North Atlantic Skyline - - Photographs from the west of Ireland (Galway, Mayo, Clare, Limerick, Roscommon and even Leitrim)

Doh! A deer

Last year, on my daily train journey to work, I noticed a herd of deer that would occasionally venture from a nearby evergreen woodland to graze in the field beside the rail track. Sometimes, only the stag, with a magnificent set of antlers, could be seen, but as the year progressed, hinds, and later, fawns could also be seen.

I drove out to the area a couple of times last year to see if I could get a photograph but never even saw a single member of the herd (admittedly, I didn't get up too early on any of those occasions), though I did get some other photos (here and here). I didn't think too much about them until two weeks ago. The ever-brighter mornings meant that I could see the fields and the woodland again from the train. Last week, during the cold spell, the countryside was frosted over, and on Tuesday morning, one of the deer herd was magnificently illuminated by the morning sun as it stood by a watering hole in the middle of the field. As luck would have it, I had decided against bringing my camera that morning [bad luck, that is], but decided to bring it the following morning - the plan was to take a shot from the window of the train.

The train has to pass a couple of level-crossings before the spot, so it's not travelling too fast. I found a door window that could be slid down a little, poked the camera out, and waited for the field to come into view. As the train approached the field, I could see the same deer. I aimed the camera and pressed the shutter. Nothing. I pressed again. Still nothing, and the chance was gone. A quick check of the camera showed that, yes, the auto focus was switched on, there was a memory card in the camera and, yes, it was switched on. Now, the EOS350D has very few faults, but I had discovered one of the. For some reason, the self-timer function (hardly an oft-used one) has a dedicated button on the back of the camera, and it's just at the spot where one's thumb rests while holding the camera. I'd accidentally pressed it just before I took a shot at the deer, which meant the camera waited 10 seconds before taking the picture [I'm blaming the camera rather than me, you'll notice]. Undeterred, on Friday, I brought the camera again. The deer didn't show, and it was just as well - every window on the train was frozen shut.

Anyway, on Saturday, I got up before dawn, drove to the field, and, using a stone wall as cover, sneaked up on the deer as it grazed in the field among a herd of cattle. I was feeling quite smug about my tracking skills until it spotted me. Rather than high-tail it back to the tree line, it just retreated a bit but stayed to have another look at me. Not so wild after all. It's not wearing ear-tags so it's not from a farm. I'm not quite sure which type of deer it is - all suggestions welcome (though preferably correct ones).

Camera=Canon350D, lens= Canon 70-300mm@300mm, ISO=400, Aperture=f7.1, Speed=1/800.

galway,ireland, irishblogs,photoblogs,monasette

Posted by Monasette at March 6, 2006 12:09 AM