Yesterday evening we had a stewards meeting at the New Forest Showground, so hubby and i got our chips and drove over the show ground to eat them before the meeting started.
Imagine our delight when the red deer were close to the office in the horse fields we had a private veiwing for roughly an hour and a spectacular show it was.
One stag we named Big Boy cause he was just that; huge, thick neck, wonderful head and was roaring for all he was worth.
Two contenders were hovering around a group of about 20 hinds. Big Boy was defending a group of 10 girls that i can only assume were coming into season because he wasn't bothered about the spare 20 girls the other boys were looking at.
One big contender came up to him and a lot of serious chasing took place. After he'd seen him off BB took his place in front of his 10 girls again.
No actual clash of heads took place but you could almost smell the testosterone in the air and the noise was incredable.
These deer are wild and can come and go as they please but they prefer the good pasture near the showground.T hey are so used to people coming and going that they took no notice of us 30 feet away from them.
We made sure that we had a bolt hole ( show office) to get in to if BB decided we were a threat to his girls.
A stag like that could easily have killed us if he wanted.
All through our meeting he bellowed away and the staff said this was the first time this year and it would get even louder as the Rut continued! no wonder the males loose so much condition, having to defend their harem like that.
It was dark when we left and BB was still at it, i hope he keeps his girls with a singing voice like that he deserves too.
Topic: My very own Autumn watch (Read 5013 times)
