Into the Mist: Day 1 of Deer shoot

6am wake up calls come very easily to me in the UK, mainly because the sun percolates through my curtains at that time, and partly down to the noisy customers that happen to be buying todays newspaper from the shop beneath us. But today I had even more of a reason- Deer filming!

Here is a short clip of the deer I got the week before, couldn’t resist this little fawn!

Here is the shot of the two male Red Deer having a par at each other…nothing too serious as it is late in the rutting season, so are winding down from their predominantly active season. Filmed with basic SLR (Canon 600D) and VERY basic £25 Tamron 70-300mm lens, so pardon the quality and jerkiness and lack of editing YET!

Harewood Park Start: Harewood Church Lane Distance: 5 miles Map: OS Explorer 297 Lower Wharfedale and Washburn Valley

We started near the church and headed down towards the stank and Carr wood, neat the road where the der tend to browse.

As part of the brilliant new YouTube Channel, Ecosapien, I work as a camerawoman to help get some of the story shots for the team to edit into one of the weekly episodes that David Bodenham broadcasts out. I am so grateful to be able to help out with something so exciting- the combination of stunning images with factual information targeted towards 13-25 year olds. Some more filming this Thursday so can’t wait! We parked up in a small neighbourhood (and yes we did check for a “Residents only” sign!) some way away from the deer park. Loaded up with a Manfretto Tripod, Canon 600D and Tamron 70-300mm I headed off with David to see if we could catch a glimpse of these beautiful British mammals. It was one of the most misty days I had come across being in England, and it was incredibly difficult to locate them at first. We headed down the side of the road to see if they had congregated by the roadside farmland, but with no luck. Back through the moss, thicket and ferns. It was truly magical walking through the forest that was so still. Quiet. Damp. Cool… The trees were playing tricks on my mind. Surely that tree was a deer? David assured me it wasn’t. I even had my contact lenses in at the time. I am certainly glad I had layered up correctly, the air was damp but very cold as well. Always put a thermal top underneath your clothes (sorry, love that Shakira song!) Then at the other side past the cattle grid we had more luck. The stalking began… This next stage of setting up your camera and trying out different lenses was really good fun for me. I have used my DSLR in lots of filming before but not at the adequate settings- aperture 5.6, 1080P 50f, ISO 200, white balance Auto. try it on your Canon model! We got a couple of establishing shots of the trees in the mist, just to highlight to the audience what the day was actually like! Then we saw the emblematic shape of antlers in the distance that soon enough melted away again in the depths of the mist. I could only hear the clashing and clanking of the antlers echoing through the mist as I crawled ever closer on the dew laded moss. It was thrilling. The next part of the shoot involved a lot more crawling. And yes, I got soaked but this is what you do to get the shot! it was so very worth it in the end after many failed attempts to get decent and clear shots. Never had getting soaked been so much fun! We stalked them all the way to the very same field that we had originally walked to, and for the very first time- I saw so males rutting! This is the best time of year to see deer rut (the mating season). The rutting month varies between species, but mostly it is during the autumn. You see the stags using their antlers in fearsome trials of strength during the rut (a Middle English word meaning ‘to roar’), and an enraged or injured stag can quite often be a dangerous animal. The episode is about the impact of the over browsing as Deer can have a huge impact on forestry operations. They cause extensive damage to young trees, either by stripping the leaves in the spring or by eating bark in winter or rubbing the velvet off their antlers in the summer. All of these actions can kill young trees. Many areas have to be deer-fenced to protect the trees until they are large enough to survive being browsed. Also, having no natural predators in the UK, deer numbers can become very high. For these reasons they are culled in many places. In another episode we will be talking about the reintroduction of wolves back to the UK, and I will be writing another feature soon! We had been able to find a small ditch as the side of the field that enabled us to get closer to them- we got some cracking shots of the males fighting it out in front of the females. With two stags, a third tried to join in! The males were pumped up, and also sniffing out the females. Brilliant day, I would highly recommend visiting Harewood to see them, and it is very much worth getting up early for.

You of course can actually if you go out of leeds on the A61 you will reach a large set of gates into the rear of Harewood. Then turn left and you can park there. If you go across the road, through the gates & turn left down a wooded path follow the path until it comes out through a wood gate back onto the main road turn left pass the main entrance and then take the next turn left on this road for 1/4 of a mile (no cars allowed) .You should see them on the right as the road drops down rather than get damp and mossy (but that’s the fun part!) You can also start from the village centre, parking at the village hall in Church Lane. The estate village of Harewood sits outside the entrance to Harewood House, one of Yorkshire’s premier stately homes. Other features include the Harewood Arms and the remains of a castle which we walked past on our trip down.