Anyone who has read some of my previous blogs will probably think I’ve become a bit of a twitcher. It’s not that I haven’t written about or taken pictures of other things it just that birds seem to dominate, so perhaps it’s true.
Twitchers are also the most common ‘nature watchers’ that I’ve encountered and chatted to. Recently, however, I met a couple, he with a pair of binoculars and she with a camera. I assumed they were both bird-watching. I was wrong because as I talked to them I discovered while he was indeed a twitcher, she was an insect watcher.
It got me wondering what the term for an insect watcher is … a crawler, a hexagoggler. (And before you tell me she was an entomologist; I would point out that’s the term for an insect collector and she didn’t collect insects but just watched them and photographed them.)
Anyway, enough about insects I should crawl back to what I was trying to write about and that was a deer. A male Muntjac deer to be more precise.
I had walked down the tow path on the Grand Union canal, smelling that wonderfully appealing and homely aroma of burning logs as it wafted out of some the narrow boats hat-topped chimneys, and crossed over at Stocker’s Lock as I often do. The house on the lock is worth a visit as its always a lovely sight as the owner has planted an array of flowers that seem to politely take turns in blooming one after another, right across the spring, summer and autumn.
On the other side of the canal, over the hump-backed bridge, is a stables and a large field that floods in winter attracting all sorts of birds. Even now when there is no water you still can often see interesting birds there but there was nothing much on this occasion beyond some long-tailed tits. So, I turned round and walked back towards the bridge. A flicker of movement to my left caught my eye and assuming it was a bird I turned to see what it was. (Yes, I know makes me sound like a twitcher)
However, what I saw wasn’t a bird but in front of some trees was a deer, a muntjac deer. Its short horns told me it was male and I tried to take a few pictures but it was almost immediately off and running into cover.
For those of you who read my last blog – The Grand Finale – you’ll realise that clearly Mother Nature was having a good laugh at my expensive. This week she hadn’t make me wait till the last ten minutes of my walk for the highlight but was serving it up within the first ten.
Muntjac deer belong to a sub-species of nature which I shall call the ‘other worlders’; plants, insects, birds and in the Muntjac’s case deer which look far too exotic to be part of our eco-system and look like they won’t survive a cold British winter but evidently do.
The ‘other worlders’ include water lilies, rainbow beetles, parakeets, Mandarin Ducks, American Wood ducks and Muntjac deer. Many of these qualify because of their bright colouring, but the tone of a Muntjac’s coat isn’t that different from other deer. It has coppery brown fur.
What makes it exotic is the shape of its face with the black V shaped marking on it and its small, pointed horns which look a bit like inverted fangs. Its back legs are slightly longer tan the front ones which gives it a permanently hunched look.
Many of these ‘other worlders’ were not originally native to the UK but either escaped from captivity or were introduced into our countryside.
This is what happened with Muntjacs.
Muntjac of which there are 12 species are native to Asia and can be found in India, Sri Lanka, Myanmar, Vietnam, the Indonesian islands, Taiwan and Southern China where they live in areas of dense vegetation, rainforests and monsoon forests.
The small, Chinese or Reeves muntjac deer was introduced to Woburn Park in Bedfordshire in 1898 and escapees rapidly spread into the surrounding area. Muntjacs are now pretty common across southeast England.
The name ‘Muntjac’ is well travelled, as its origin takes you on a trip round the world. It comes from the Sundanese mēncēk via the Dutch muntjak and today’s version isa Latinized form of it – muntjac. They are also known as 'barking deer' because of their dog-like calls, unfortunately the one I saw didn’t oblige by barking at me.
Well, that’s the end of your biology lesson and I’ll get back to my walk which I resumed with a smile on my face.
The arrival of autumn and with it the changing colours of trees, the return of some ‘old’ favourite birds like Shovelers and Gadwalls and a tree festooned with 6 cormorants were the standout elements
However, this week is not only deer week, it is no bird week so you’ll have to wait to see photos of the other returning birds.
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