ROE deer were much in evidence during an evening walk along the Upper Hillfoots Road between Dollar and Muckhart.

As darkness fell, I could hear a couple of buck roes barking at each other from a thick stand of spruce trees. It is still too early for them to be thinking about mating, but I suspect they were beginning to mark out their territories.

The bucks are already looking resplendent with their short-pronged antlers.

Charles St. John, the 19th century naturalist, said of the roe: “They are so shy and nocturnal in their habits that they seldom show themselves in the daytime.”

Oh, how things have changed.

Then, roes were much scarcer, but nowadays they are common and frequently seen at all times of the day. Indeed, not long after hearing the barking roes, I saw a female trotting down the lane ahead of me.

But it was not just the roes that were making their presence felt. The wavering and haunting call of a tawny owl echoed from the same stand of trees. Tawnies will have young in their nests just now and the adults are not normally vocal at this time of year.

Shortly after, I heard a most unusual sound – a jumble of high pitched crooning notes.

I wasn’t sure what it was at first but then a jay flew across the road. Normally, jays have the most hideous call – a strangulated screeching – but this one was uttering its courtship call, and one I don’t recall having ever heard before.

Jays are great hoarders and will bury nuts and seeds over considerable distances.

It is thought that the jay takes careful note of obvious landmarks such as bushes and boulders near where each acorn is stored so that they can be found later in winter when food is less abundant.

However, the sheer number of seeds involved means that a reasonable proportion will never be retrieved and it is likely that the bird plays an important role in the spread of oak and other trees to new areas.