to mark the manorial boundary in Tudor times.