Winter is over, snow is gone, fields are bare again.
Red deer grazing approx 60 yds behind my house.
Pictures taken from my bed room window.

Only does and calfs, bucks are more shy and stay in the thiket until dark.
Even though the winter has been long and cold, they seem to be in ok shape.
Anyway, a great sight, and I love to live like this, next to the woods

Arild,

It might just be the best high seat in the world!!

Nice pics,
K

nice ,coffee must taste good in the mornings watching them .

where i hunt the some hinds call to the gate for grain/apples and the whistle of the sika stags will keep you awake .

long may it last.

Kiri.
It could have been but this is my neighbors hunting grounds...

John
Yes a great view with the morning coffee
I also have roe deer visiting this field behind my house on a regular basis.

nice larder.

Those Reds look to be in good fettle after a hard winter.

Beautiful spot Arild.

Yes Brian, they looks to be in good shape after all.
But we do suspect that quite a few calves has starved to death.

In early March we had a week or so with thaw, then the cold came back and the ground was covered with ice, wich made life pretty though for the weak ones.

Still, a beautifull sight to have this regal animals so close to my house

I'm envious of your view, Arild!
I did some roe scouting the other evening and ran into 6 reds close to one of my high seats. I managed to get some vode footage. I'll try to post some later.

Arild - how do the Norwegian reds compare to other countries in terms of trophy and body size?

Keep them coming Anders

Boghossian.
I´m not that much into trophy hunting beeing a pure meat hunter (at least here in Norway ).
But I belive that body wise, they are pretty close to the German / Polish / European stock.

Regarding size of the antlers, the Central Europeean are bigger.
Mostly because of minerals in the ground/a bit better climate, and more emphasize given on cultivating the deer population to produce bigger trophy bucks.
Or so I have been told.
But our reds are bigger than the Scottish.

We have a very healty populatin of reds, and they are spreading out and settling in new areas all the time.

Arild, do you know if and how the winter have affected your population?

We do see quite a few around these days. Last night I saw 12 on one field. I think it actually was even more on the field and the surrounding fields, but it was to dark to be certain.
Seems to have done ok even though the winter was cold.

Anders
They have had their annual "spring count" here the last forthnight, and it seems like the number of red deer seen is at least as many as last spring.

I also see quite a number of last years calfs, so basically in my area we think they have done very well.

As I live next to the coast, our winter has perhaps been a bit more forgiven then further inland.
But still, we had a period of close to six weeks with temperatures below zero centigrade, and lots of snow.

But the reds are "survivors", they are remarkable able to adapt.

Had an evening drive around in the neighbourhood.
Red deer everywhere

I can understand that the dairy farmers are not to happy about this invation.
But on the other hand,come fall and they have the hunting rights on this valuable herds.






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Fantastic to see, I am guessing poaching is not an issue in Norway? Unfortunately in many parts of the UK, such visible herds would soon get some unwanted attention...

There is poaching, but to a small extent.
These fields are next to the dairy farms, and the farmers (which are very often stalkers themselfs) have good control on what moves on their land.

Most poaching take place in late fall / winter when there is short days and long hours of darkness.

Usually a quick shot from a car with a gun with moderator, drag the carcass into the car, and off they go.