Plate V. A female red deer in a field adjacent to Great Bendysh Wood, Rad-
winter, June 1975.
D. Corke.
north west of Grassall's Wood. A yearling male red deer was killed in a road
accident at Saffron Walden in January 1975 and a female red deer with a well-
developed udder was seen close by, on the edge of Great Bendysh Wood, in June
1975. These records confirm that the deer do indeed form a breeding
population. Red deer were first recorded in Hales Wood, Ashdon, in September
1970 and in April 1972 they were first recorded in Hempstead Wood; these two
woods being 4 km west and south-east of the Bendysh Woods respectively. In
1976, several red deer were recorded from Lubberhedges Wood at Stebbing,
about 13 km south-east of the Bendysh woods. The animals had been feeding on
potatoes planted in an adjacent field. In the Forestry Commission's census of
deer in Walden Forest, carried out in March and April 1976, at least 26 red deer
were recorded (Beale, personal communication). Walden Forest covers all the
woods (R) in the north-east of the parish of Saffron Walden, as well as Bright's,
Hales, Foxes, Lubberhedges (R), Great Bendysh (R), Little Bendysh (R),
24