Leighton Moss - Red Deer

On a beautiful Bank holiday morning I made the early hours trip up to Leighton Moss to get in the hides as the dawn broke, to hopefully get some nice shots of the Red Deer, hopefully some good stag shots. What a morning it was, with not a soul around there was a lot of Deer out in the open around the pools, and being quiet moving about I was rewarded, and well pleased I made the effort of getting up at 5.30am on a bank holiday morning.

This elegant stag waded through the pool right in front of me











His antler points are nicely sharpened for the forthcoming rutt.



I dont think that they will be this friendly to each other over the coming weeks





A hind with her offspring





This hind came so close to me, within 10 yards, I was holding my breath as i fired the shutter!!















I saw this Marsh Harrier flying low across the reed beds towards me, hoping it stayed on course and flew close by, thankfully it did





I think this is a Whitethroat, that refused to fully expose itself out of the reeds.



Down at the Eric Morecambe hide overlooking the saltwater pools, there was lots of Little Egrets, Redshank, and a Kingfisher just not close enough to the hide, but nice to see nonetheless.

















This one had a good shake and fluffed up all its feathers





On the way home called in at Warton Crag, in the faint hope of catching a Peregrine, and there was one perched high up on the cliff face, well out of range for a decent shot, but pleased with the record shot



A superb morning at a delightful place, and so glad I made the effort to get up early, those arriving as I left dont know what they missed!!