As soon as I got close to my target area for the morning, I could hear the grunting/barking of a Fallow Buck as it was chasing a couple of Does around in the semi darkness. I followed them to the edge of some woodland and within a few minutes a rut was in motion. I have been usign my backup camera a lot recently and today I was able to use the video capture facility, and although the focus due to the darkness wasn't too good, the end result shows how argessive these Fallow are!
There seemed to be a large number of walkers in the New Forest today and the Fallow were constantly on the move, so I decided to go and see some Red Deer then pop back later when it was quieter.
It wasn't until early afternoon that I returned to the Fallows rutting grounds, and there were the usual grunting sounds coming from within the wooded areas. I took a while to approach a Buck that was grunting amongst some females. He lost his Does when someone spooked them from a nearby path so he went to his scrape, scratched his antlers into it then sat down. He continued to grunt for a short while then all went quiet.....he'd gone to sleep!
I slowly crept closer and snatched a few photographs then crept away leaving him in peace knowing that at this time of year, they use up an immense amount of energy in displaying, calling and rutting without sleeping and feeding for days on end.
I went back to the same area around an hour later and the Buck was awake, but still resting. I was suprised that he was so at ease having me in fairly close proximity and it was then that I realised he had an injury to his left eye, most probably due to rutting. Knowing he'd need all the rest he could, I retreated. The Buck let out a short double grunt as I walked off and I'd like to beleive he was thanking me for leaving him alone!
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