Photographing the Deer Rut

After a recent bout of ‘flu which laid me out for a week, and what seems like months of work with little time off, I couldn’t wait to get out and do some serious photography. The annual deer rut seemed like the perfect opportunity. Together with my OH we packed the gear up, made flasks of coffee and some sandwiches and headed off for Tatton Park in Cheshire. Tatton is a good venue as they have Red deer as well as Fallows there so it seemed like the best place without driving miles up to the Lakes or Scotland and we were not disappointed.

There were several herds of deer out grazing in the park when we arrived so we parked up down towards the Knutsford end and walked back. We took our time, keeping close to trees so as not to make our outlines too obvious to the deer and just gradually worked our way to a large grouping of trees where it looked like we could get a good vantage point. We were both dressed in khaki green and brown attire so as not to stand out and whilst it took quite a while, it paid off in that the deer barely noticed us and carried on behaving naturally. Perfect. I started getting some really nice shots of a group of young does grazing together and one young male who thought he might be in with a chance. One by one they rejected him with a polite flick of their tails except for one, who seemed to enjoy his attention and they nuzzled quietly together.

Unfortunately, a small group of people wearing brightly coloured anoraks started striding right into the middle of the herd, dispersing them completely and then shouted to each other that they couldn’t get close enough with their cameras to get any pictures. Why do people behave so stupidly - can they not see that it is their own behaviour which alerts and frightens the deer causing them to run?

So off we went again, spending another hour or so quietly moving up to another group of trees where we had seen the herd were heading, and just waited. This time it really paid off - I had got myself into a good position just as two young Fallow stags decided to have a go at each other and for about twenty minutes or so we were able to watch the parallel walking and strutting. They were so close you could hear the grunting very clearly and eventually, the clash occurred - heads down, antlers entwined. Both of these fairly young males were quite evenly matched in terms of size and weight so it made an interesting spectacle but there was no clear winner. A stand off followed and then they both walked off only to have another go a bit later and then another but still neither one appeared to emerge a winner. When you witness an event like this at such close quarters you realise just how much energy they expend - they can’t keep it up for long so need to keep breaking off and taking a rest before resuming. Another couple of males were setting to right behind the trees where I was kneeling - I could hear them clearly but could not see them so I waited, hoping they would come around to my side. One broke free and ran around the trees heading straight towards me but was too close for my telephoto lens to focus - when the other appeared, he had already lost one antler so was at a distinct disadvantage but it didn’t seem to bother him.

A small herd of Reds then appeared from behind us from within trees towards the Rostherne entrance so we followed them for a while but the stags were indifferent. A bit of snorting and groaning but that was about it. The Red deer rut is different to the Fallows in that the stags constantly try to keep their females in check and will aim to take the higher ground forcing an opponent to take a disadvantageous position. The Fallows on the other hand have this wonderful show of strength where two males parallel walk, each in an attempt to size up the other and see how big and strong they are, grunting and groaning a lot and snorting and pawing at the ground before turning and fighting.

We witnessed several other skirmishes during the afternoon. It was a bitterly cold day but the rain held off mostly, although we did have a couple of squally showers but nothing much to speak of. The hot coffee certainly was welcome as by late afternoon it was very cold indeed but we were further rewarded by some gorgeous light as the Fallow herd grazed peacefully, the stags lying down apparently exhausted from all the rutting and their females wandering freely and seemingly enjoying the peace and quiet. A fabulous day, spoiled only by the stupidity and lack of consideration shown by a few humans.