A large stag that visits a garden twice a day to steal bird pellets is playing food hide and seek with a family in the Highlands.
Kat Stewart tried to shield mixed grain and pellets, with which she feeds her pet Muscovy ducks, under ropes and a table. The stag, however, was seen using its antlers to wriggle past to get at the food.
Stewart, 47, and her partner, Willie, 50, have developed a friendly relationship with the stag, who their neighbours in Poolewe, on the west coast southwest of Ullapool, have named Luggie because one of its ears is torn. Stewart has captured the stag on video plotting its route under the ropes to get to the pellets.
She said: “We have a lot of seagulls and raptors here, so we strung up lines over the pen to put them off snatching our ducklings. We can’t stand guard over the duck food, so we thought the lines and the table would be enough of an obstacle to his antlers to keep him out. We were wrong!”
Stewart, a care worker, said that the stag had been visiting their garden since the end of last year. “I think he’s always passed by us, but I first started catching him in the garden late last year, not long after we got our first lot of ducks.
Advertisement
“He comes most days now, morning and evening. However, he does roam over to the Inverewe Gardens Estate sometimes, and we won’t see him for a few days at a time.
“We have an extra bit of communal land that us and our neighbours agreed we could keep the ducks in. We share the eggs to keep them sweet, but they all love the ducks.
“The stag raids their gardens too, eating flowers and trees. He’s obviously quite smart.
“I’m a nature lover, I’m honoured he visits us, and more so that he trusts us.”