Red Deer rut morning walk 4th October

A cloudy and mild morning. Highlights were Red Deer, Fallow Deer and a Dartford Warbler.

14 of us met at Puttles Bridge car park and set out through the woods towards the large heathy glade where the Red Deer normally rut. The rutting refers to the stags as they call (a bellow, a bit like a cow) and fight off any rival males. We stopped briefly to look at, and smell, the Bog Myrtle growing in a damp area and heard a few Robins singing.
As we came out of the trees onto the open heath we saw a Red Deer stag with 12 points to his antlers. He was sitting in the heather not too far off. As we scanned across the heather we could pick out 3 more stags with smaller antlers. We waited and watched. The first stag stood up and wandered about bellowing for a while. What an atmospheric sound. Much nearer in the woods just across the heath we saw a herd of Fallow Deer including two white one ones and several stags with their palmate antlers.
We walked along the edge of the woodland and then out across the heath on the path. The 12 pointer stag wandered around more. A couple of times, younger stags emerged from the woods and wandered towards the 12 pointer. However all he needed to do was stand up and the younger ones turned and fled! We did see a bit of action in that 2 of the younger stags did have a tussle with heads down and antlers locked. An exciting sight. We also saw a Dartford Warbler singing on top of a gorse bush.
Altogether an exciting deer watch with more action than I thought we would see.
Simon Curson