Red Deer Rut at Chasewater

It was still dark when I left the house this morning, just a short drive to Chasewater in Staffordshire to see if I could find any Red Deer. It’s Rutting Season, so hoped to get some views of testosterone fuelled Stags.

Couldn’t believe my luck! As soon as I started to walk along a path through the heath area the well known large Stag appeared in front of me. I followed him for a while and even accidentally got within a few feet, luckily with a fence separating us. I stalked him for a while and could see a great shot through the trees with the sun lighting just one of his eyes so quickly grabbed a snap.

Some of the hinds started to walk back in the direction that they came so I moved along and set myself up for the Stag to come out into a clearing. I waited for a long time before hearing him bellowing about 500 meters away! He managed to give me the slip.

I decided to make my way towards the noise, stopping to snap this Hind just coming out of the trees to cross in front of me

Once I located him again, wasn’t hard as not only was he making a loud noise, but there was also about 12 people on a banking watching and photographing him. He was a long way away and although I could of got closer, I didn’t want to get too close in case he charged me. So it was a waiting game. They moved, we all moved. Then 2 of the photographers started to walk down a path towards them, I didn’t think this was a good idea, but had an idea that the whole herd would move when they saw them.

So, I grabbed all my kit and ran up over the banking back towards the same heath area I found the Stag earlier in hope that they would run towards that area. It paid off, soon enough the herd including the Stag came running along which meant I had about 20 minutes close, but at a safe distance and managed the rest of the shots. There were a few young Stags around and the big older Stag kept chasing them away. There were no antler battles as there wasn’t another Stag big enough to challenge him.