Because this deer is not social like the Fallow, when the time comes to move from the home
territory (kicked out by the old man) they like nothing better than to follow a river, lane or
embankment to find a new home. This takes them under bridges and even over main roads
and railways, the very things that stop Fallow deer from spreading into the south east of the
county. 1 have followed Muntjac slots along the River Chelmer from Little Waltham Mill to
Broomfield and on to Chelmsford, also from the west along the Can and through the parks to
the centre. Once onto the water meadows they have made it. The north/south, A12, railway
and river are a very effective barrier to Fallow, and only in a few places have I seen slots on
the east side of the Al2 at Shenfield near a road bridge to Mountnessing and Moulsham
Thrift Wood, in each ease only a couple of animals involved and they still had to negotiate
Brentwood and in the second case Galleywood and the new A12. Maybe this is good because
deer running across roads, as they do the A414, A1060 and A120 is not a good idea. The
Writtle Road passes between two highly populated deer woods. 1 saw the herd of about
thirty Fallow does wanting to cross. Pacing up and down the edge of the wood they are
aware of the traffic. It is 5.30pm so a lot of fast traffic is using the road. A short break in the
flow and the lead deer jumps out into the road the rest follow but a car comes along the road.
Panic - deer in all directions, deer's feet are not designed for travel over hard surfaces and
when one landed on the road it had a leg pointing to each corner of the compass. Getting
itself upright it bolted straight into a bush that it had to disengage from before making its
get-a-way, but now it was on the wrong side of the road to the rest. The traffic had come to a
halt with all this activity, which was just as well because old rubber legs bolts across the
road giving a high kick on the way and was gone.
And so the records continued on the lst May 96 we had 2642 individual sightings. We had
started to look at other places for deer, Norfolk and Scotland seemed like good ideas, and
deer live in some of the most beautiful parts of the country. To see 120 Red stags on the
Cairngorm is something else. What can we do here?
I was stopped in my tracks by 127 Fallow crossing from Monks to Ellis in the Writtle Forest.
I was very impressed by this, although not all botanists would agree that to have so many
vegetarians in one lunch party was a very good idea. What about Norfolk, well on a trip to
this part of the country you could find four species Red, Roe, Fallow and Muntjac, in the
same woodland clearing. Can we do this in Essex? In the north of the county two woods have
had these four species breeding. As a native animal I should like to think that the Roe was as
successful as the Muntjac, but like the Red Squirrel it loses out to the more adaptable alien.
I have seen many Roe in Scotland and Norfolk, does with kids, bucks barking but only one
in Essex, that was in the north of the county at Great Bardfield. The only Red was a pricket
at Dunmow. With the new roads going in this will slow down the spread of these two
from the north.
On the 24th Feb 2003 the latest entry was jotted down in the note book: 3 Fallow doe, King
wood 2.45pm; 3 Fallow doe Gt. Edney 3.30pm; 6 on corn next to the Writtle Rd 5.30pm and
31 on set-a-side next to South Wood at 6.00pm. In the same area on the 4"' Jan 2002, 168
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Essex Field Club Newsletter No. 45, September 2004