Red deer rut in Richmond Park
Monday, 19. October 2009, 20:15:46
Carrying on with my photos from my visit to Richmond Park with Daniel Bridge (see his blog in the side bar), the main reason for visiting was the red deer rut. Although I saw very little actual rutting, the stags were certainly displaying rut behaviour. One thing I noticed lots of them doing on the day was licking their lips as they approached the hinds (females), as the first stag I came across was doing
The next stag we came across was defending his harem (group of hinds), calling out in the way only a red deer does, to warn of the other stags
One of the hinds posed nicely too
I got some close ups of the stag
Including one of him sticking out his toungue
Much of the calling of the above stag was directed at this young stag, who wandered too close a few times
We had to be careful not to get in the way a few times, as the large stag chased of the younger challenger.In fact a bit later a larger stag came running down the hill towards the large stag and his harem. Expecting some action we headed swiftly after it, only to see the large stag beat a hasty retreat and surrender his harem without a fight!
And finally for today he is another young stag, which was wandering about on its own near the fallow deer in Fridays post. I really like the lighting on these two
More deer tommorow, but with a difference....
(100%)
WIDGETIZE
Dudley # 19. October 2009, 20:42
Anonymous # 19. October 2009, 20:46
Some great shots there - love the down the throat shot and the light on the last two is great!
RobinL # 19. October 2009, 21:32
I image, that like our Elk, they make quite a racket at this time of the year.
Wulpen # 20. October 2009, 18:12
Words # 20. October 2009, 23:32
Flying Red Fox Blog # 24. October 2009, 09:58
Ukwildlife # 24. October 2009, 10:14
@ mark - Ive seen Roe deer on the train, in fact I once found a leaflet on viewing wildlife from the train which mentioned this!