Isn't technology wonderful, I am sitting by the river Tamar with my bum wedged between two rocks writing this whilst waiting to photograph either a Dipper, a Grey Wagtail or an Otter. If I could get a signal I could even post it online but more of this next week.
 

As you know I've been planning a trip to Exmoor to photograph the Red Deer Rut for some time. I recced the area several times to see where the deer are and locations of where I could get photographs from. One of the locations could have been from my car as at times the deer come close to the road but that is a very hit or miss affair. With all the reconnaissance done the day had finally come. So I left home on Sunday and headed north to Exmoor to the area I had picked which was surrounding Dunkery Beacon. I arrived at about 2:30pm and the area was in thick fog, you can never predict the weather accurately, the forecast was for sunshine and clouds. I parked up and got out for a stroll and to stretch my legs, as I walked I smelled the air, viewed the moor and thought, I love Exmoor. As I was walking I noticed that there were about 100 cars in the area but I thought they will not be here on Monday and Tuesday, how wrong was I! As I could not see much I headed into Porlock to get something to eat. I returned to the moor at about 4pm and most of the fog had lifted so I visited the locations I had picked and there were deer in all them, the excitement was starting to rise. As I was going to get up and be walking on the moor at about 5am I did not book a B&B so I went to a spot, noted earlier, and settled down for the night in my car.
 

As usual my “body alarm clock” woke me up about 30 minutes before my actual alarm clock but nevertheless I got up, changed and stepped outside. It was 4:15am and the fog had cleared as it was a cloudless sky and I could see every star in the sky as Exmoor is one of the places you can do this due to the lack of “human” lighting in the area. I felt thumping on the ground around me and all of a sudden the typical roar of a Red deer stag. For those that have not heard a Red deer stag roar it sounds like a human forcing out a belch but a lot longer. I drove to my first location, collected my gear from the boot and set off uphill. After about an hour I located the tree I had recced previously, placed my mat on the ground with my “comfort” mat on top, set up my camera and 500mm lens with a 1.4 converter, camouflaged up, sat down and began my long wait. I wanted to be in position well before sunrise and the time was about 6am so I was in plenty of time as I believe sunrise was about 8am. During this wait I heard several stags roaring and had a big Highland cow that seemed to be getting a bit too close to me until I spoke to it and then it veered off. When you are sat on the ground Red deer are big but Highland cows are huge. As the land started to brighten up I checked and set my camera settings; F6.3, ISO 1600 and the shutter speed was about 3 seconds but this would rise the brighter it got. At about 7:30am it was bright enough for me to see a stag and a herd of about 40 hinds some distance away but slowly making their way towards my location, shutter speed was now about 1 second (there I told you it would rise!). Even at sunrise the shutter speed did not rise to get the 500th sec I was looking for but the deer were still working their way towards me albeit very slowly. 
 

At about the time when the deer were about 200 metres away three people walked past me, no morning or even a hello. They were all dressed in camouflaged coats, leggings that rustled and one was wearing a beige baseball cap. They all carried cameras, one with a 600mm lens and the other two had zoom lenses. They kept walking straight towards the deer and the deer started to get worried as they had stopped eating and were all looking at the three people. When they had halved the distance the deer started running away from them and my seated position. The chap with the baseball cap started talking to the others and appeared to make out, using hand signals, that they will have to go around and come in from the other direction, which was odd because that was the direction of the wind and the deer will smell them. Then I thought if they do this the deer might come towards me and this will work in my favour so I sat still and waited. After about 30 minutes I saw the three people coming down the hill towards the deer. Due to the speed of their movement they negated the use of camouflaged clothing and might just as well have worn hi-visibility jackets. The deer set off immediately still going further away; in fact they went down the valley and into one of the farmers’ fields about a mile away from me. This field had deer fencing around it but the deer just threw themselves at it, they must have got injured doing this, and it broke and let the others in, I bet the farmer loved that. Also whilst on their way to this field they ran through an area that held 5 younger stags and the big stag had to chase them away exerting and wasting more of his energy. With this I decided to pack up and go to my next location, all I could think of is the saying “all the gear but no idea”. The trouble was that every location I picked, a similar thing happened. There were so many people doing the same thing, just trying to walk right up to the deer to get close-ups of them. The cars I had seen yesterday were all here but their occupants were on the moor. I felt very disappointed as I had planned this for such a long time and when you plan something you get visions of how it will turn out but this was out of my hands. So instead of photographing deer I just sat and watched them being chased by “no ideas” through my binoculars.
 

At about 3:30pm most of the cars had driven off and there were hardly any people on the moor so this was my chance. I spotted a herd of about 10 hinds and a youngish stag so I collected my gear and started making my way around to them. It took me a while but when I got about 300 metres away I went on my hands and knees and crawled to within 50 metres from them. The afternoon light was fantastic and I hope I got some great shots. I looked at them in the car later but I can’t tell exactly without looking at them on a computer screen. The shots I was after were of a group of hinds with the stag, of a single hind surrounded by moorland and of a stag surrounded by moorland. These I got but I also got an extra set of photos of a young deer suckling. Once I had got my photos I crawled away and when I was far enough away I stood up and looked back. The entire herd was still in the same place and they had not panicked because of my presence. This is the correct way of how to photograph wildlife.
 

Now where is that signal?