From the High Seat

That seat again!

My calendar and family commitments were threatening to keep the gun cupboard locked for a couple of weeks but I found a very small window of opportunity and made a trip to the high seat possible. I parked up on the dyke bank ready to check zero with a new batch of ammunition, which I did rapidly and found all well, so off to the seat with no further ado but without sticks or roe sack, such was my haste on departure. The absence of the sticks would be a pain if I encountered something on my way to or from the seat which needed the height or rock solid rest which the sticks provide. The missing roe sack wouldn't be a big issue, I had carried many deer before I ever bought it and plenty since so this was little more than an irritant and certainly not a disaster.

Even before I got to my parking spot, a Roe Deer leapt across the road in front of me, so fast I'm not even sure if it was a buck or a doe! I saw a pleasant range of bird life on the way to the seat and hadn't been in the seat long when a noisy squirrel joined me, less than 10 feet away but I couldn't get him in the view finder for a selfie together. I had tried a few peeps on the deer call and a few squeaks in case any foxes were out seeking an easy meal all to no avail.

I was watching and listening intently as the light faded when I spotted a small dark shape moving towards me along a wheel track through the wheat crop, a quick glance with the binoculars showed the head and occasionally neck of a little muntjac buck which appeared and disappeared as he moved between the crop which was higher than he was. As he approached a junction in the tracks I lost sight of him for a while so tried to call him in to view with a peep on the deer call but that appeared to have the opposite effect, I next saw him beating a retreat down the opposite wheel track but thankfully he was a bit like me running a marathon, jog a bit then stop! The last time he stopped was literally my last opportunity as the range increased and visibility decreased, it was a now or never opportunity which I took and the little fellow was obliged to accompany me home.

Another brief but fruitful visit to the high seat and a very pleasant if all too short visit to Riddy Wood's northern boundary, back soon!

MG