What this way has passed?

I mowed the meadow last week....
yes, it is only January...
and the grass hasn't grown very much....
but I needed to do it......
mainly to demolish the molehills...
and destroy tussocks.

I need to get out there with equipment in February...
and towing everything in the trailer, behind the mower, is a lot easier...
than trudging back and forth and wasting valuable time.
So obstacles must go!!

As I was passing close to the bief [millstream] I saw some tracks...
lots of tracks....
large, cloven tracks. Looks like a deer to me...
certainly not wild boar...
no rear spike holes...
and no horribly turned over soil!

Not very clear, but deep...
heavy animal or moving rapidly?

Having mowed, I went out again with camera and the trusty Field Studies Council "Animal Tracks and Signs" leaflet...

Too small for Red...
no Sheep about...
and no Wild Boar rear spikes!

Closest to Sika deer...
and the hole... below right...
is in the wrong position for a Wild Boar

Yes, deer was the closest match....
but they fell 'twixt Roe Deer and Red Deer...
matching the closest, Fallow or Sika....
now, the nearest of either of them is well to the north in the Sologne.
And that was as far as this post got until today!!

This morning, glancing out  of the window...
as we often do... might miss something...
we saw seven Red Deer hinds [Cervus elaphus] Cerf élaphe biches, of differing sizes#....
trotting towards the meadow from the hill to the North.
They crossed the Aigronne by our Norway Maples, without stopping....
they were out in the open in broad daylight...
and continued across the pré in the direction of the bief...
on the line they were following, they would have crossed that...
at the point I saw the tracks above....
that is where we couldn't follow... no windows that way...
and at the speed they were trotting, no time to get out of the house.
There was no time, either, for Pauline to get her camera operational and take a pic!
And it was on the windowsill........
They were visible for about forty seconds...

They had probably been disturbed from their lay-up or lair by a stray dog....
or someone getting too close...
and decided to head for the "safety" of the woods on the other side of the valley.
Nice to see tho'... So, problem solved...
Red Deer!

[# - The size varies quite considerably depending on the food supply...
also the bloodstock availability...
a good example of this is the decision to limit the size of the herd in Grizedale Forest...
in the Lake District...
to 350 head. The weakest stag when I last saw the Deer Museum there...
was a fourteen point Royal with a six-foot span.
Compare that with the poorly fed, uncontrolled herds in Strath Halladale...
near the RSPB Forsinard reserve in the Flow Country...
[Caithness, Scotland]... smaller, weaker beasts altogether!!]