Fallow Deer rut 2007: Part one

A couple of clear nights and light frosts made me think that it would probably be worth getting out to see if the Fallow Deer in the nearby forests were starting thier rut. It was, I knew, a little bit early, but with the weather forcast to be more hard frosts on the way, I thought that it might kick start them into action a bit earlier than usual.

The first morning out was in some open woodland with meadowland in and around the wood. It was a good clear and cold morning as I made my way quietly out through the wood to some open rough grassland. I kept in the shadows of the trees untill it was light enough to see to be able to move forward to the edge of the trees. In the darkness I had heard one or two half hearted bellows of a rutting buck. As it got light I could see he was out on the open grassland but was not alone.

He was already in the company of over fifty other Fallow Deer in small broken groups all over the grassland, and as it got lighter, more and more deer came out from the surrounding woodland untill there were over seventy out and about. This particular buck was by far the best one out there but by no means in his prime. He did come up nice and close though and I was able to get one or two nice photos of him. A Fox also appeared later on and was followed very closely by a Fallow doe, but they were just too far off to get a good enough picture of them. I did eventually manage to call the Fox in, but it came in so quick and fast it was impossible to keep track of it in the grass and I never got a good enough shot of it.

Eventually the deer all drifted back into the shelter and the safety of the wood and I headed home. On my way home though I stopped a couple of times in the gateways of one of the larger forests just to have a listen. I was in luck. In one of the spots I stopped I could hear in the distance a Fallow buck bellowing quite well which was a suprise, as I thought this to be about a week too early to hear a buck bellowing so hard. I made up my mind to try for this buck the following morning.

The next morning brought the hardest frost so far and this spurred the Fallow into action. I found the buck I had heard the prevoius morning, fairly easy. He was a very good 'master' buck with several doe's in attendance. They were out on an open rough part in the forest but again just too far off for a good picture and there was no way to get any closer to him. There was plenty of other bellowing going on and one in particular was just in the edge of the trees not too far away. And as I stood watching the master buck the other one came out of the trees.

He was no match for the master buck though being only about five years old. He stood for a while just watching and then started to come in my direction. I knew he was going to come across the slight breeze that there was and catch my scent. And indeed he did, stopping dead and looking straight in my direction trying to see where I was. This though presented a nice picture as he had quite a lot of grass hanging off of his antlers where he had been thrashing the ground in frustration. I was able to get a few good shots of him before he turned and trotted off back into the trees.

Two mornings later and I was back in the same forest but in a different part. As soon as I got out of the car I could hear a Fallow buck bellowing hard on his rutting stand. It was only about five minutes walk to him, but it took me about half an hour. There was no dampness on the ground and not hardly any breeze, so progress towards him had to be very slow and methodical. At last I got to within about sixty metres of him, but he was at the top of a gully and behind quite thick undergrowth. I could see him through the binoculars at times and could see he was another good master buck. But it was just impossible to get a good picture of him as he moved around his rutting stand chasing off lesser bucks and keeping his doe's with him.

I had now moved in about another ten metres which had taken a further half hour to do so. Not only were the leaves very dry and noisy, I had to be very careful of other deer coming and going. There seemed to always be a smaller buck moving about on the edge of the rutting stand just chancing his luck! I had been sitting watching for about twenty minutes or so, when all of the sudden, five or six of the doe's became very alert and looked in my direction. I had not moved a muscle but the wind had. A slight breeze had just swirled in the gully and taken my scent with it. They still had not seen me but the damage was done. They were not sure but hesitatingly they moved off and into deeper woodland.

I have had this happen plenty of times, and although frustrating there is nothing you can do about it. It can be the stillest of all mornings and one puff of wind can ruin several hours work. I am quite used to it now and just find it all part of the challenge. I stayed where I was for ten minutes or so and then slowly moved off the same way I had come. I decided to just quietly walk some of the rides in the hope of coming across a good master buck somewhere. Was I going to be able to get near enough to one this rut to get some good shots? I was begining to wonder.....?