Doulting is a rural village and fully surrounded by open countryside, woodland and farmland.

Within walking distance of the village, great places to see the Somerset countryside and its wildlife, are:

Ingsdons Hill and surrounding countryside around the hamlet of Bodden

Pitt’s Wood and valley

Chelynch Wood

Doulting Sheep Sleight and Whitstone Hill

Maes Down Hill and Chesterblade Hills

Beacon Wood

Cranmore Tower’s Gains Wood, Shepton Forest, and Black Bunting Wood.

Roe deer

Length: 0.9-1.3m
Shoulder height: 60-75cm
Weight: 10-25kg
Protected in the UK under the Deer Act 1991.

Our most common native deer, the roe deer tends to be solitary in summer, but forms small, loose groups in winter. The males have relatively short antlers, typically with three points. They begin to grow their antlers in November, shedding the velvet from them in the spring. By summer, they are ready for the rutting season. After mating, they shed their antlers in October and begin to grow a new set.

Roe deer live in areas of mixed countryside that includes woodland, farmland, grassland and heathland. They eat buds and leaves from trees and shrubs, as well as ferns, grasses and heathers.

A slender, medium-sized deer, the roe deer has short antlers and no tail. It is mostly brown in colour, turning reddish in the summer and darker grey in the winter. It has a pale buff patch around its rump.

Red Kite

This magnificently graceful bird of prey is unmistakable with its reddish-brown body, angled wings and deeply forked tail. It was saved from national extinction by one of the world’s longest-running protection programmes. It has now been successfully re-introduced to England and Scotland. Red kites are listed under Schedule 1 of The Wildlife and Countryside Act.

Buzzard

Now the commonest and most widespread UK bird of prey. The buzzard is quite large with broad, rounded wings, and a short neck and tail. When gliding and soaring it will often hold its wings in a shallow ‘V’ and the tail is fanned. Buzzards are variable in colour from all dark brown to much paler variations, all have dark wingtips and a finely barred tail. Their plaintive mewing call could be mistaken for a cat. Buzzards tend to eat small mammals, birds and carrion.