A female muntjac comes to say hello

Another slow start to the day for us both and it still feels like a proper holiday. I made tea for us both, and then soon after it was time for a serious cup of coffee, which is what really gets me moving in the morning.

I went into my study and as usual looked out of the window to view the day, and was delighted to see this female muntjac deer at the bottom of the patio steps.  I immediately turned around to pick up my camera from my desk and took a couple of shots through the window in case I frightened it away. I then eased open one of the windows and poked the camera through a narrow gap and took this picture using the macro lens which had still been attached from yesterday.

I went to tell Helena so that she could see it and when I returned the deer had moved away and apparently out of sight.  Then I looked again and saw it moving along the line of the fence nearly hidden away behind some shrubs.  Then it came out from the shrubs and moved away down the garden to eat a few leaves from our small and low-hanging medlar tree.  I thought I saw some horns on it but when I checked the first pictures I'd taken, there were definitely no horns.

Then I came to the last pictures and realised that this deer did have small horns.  So we have had a pair of muntjac at the same time pottering about the garden.  I have added an 'Extra photo' of the male deer.

They hadn't stayed long but they certainly made me smile.  I don't care if they do eat the garden plants as I am just pleased to see them. They have come in through the rear fence from the steep sloping valley behind the house.  What surprises me is that they are comfortable to use this part of the valley during the daytime because a lot of people walk there and it is regarded as a rather wild 'parkland' on the eastern edge of Stroud, usually referred to as 'The Heavens'.