THE BDS WESSEX BRANCH

Deer attractions

Apart from the wild deer population in the Wessex area, there are a good number of parks that have deer. Some are private collections that one cannot go and see but others you can visit if permission is granted.

Also, there are places like The New Forest Wildlife Park where you can walk near sika and see red and fallow in the fields. There are not only deer but wolves, bison, otters and a great deal more.

At Child Beale Centre in Berkshire along with Bucklebury Farm and Deer Safari/park, you can view the deer on tractor and trailer. At Longleat Safari Park you can drive through, but be careful of the monkeys!

Another tractor and trailer ride is back in the New Forest at Burley, deep in the Forest with the New Forest Deer Safari good place for photography as the red deer are very used to the tractor and people on the trailer.

Then over in Dorset, you can see red, fallow and Père David on a walk through the deer park at Melbury, but please keep your dogs on a lead.

At the beautiful setting in North Dorset, Charborough Park, there are fallow and red but one would have to find out whether you can still see them on a walk.

Stock Gaylard in the Blackmore  Vale, again in North Dorset, appears to be the oldest existing park in the country with a herd of some 120 adult deer and fawns. They are an indigenous herd of mainly menil fallow and the licence to empark deer there was granted in 1266.

These are just a few places where deer can be found in parks or private collections.  Hopefully, by summer 2021 we will be back to some sort of normality, so why not take a trip to one of the attractions that enable you to see deer without disturbing them.

Sadly this has happened so much this last rut, as once again in the New Forest people were trying to get that little bit closer with their cameras. The keepers and rangers were out as much as they could be, explaining to people that a distance should be kept from the deer and themselves.

Events

It was yet again a disappointment that we had to cancel our evening regarding firearms etc. in November, but we will hold it at some time in the future with Jamie Cordery Forestry commission deer officer and Tony Hill from Hants police.

At the moment planning events has to be on hold for the time being, so finalising the two shows that we hope will take place will be done later. If all goes well they are Highclere Fair in May and the New Forest Show in July. The Royal Berkshire Show has already been cancelled for September 2021.

HAD’s

During these last months, one would have thought that deer would not be involved in accidents due to the number of vehicles not being on the road. This has not been so, and some of our Hampshire HAD’s have been kept very busy, especially one in the north of the county.

The A343 has seen so many deer being involved in accidents as a result of people driving extremely fast because the roads have been quieter. I am hoping by the time this report reaches you the ‘High Risk Route’ signs that are placed in the New Forest will have been put up.