Another early start today to go again to Richmond Park to see the deer rut. We could see mist alongside the M3 and hoped that we would have mist inside the park. The gates were open early at 6.45 am. The road around the park to Pen Ponds from Richmond Gate was open. To my surprise the car park at Pen Ponds was empty and we could see the mist had lifted.
The good news was that we could hear stags baying all around us. In the large open area past the car park we watched two young stags.
Nearby a stag watched and bayed at them as he guarded his harem.
We walked around the ponds and the large stag I had seen earlier in the month had an even larger harem. While we watched he added three more as he chased away all comers.
Away on the hill other stags were baying so he added some greenery to his antlers!
I had read about how my 100-500 lens could be used for macro, here’s a spider’s web as I tried it out.
Such trust.
Back down by the ponds we watched young stags and a few does. This doe was taking a lot of interest in a hanging branch.
Our last part of the park to visit was on top of the hill where in previous years we had encountered large groups of deer. Sadly up there there were just a couple of stags.
We left the top of the hill and walked down to the wood below, looking back one of the stags was now silhouetted against the sky.
Back at the car park it was my round for tea and bacon rolls. No queues at the cafe was explained as they had no electricity and were closed! We drove back to Richmond Gate and then down the other side of the park to Pembroke Lodge car park. The cafe there could only serve tea as they had yet to sort out the latest food safety labels and were not allowed to cook!