The 'Old' Guy

A cracking morning, misty conditions but the orange orb of the sun giving everywhere a golden hue.  Turning up at the rutting fields I could hear three distinctly different roars in front of me and to the left and the right.  I worked myself around to a position where I could see a small group of females and hear one of the stags continuing to call out.  After what seemed an age this magnificent stag moved out from a small copse of trees.  

Watching him for about 15 minutes he kept close to the tree line, on one occasion chasing off a young male with very immature antlers.  He looks to be favouring his left hind leg with a slight limp, which made me wonder if he'd already been involved in some rutting.  You can clearly see the preorbital gland next to his eye which produce pheromones and semiochemical compounds.  These are used to attract females and are rubbed on branches to signal to other animals.  I'll admit before researching them I'd wondered if he'd been injured by another stag's antlers.


No actual rutting took place, but the noise from the area certainly suggested the possibility in the next few days.

After that we met friends for lunch, able to eat outside at a pub alongside a canal before a lovely afternoon walk.  It might be the last of the good weather, at least for a while.