A good one to cull

Talking of Mark Gilchrist (as I was in the previous post), I visited him today to get some new photos for his cookery series. We larked about doing some fashion-style shots (check them out on flickr), then got down to business and went off to look for a fallow buck.

Just as it was getting dark, Mark spotted this one - a candidate for culling if ever I saw one. It had a single, dagger-like antler which would have been deadly in the rut. Plus one ankle had been broken at some time. It was badly swollen, and that leg was considerably shorter than the other. All in all, a beast that was better off hanging in the larder.