We're Going On A(nother) Deer Hunt!

After our complete failure to find anything vaguely resembling a deer on our last trip to Cannock Chase, this time we decided to enlist the help of an expert, Squeaky's Uncle Terry, who apparently knows where they all hang out, and spots them on a very regular basis.  And they were all over Countryfile last week, so apparently people think they are real. Then again, I don't believe anything I see on the TV, with the exception of Dog The Bounty Hunter, they can do all sorts with technology these days!

Off we went, into the wilds of the chase, past a boulder left behind by a glacier at the end of the last Ice Age (I'm quite impressed by the pebbly steps  the Ice Age also seems to have left behind, hey ho!)  Deeper into the Chase, in search of the mythical deer.

And guess what we found?  Horse's hoof prints.

A feather.

A stream.

My jeans tucked into my boots to minimise mud stains.

A sign with the number 3 on it!

And, yep, you guessed it, a complete lack of deer.  They are definitely a myth, I'm telling you!  According to Uncle Terry, the problem was that we'd got cameras with us.  Cameras = No Deer.  If you haven't got a camera with you, they're practically coming up to swap Christmas Cards.

Maybe the constant shouts of "Daddy, Uncle Terry, Wait for MEEEEE!" and "One, Two, Three, WHEEEEEEEEE!" might have had something to do with the deer's absence too.  Maybe.

One, Two, Three, Wheeeeeeee!

So in the end, Ms Squeaky had to improvise, and do her best impression of a deer with a couple of handy sticks.  What do you think?

I'm linking up with the Coombe Mill Country Kids Linky

The Mythical Deer of Cannock Chase

Despite living in South Wales, neither Daddy nor I are Welsh. I was born in Wolverhampton &; moved around a few bits of England before I settled in Wales, and Daddy grew up about 10 miles up the road in Cannock.  And that's where we've spent the weekend. Cannock. Famous for being the early years training ground of Stan Collymore, and that's about it as far as I can tell.

Warning. Mythical Deer.

Except for one thing. The deer. Cannock Chase is a pretty big expanse of woodland & the like on the edge of the town, and apparently home to a large population of fallow deer.  Which I'm not quite convinced actually exist. I mean, I've seen road signs, heard "friend of a friend" stories about deer leaping out at your car in the evenings, but actually seeing one?  No chance.  There's about as much chance of finding Bigfoot & Nessie out on a date at your local Pizza Hut.  I've just about convinced myself that the deer are nothing more than a myth, made up by the tourist office to make a fairly dull West Midlands town sound a bit more exciting.

No deer here

So, with that in mind, Daddy decided we should go out to look for the deer over the weekend. It kept me out of the pub, I suppose!  Off we went in the car, found a likely spot & hopped out for a walk.  Miss Squeaky decided that the best way to get the deer to show up was to call "Deers, come out, come out, wherever you are!" at the top of her voice. An interesting tactic, I'm sure you'll agree, but unfortunately not a terribly successful one, as they decided against.  We did see a few dogs though, out for a walk, and a fox, running across the road, but no deer.  According to Squeaky, the reason we didn't see the deer is because they were too busy chasing the fox.  Fair guess.

No deer here either

We did find a deer's bed, apparently. No deer in it, but that's what she decided.

The deer's bed, but no deer.

The only other thing Cannock Chase is famous for is, errr, people enjoying sexual encounters in public places.  So we decided to go home before it got too dark & the freaks came out to play. My commitment to blogging only goes so far.

A tree that sort of looks like antlers

Personally, I still think the deer are all a myth, and I think I know why.  There's an awful lot of trees on the Chase like the one pictured above.  From a distance, if you squint in the right way, they kind of look like antlers.  Sort of.  Maybe?

NB: I know that the deer are real, and just very shy animals, and the chance of seeing them in such an expanse of dense woodland is pretty slim. But I like to live in denial of the existence of certain things. Deer, the M50, and Jim Davidson don't exist in my world, and a very happy place it is too.

Linking up with the Coombe Mill Country Kids Linky.