Trailing wildlife with the camera is a game of sorts, but it is a game that comes with unique rules about how to treat your fellow "players" Parks Canada have a motto that if you make an animal change its behaviour, you're too close, which is a fine rule-of-thumb, but sometimes the best way to prevent disturbance isn't obvious.
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Autumn is coming. A paintbox of fungi colours is emerging all over the woodland floor, the blackberries are ripe, and the squirrels and birds are increasing their activity. In the meadows, horses wearing warm coats are lit by the first rays of the dawn sun



This morning, further away from the houses, I found a fine-looking roe deer illuminated by that early light.



He evidently knew where he was going - out of the field I was not in his flight path, so I continued down the track towards the farm.



But he soon reappeared. He seemed to be unable to squeeze through the wire fence...



...and trotted down the field towards the track - towards me.



There is another barbed wire fence that runs alongside the track. I've seen deer vault this fence before, but he seemed unwilling to do so, and doubled back on himself. Up and down he went, trotting closer and closer to me. I've very rarely been so near to a wild roebuck. His desire to escape from the field emboldened him, but he still would not actually cross my path.



At this point, it belatedly dawned on me that I was playing chess with this deer I moved, he moved; he was on the defensive, strategically attempting to evade me. I had no intention of confining him to a corner of the "board".



It was rather a tricky one Continuing up the track to the farm was the obvious solution - getting myself completely away from the meadow would allow him to exit it at any site he deemed suitable. But doing so would put me adjacent to the lowest fence for some time.

So I went the other way, directly towards the deer! He immediately retreated to the top of the field, and then, finding his escape route towards the farm vacant, sped away from me and out to freedom!



An honourably drawn game - I got my photos, and he figured out how to defeat the fence!