In the golden early morning, where gilded beech and oak leaves hang hushed and sunlight soaks into the grass, the stillness is complete. No engines, no wind, no birdsong. The red deer, conjured into a field that appeared empty one moment, occupied the next, seem part of it. Ears pricked, they face me.
They are a bright brown in the soft light, with neither the russet of their summer coat nor the dullness of their winter one on darker days. The watchful moment stretches out. When motion finally comes, it is from a hind, moving to the side, followed soon after by another. There is a jostling of the pack, and a new figure is revealed. A stag, with vast, chandeliered antlers.
The red deer is the UK’s largest land mammal and, as the stag bears its multitined antlers, it feels like it. Following the annual casting of their antlers in spring, each new set that they grow until around the age of 11 becomes progressively more branched. With rutting season all but over now, typically lasting from late September to early November for these red deer, there is none of the growling, roaring or tossing of antlers associated with seeing off mating rivals. Still, there is total dominance in this mature stag. As he eyes me, I scan the stretch of grass that lies between us, any memories of the flightiness of deer upended.
A blackthorn hedge forms a barrier further along, and I walk towards it. Spiky holly and needles of gorse are packed in with the thorns. The gorse’s rich yellow flowers meet light honey-coloured field maple. Soon these maple leaves will fall, as the blackthorn’s have already, but for the moment, the golden spell continues. The compactness and depth of the mixed hedge adds to the cushioning of sound, but when I circle back, the wider world is waking. The sound of a tractor, a farmer’s gun, the cawing of crows. Cars climbing the distant road. As I reach the earlier field, a plane passes over. The stillness has gone, and so too have the deer.
• Under the Changing Skies: The Best of the Guardian’s Country Diary, 2018-2024 is published by Guardian Faber; order at guardianbookshop.com and get a 15% discount
