Fallow Deer

Spent a delightful morning recently up at Dallam Park, near Milnthorpe, primarily to photograph the herd of Fallow Deer that live in the parkland. It is a lovely place and it has some great walks around the surrounding area and stunning views across to the southern Lakes.

The purpose of the visit was to photograph the Fallow Deer, who were very difficult to get close to on the open parkland, but with a little patience and stealth got the shots I wanted. This elegant stag was obviously the dominant stag with a huge herd of hinds and some juvenile stags



Locating the herd in the vast parkland was the first job, and rising a crest was met by a lot of eyes looking at me



But they soon settled and by slowly creeping around got plenty of opportunities for pictures, which were a lot better when the sun came out really picking out the colours on their coats.






























I came across these stags on the other side of the river, I assume that these have been ousted by the dominant stag during the rutt and are now living a solitary life away from the herd.





The parkland is vast in size, this being the view down to Dallam Tower, the herd moved down to the left.



The weir down on the River Bela as it flows towards the estuary



The view to the southern and eastern fells from the top of Haverbrack



On the top of Haverbrack spent some time watching 3/4 Buzzards circling, until they were buzzed by the local crows















The area around haverbrack is home to thousands of Pheasants, bred for the shooting fraternity, but i think they are stunning birds, and the sun through the wood really highlights their colours.



Then back down through the woods, here a long tailed tit



Marsh Tit or Willow Tit, i am not sure, can anyone confirm?





A superb walk, and a real pleasure to get so close to the Fallow Deer.

Waxwings in Preston

Reading various websites it was apparent Waxwings had arrived also in Preston city centre in good numbers this year, so in the hope of seeing some more after the previous weeks visit to Barrow I visited Ribble Bank Street where there are quite a few Rowan trees covered in berries, and after a bit of tracking down found a group of maybe twenty birds. But unlike the flock from Barrow these birds where quite skittish and only came down to the berries for short periods and the slightest disturbance sent them off into the higher tree tops. Nevertheless it was great to see them in such an urban environment and i managed some shots in what was a quite gloomy morning.

Waxwings

This Autumn has seen a big influx of waxwings into the country, a flock had been reported as feeding on Rowan Trees in Barrow village near Whalley, so having never seen a Waxwing never mind photographed one I took myself across to Barrow on a lovely sunny cold morning, and boy I was not disappointed. Took 1000+ shots of which about 100 or so where to my satisfaction.