AMATEUR wildlife photographer Bob Turner was scouring the New Forest for suitable subjects when he spotted one of the rarest creatures in the English countryside - a white stag (Buck, as it is a fallow deer, International Hunter´s comment).

Mr Turner had been about to give up and return home when he saw the deer eating a leisurely breakfast between Bolderwood and the A31.

He said: "It was just outside a small copse, stripping leaves off the branches.

"It casually walked away and I followed it for about half-a-mile.

"Eventually it ran down into a little valley, where he stopped to see if I was still there. Luckily, I managed to photograph it halfway up the opposite bank before it trotted off.

"I'd never seen one that colour - there aren't many around."

The Forest is home to thousands of deer - a legacy of its days as a royal hunting ground - but only a handful are thought to be white.

Almost all the deer found in the UK are either red or brown in colour.

Mr Turner, a 53-year-old construction site manager of Sholing, Southampton, said: "Their camouflage is so good that you can be within 20ft of a deer and not know it, but this one stuck out like a sore thumb.

"It was a fantastic moment and I'd be very surprised if I ever experience anything like it again.

"When I first saw it my heart was beating so hard I could feel it pounding through my shirt, causing a bit of camera shake. I thought I was going to ruin the shot."

The eye-catching creature is believed to have been a white fallow deer - the so-called "white hart" after which countless pubs are named.

A Forestry Commission said there were about ten or 12 such creatures in the Forest, including some in the Bolderwood and Minstead areas.

11:00am Saturday 13th October 2007

 

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