Ireland Wildlife Wildside Wexford Irish Natural History

Red Deer Stag

Deer may be our largest wild mammals and more common place than people think, yet they are remarkably elusive and hard to track down. Don Conroy, Chris Wilson and Alan McGuire paid a visit to the Wicklow Mountain’s National Park to see if they could find Red and Sika Deer. On their first visit up to the National Park they headed towards the Upper Lake at Glendalough. On their walk up near the lakes they came across a group of people who were out collecting fungi – a most impressive display had been laid out on one of the picnic tables and was being worked through to ascertain the different species found. It was a cold but very beautiful evening and as darkness fell our ‘wildside team’ headed on up beside the Upper Lake (previous discussion with Park Staff indicated that there were a number of deer up in that locality). We were hoping to not only to see Sika and Red Deer, but also hear some of the stags calling as the Rut (the time when antlered ungulates mate) had well and truly commenced.

Red Deer Hind and Doe

The atmosphere, with the moon appearing through the clouds, glistening on the lake below was breathtaking. There was some wind blowing in the trees and as our team walked up the path past a couple of the narrow mountain streams the talked in hushed tones about their hopes of seeing and hearing these elusive animals. Well prepared with tea and cake a convenient bench was used to facilitate a break in proceedings.

Sika Deer Stag

Wildlife wise it was actually quite quiet – well it was now after dark – Chris heard a Sika call, but it was a long way off. Then Don, whilst telling a story of Deer Woman, a native American mythological woman, suddenly caught the movement of two Sika Deer that came down through the wood and passed us all really closely – great views, but of course, just to be awkward, they made no sound. We decided it was time to bring in the experts….

Sika Deer Hind

In the second half of the programme we return to the National Park, but this time we had arranged to meet up with Lorcán Scott, a National Parks and Wildlife Staff member and Danny McCarthy (Mentor Press) a keen wildlife watcher. Further stories and information unfurled through the course of another stunning evening with our intrepid team and guests trying to catch up with these large and elusive animals.

General information about the Wicklow Mountains National Park is available from the Information Office which is located by the Upper Lake in Glendalough. Telephone: +353-404-45425.  There is also an education programme that is run from Bolger's Cottage at the Upper Lake in Glendalough. The Centre is open from Monday to Friday during office hours. Telephone: +353-404-45656 or email: wickloweducationcentre@environ.ie

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