From the High Seat, ready, steady......wait and see!

Everything that can be done, has been done. Additional new high seats have been installed and secured, the trees and paths are trimmed to permit quiet (if not silent) travel through the woods and clear visibility from the vantage points. Cameras have been checked and our numerous visits and surveys have been reviewed. We know roughly where we will sit (wind direction may dictate otherwise) and what we expect to see.

We have harvested various hedgerow fruits to make into fruit sources for our fresh venison and of course the rifles have been zeroed to check everything is perfect for the big day. Of course, the deer may not see it that way but those of us privileged to be involved in the meat harvest have to be as ready as we can to ensure the best and most humane result possible.

We have had a fairly heavy fruit harvest this year; sloes, cherry plums, apples and haws have all featured in meals recently and will complement the venison we hope to harvest very nicely.  

We will be up at 04-00 and in our seats before 06-00 so that we are there to watch the world wake up, to see the sunrise cast it's early rays over the countryside and paint the new day with new colours, the greens now less common and more yellow, orange and red hues to be seen, many of those colours laying on the ground now in carpets and drifts, creating their own 'noise hazards' and keeping everyone focused, not least the deer!

The Autumn colours of Gamsey Wood

What will we see? Who knows! Deer hopefully but what else? As always, I will enjoy the outing irrespective of the outcome. If I have to walk out loaded then that will be great but if I have to walk out empty handed, that must be fine too, which birds will I share my tree with this week? What badgers will still be out and about? what foxes? I'm petty sure that I will hear and see water fowl but what exactly, I have no idea, sometimes you see them, sometimes not, I have stood in the fog and heard them pass just a few tens of feet away and never seen them, it will be an adventure, new every single trip, watch this space for our update after the 7th. See you there!


MG