R and I went back to Charlecote today, leaving home in warm sunshine and arriving half an hour later under glowering cloud. With hindsight, it’s obvious that we should have walked the park straight away, or at least taken a good look at the local weather forecast, but it was lunchtime and we were feeling snackish, so instead we started our visit at the Orangery café. The depth of this mistake became clear when we stepped outside again forty minutes later, into cold, driving rain.
“I’ll have to go anyway,” I said, “because I need a photo. But you don’t have to – why don’t you just go for another coffee?” R declined to be saved from the elements though, and we set off together into West Park. By the time we turned up the carriage drive it was teeming down, and I could see from the look on his face that R wasn’t convinced by my prediction that, given the brighter sky visible beyond the black cloud that was currently moving over the park, as soon as the edge of the cloud cleared the area the rain would ease.
We were picking our way up the drive, trying to stay under cover of the trees lining the north side of it, when we suddenly spotted this buck, lying under a tree on the opposite side. We were very close to him, and as we froze the three of us watched each other warily, but I’ve encountered solitary bucks during the rut before, and I was reasonably confident that as long as we didn’t go closer, or make any sudden or threatening moves, he would stay were he was. I always feel sorry for these deer, because I tend to assume that they’re old and have realised they can’t compete in the rut any longer – but looking more closely at this buck, now I can do it from the safety of my desk, he doesn’t actually look all that old, and based on the mud and grass attaching to the central tine on his right side, his antlers, which aren’t especially impressive, have seen some recent action. So it’s actually likelier that he’d sparred and lost, and like the loser in my second photo last week, had fled the scene and was just resting and regrouping before going back to the herd.
Once I had a few photos from this angle (at very low shutter speed and high ISO, because the light under the trees was Stygian), I walked a little way back down the drive, crossed over, and went out past the trees so that I could see him in better light. He kept watching me, but by this time he was chewing cud and looked relatively relaxed, so I was able to take a few more shots (which as it turns out, I don’t like as much as this one) before walking away and leaving him to his solitary rest. And, just for the record, I was right about the weather: by the time we left the park, the rain had virtually stopped.
Before I go, I must say thank you to everyone who said nice things about yesterday’s Bittern. I get so few chances to photograph them that I’m always thrilled when I manage it, and it makes me happy to know that so many other people enjoy seeing them too.
