22nd - 23rd October - Burley Deer Park, New Forest, Hampshire

A few days away in the New Forest staying at the Burley Manor Hotel in Burley.  Unbeknown to me there was a park in front of the hotel and that deer came through late in the afternoon.  I didn't have my camera, but did have my phone. 

I was looking out for deer but expected to see Fallow Deer, so was very pleased to find that it was a large herd of Red Deer, including two very large stags that were well endowed with an impressive set of antlers.

Standing proud and tall, the red deer is our largest deer. With its massive antlers, it is an unmistakable deer.

In amongst the herd were a few young males, here two of them playing out the fighting techniques they will use when they mature.

The stags would walk around the females keeping them in check, smelling and tasting the air to see if any are in season.

A male red deer is called a 'stag', a female is called a 'hind'. The most characteristic feature of a male is the impressive, branched antlers, which can measure up to one metre in breadth and weigh as much as 15kg. Within a few weeks of shedding old antlers, new ones will start to grow. They are covered in a soft skin called 'velvet', which nourishes them with blood vessels. Antler-growing is an energy-intensive activity and stags often lose weight during this process.

In amongst the two stags and the hinds was a lone dark deer with a developing set of antlers, this was a male Sika deer and it was sneaking around in the hope of getting some sex!

The red deer has dark russet-brown fur, with a paler buff rump patch and a pale tail. Look out for herds of large, sturdy deer with branching antlers.

The stags have large, branching antlers, increasing in size as they get older. Stags let out great roars as the dominant male does his best to defend his hinds (mature female red deer) from young pretenders, strutting back and forth, tossing his antlers in an act of showmanship. Battle ensues with those not intimidated by his bellowing and bravado. Stags clash, linking antlers and shoving each other. It may look dramatic, but this is a ritualised fight, with the aim of settling the dispute and sorting out who’s boss, rather than inflicting damage.

The deer come past the hotel late afternoon and are then let into the field beyond the bullrushes.  They then spend the night there and I could hear the stags bellowing through the night.  There was a person in amongst them in the morning herding the deer back out of through the gates.  Bizarrely he was on a Penny Farthing and went by the name of Zen!

I would have liked to have had my camera with me, but was able to capture the deer and to be able to share them.  My first good views of Red Deer in the Forest.