We are due really stormy weather yet again tomorrow, its the wettest January in over 200 years here in the UK. Many people are suffering terrible flooding and the infrastructure has been damaged with railway lines washed away and harbour walls damaged. So when we had a little bit of sun this morning, in between the showers I thought I should go out just for some fresh air as much as anything. I went to some nearby conifer woodland and just sat there listening to the small birds. I could hear Goldcrests, Long tail Tits and interestingly, Crossbills, not a bird that I see regularly so I was pleased about this. I even managed a poor photograph of a male. There was a small group right at the top of a Scots Pine.

.
.

They didn't stay around unfortunately so I went and sat very quietly in a clearing with a clear view in front of me surveying the hill in fron of me. Suddenly a Roe Deer came out of the woodland and made its way slowly across the clearing.  I took photographs and it heard the shutter, stopped in it's tracks and stared in my direction. I saw it lick it's jaw as it made it's way out of the clearing. I believe that this is an additional way of scenting the air, a sure sign that it could hear me but because I sat so still and didn't display a human profile and was wearing a camouflaged jacket, it couldn't see me.

.

.

A classic dear photograph. It's winter and the coat colour is dark greyish-brown at this time of the year. Also, I am sure that this is a "buck" and not a "doe" in-spite of not having any antlers. These are grown in the winter and obviously they haven't emerged yet.

I managed some nice photographs of the Goldcrests as well, always hard to achieve because they are so active and not still for even a fraction of a second.

.