Richmond Park Rut 22/09/2017

My friend Dave and I travelled up to Richmond Park early, so that we were at the park gates as they were opened, we went straight to the car park and put our gear together, I was using my Canon 5dmk4 with EF 500mm f4 L IS + 1.4x extender Tripod with Gimble head.
It was a lovely morning, perfect conditions hardly a breath of wind but a tad on the warm side, Stags could be heard bellowing / roaring as soon as we opened the car door !

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The above was my first shot of the day, the stag was looking out of the trees into the rising sun which left me with a nice silhouette. There was lots of bellowing going on but we didnt see any actual rutting or postering between stags, although we were informed by some other toggers that there was some rutting taking place.

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This one was just emerging from the cover of the trees and had a bit of Oak tree adorning his antlers and a Jackdaw riding shotgun, looking for ticks.

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The above Stag was laying down in the sun keeping a watchful eye on his group of hinds, ( Harem ), with his personal groomer in attendance.

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He decided that he had to respond to all the bellowing going on, he got up and started adding his own bellows informing any would be competitors that his harem of hinds were his and his alone !

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He then proceeded to round up his hinds into a tighter group so they were easier to defend against any competitors.

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Once he had rounded up his hinds he continued to bellow to ward off competitors.

Equipment wise, using a long prime lens (700mm) is preferable as it keeps you at a safe distance from the deer so that you dont disturb them, it is not always the best tool for the job however, as the only way to adjust the frame is to get in closer or back away to ensure you have enough room to crop the scene to your liking.

If I had the equipment I would take a second body with a 100-400mm lens on which would give loads of flexibility when framing a shot and is light enough for hand holding.  

On the whole it was a good day but I feel it would have been better had the weather been colder as the stags would have remained active for longer, and their breath would have been visible as they were bellowing, but there is always another day. 

Pegwell Country Park 14.9.2017

A bright start to the morning with light winds, I headed off to Restharrow Scrape just to check water levels more than anything still extremely low, no bird life at all, headed back to Pegwell where there was lots of activity.
As I pulled in the first thing I saw was a Green Woodpecker on the grass looking for worms and ants etc it had a muddy beak where it had been probing into the ground.

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Plenty of Chiff Chaff, Blue Tits, Great Tits, Black Cap about until the resident Kestrel flew over, everything dived into dense cover and didn't come out for some time, ( I don't blame them)

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The wind really started to pick up so I started heading back to the car, snapped a few on the way

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Not a very productive morning but autumn is just around the corner and the leaves will be dropping which will make spotting easier.

Pegwell Bay And Stone Lees 1.9.17

Lovely morning popped down to Pegwell Bay Country Park the first bird I saw was this  very damp looking House Sparrow with a beak full of delicious bugs.

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All of these pictures and more can be found on my flikr page: 

https://www.flickr.com/photos/92090785@N03/with/36125314664/

I carried on walking through the park very quiet spotted a couple of pied wagtails but they were scared off by a dog walker before I could get a picture of them ! I walked up into Stone Lees again still very quiet a few goldies flitting about but on the whole very little activity.

On the way back just as I was about to exit Stone Lees I spotted movement in a bush off to my left, I planted my tripod and there was more movement, a bunch of Long Tailed Tits were flitting about.

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 These lovely little birds were then joined by a pair of Blue Tits who then proceeded to bully the LTT's into leaving the bush !!

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Then I noticed one bird had been left behind turned out to be a Chiffchaff !

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The LTT's decided that the BT's weren't going to scare them off for long and returned where they carried on flitting about feeding etc.

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Yet again this session was terminated by a dog walker, they really are the most inconsiderate people, she could see I was taking pictures and could easily have gone along another parallel path, but nope I walk my dog this way and that's where I am walking my dog no matter what anyone else is doing for enjoyment !

I expect she is one of those people that doesn't clear up behind her beloved four legged friend or launches the bag of doggy dodo into the bushes at the earliest opportunity !

With the bush now empty I headed off home for my 1st cup of tea of the day.