Deer drinking from the pond

Roe Deer drinking from garden pond

The drought must really be taking its toll on the wildlife as very early this morning we looked out to find a young deer drinking from our ornamental pond in the courtyard. 

The deer are quite at home wandering through the gardens but as far as we know they have never before tried to drink from this pond. We love to see the deer about but do not want to encourage them to this pond as we don't think their hooves will be very kind to the liner. 

Roe Deer drinking from garden pond

As soon as we can (i.e. when it rains for more than 10 minutes) we want to fix the sides of the pond and edge it with some solid oak beams removed from the old barn roof when it was repaired. This will make it much more difficult for the deer to reach the water so should solve the problem. They'll just have to use the natural pond out the back!