The day started brightly enough, though it was probably a sign of the imminent strong winds which have been forecast across central Europe.

Jude went outside and soon ran back in asking me to stop everything and come and look. Our bird feeder had been destroyed… again! (This happened last year too). Pieces were everywhere – the furthest being about 25 yards down the fields (to the left of the right hand bush in the first image).

It was at this point that I’d wished I’d left the Trail cam pointing in the same direction as yesterday to capture what happened. However, the culpritS have been identified…

Firstly the one I’m calling 3 pointer, because he has 3 prongs on the top of his antlers.

Immediately after the above, there was another video with sounds of bashing and crashing. Here’s his partner in crime – 2 pointer.

In the midst of this mayhem, a fox trotted across a few times, but this was the best video.

18 responses

  1. blhphotoblog Avatar

    Interesting visitors!

    Liked by 1 person

    1. Alittlebitoutoffocus Avatar

      Yes indeed. I’ve switched the camera around to see if they try it again this evening.

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  2. Bug Woman Avatar

    Hah! In my garden it’s the squirrels that dismantle everything. However, I suspect the deer must be really hungry to go to all that trouble….

    Liked by 1 person

    1. Alittlebitoutoffocus Avatar

      Yes, it looks like they’ve being chewing the lower branches off our (quite young) neighbour’s trees too. Not sure what type they are but they have red berries and thin leaves (in summer).

      Liked by 1 person

  3. […] at the top of the feeder. Certainly we did catch 2 pairs of eyes on camera coming into the field the other night and someone in the village posted a picture of 2 stags during the daytime on facebook a few days […]

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  4. Birder's Journey Avatar

    The early sunrise photo is incredible!! And how utterly fascinating to watch your night visitors on the videos….the eye shine of the fox, the crunchy clomping of the deer hooves … Thank you so much for sharing this!

    Liked by 1 person

    1. Alittlebitoutoffocus Avatar

      You’re very welcome. At least we now know for certain who has been damaging the bird feeder. 😊

      Liked by 1 person

      1. Birder's Journey Avatar

        Love it! 🦌
        I hope you can find a spot where they won’t reach it with their big antlers.

        Liked by 1 person

        1. Alittlebitoutoffocus Avatar

          Don’t worry, it’s well out of reach now – up on the 1st floor terrace. The birds don’t seem to mind, especially as it’s undercover as well. 😊

          Liked by 1 person

        2. Birder's Journey Avatar

          👍🏼

          Liked by 1 person

  5. CJ Avatar

    Love it!!!! How wonderful!!!!

    Liked by 1 person

    1. Alittlebitoutoffocus Avatar

      We’ve just about salvaged enough containers to keep the birds fed. We’ve fixed the feeder onto the corner of the terrace, so the birds are now much closer to the chalet and I hope to get some decent bird shots to post. I managed to get a Crested Tit today already. 😊

      Liked by 1 person

      1. CJ Avatar

        Yay!!!! Oh can’t WAIT to see the pics!!!!

        Liked by 1 person

        1. Alittlebitoutoffocus Avatar

          I’ll see what I can do. 😊

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  6. bayphotosbydonna Avatar

    Surprise! 🦌 Beautiful visitors, Mike. So sorry about the bird feeder, glad you were able to salvage and place it in a safer spot. 🙂

    Liked by 1 person

    1. Alittlebitoutoffocus Avatar

      Yes, I’m sure the birds don’t mind. The feeder is actually under the roof of the terrace now so they may even prefer it, as the feeders won’t get covered in snow! (Temperatures have not risen above freezing for the past week or so and there’s no sign of them doing so over the next 5 days according to the forecast).

      Liked by 1 person

  7. […] 3 hours later, at least one of the two stags seen in my previous posts made another appearance. And again, I’ve stitched together 5 very short clips to make […]

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  8. […] may recall that a stag managed to completely dismantle our bird feeder (twice). So we moved it onto the corner of the terrace (on the first floor). Since then I’ve […]

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