Ashridge Estate Herts - Coprinopsis picacea "Magpie Inkcap" Mushrooms

On a walk to see the Fallow Deer rut on the Ashridge Estate the traditional rutting grounds were disappointingly quiet with not a buck to be seen (possibly due to either the field in the woodland being used as a film set location last year right in the middle of the rut or the winter culling of the deer bringing numbers drastically down and making the deer more nervous of people) and so I turned my attention to the wonderful fungi in the surrounding woods.

Amongst the several varieties I found were the photogenic and poisonous Magpie Ink Cap Mushrooms (see also post of 14th Nov 2011).

One just appearing out of the leaf litter....

...to mature....

....before the gills drip liquid carrying their spoors and disintegrating (they deliquesce) ...

...to nothing.

NW Scotland - Clashnessie and Eddrachillis Bay

More photos of the NW of of Scotland in September this year

 

Beautiful Classnessie Bay.  Apparently the cottge here featured in a Snowcem advert.

Ripples in the river catching the light as it ran across the sand into the sea.





 

Eddrachillis Bay from near Drumbeg with the island of Handa in the background.  Pity the visibility was not better

 

Nearby, autumn colours of the bracken and heather frame this lone Red Deer Stag surveying the moor at the begining of the rut as the light begins to disapperar.

Woburn - Red and Fallow Deer

An evening's drive through Woburn Park this week.  If only these animals were truly wild, I would have been really pleased with these  photographs.

The Red Deer's antlers are in velvet.  An impressive number of antler points on the stag at the back.

Whilst most of the stags were in a loose herd, this stag was on his own. He had lost the velvet on the antlers, presumably by rubbing them through the grass or against trees.  I didn't see any others in the same condition. If it had been the Autumn, I would have thought it was the beginning of the rut.  Perhaps it is the poor summer temperatures that have confused him?

A young Red Deer, I think showing signs of his first year's antlers.

Fallow Deer in the parkland, with their beautiful spotted summer coats.  I suspect that the fallow deer at Woburn have been selectively culled over the years to avoid the darker melanistic coats that predominate at Ashridge and seen in the countryside.

An unusual Fallow Deer birth! I can assure you no photoshop used for the head.

Bucks chasing Doe at Ashridge

This weekend in the diminishing light of dusk a pair of Fallow Deer Bucks have singled out this Doe and are chasing her....

...can she get away?....
...more trouble...
...But the sight of the large stationary buck she has run towards stops one buck dead in his tracks.
I suspect it was a not a deliberate ploy on the doe's part. She continued running and circled round to join the group of does she had been broken out of, leaving all three rutting bucks frustrated.

Ashridge Fallow Deer Rut

The Fallow Deer Rut has been going on for 4 weeks and is now in full swing with at least a dozen bucks in the ancient deer field at Ashridge.

10 days ago, a Buck with a fine set of Palmate antlers in a hurry.
He already appears to have some battle damage on his flank.

He reaches a small group of does with two bucks in attendance.
This weekend the stags were still rutting hard. Activity increases towards dusk. This buck is having words with a young year old male deer with the begining of antlers called a prickett and also trying to keep his does in check.

Patience and hard work pay off with a buck mounting a doe just before dusk.
The other does are keeping their options open by sitting around!

The Rut at Ashridge

The 2011 rut had just started in Ashridge by the first weekend in October. Unfortunately the bucks throaty groaning and other rutting behaviour did not start until the light had gone and all photographs taken were poor.

However, this second October weekend, the bucks were already exhibiting full rutting behaviour when we arrived mid-afternoon, including parallel running developing into the classic palmate antler to palmate antler challenges.

Despite the dull weather and the distance to the deer I did manage a couple of photographs. This buck was on the edge of the main rutting area.
The main rutting area with 2 stags, sorry Fallow deer males are Bucks, calling. At least 7 bucks were in the surrounding area, all trying to attract the females.

I hope to take some photographs of the full range of behaviour by the time the rut ends towards the end of the month.