A luxury or a necessity?
It was a cooler blip in that series of headlining scorchers. As I passed the yard at first light, the combine stood grey and bulky on the brushed concrete, ready to grunt into life and tackle the first of the barley after months in hibernation. Over the next few weeks, the deer’s world would change in a big way, field by field.
The roe and muntjac on my local ground have the upper hand come midsummer; high cover means low exposure. So when the farm lads start topping margins, cutting hay and bringing in the harvest, it’s a chance to catch up with the animals that have lived for a while in relative privacy.
A breeze was blowing lazily from the west when I parked the car. It had been a bright night with an
