In a Rut

I have spent the last few mornings at Tatton Park, watching and photographing the rutting Red and Fallow Deer. Tatton is home to several hundred deer and between late September and November, the stags proclaim their right to mate with the hinds, but only the strongest males succeed. The males bellow and call to intimidate weaker males, but if the fails a tussle then breaks out with the males locking antlers, fighting for dominance. They clashes are often very brief or can last several minutes - occasionally the antlers lock and the outcome can then be fatal if the stags don't disentangle. All images were taken with Canon 5DMK IV and the Canon 600mm f/4 (some with the MkIII 1.4x convertor)

With the warm weather over the weekend, there was little chance of the "classic" shot of a male calling and his breath showing, highlighted by the low sun - Still there's always the next visit!

Below are images from the weekend.

Just a few of the Red Deer at Tatton

Bellowing out

"Why stand when you can make a noise laying down?"

At times the 600mm f/4 and 1.4x were a bit overkill!!

"Do my antlers look big in this?"

The chase is on.

Time for battle

Although the focus of the workshops and photography session was to witness the Rut, there was still plenty of opportunities to capture the hinds and their fawns, some of which were still spotted.

Time for a drink

The leaves turning colour provided a nice complimentary background for this fawn.

Pale Fallow Deer

Young Fallow Deer sparring