The Forest of Dean part six

 We visited the Nagshead Nature Reserve which has a couple of hides. We found the Lower Hide with little trouble but unfortunately, we didn’t see anything there. The Campbell Hide proved slightly more difficult (for us) to find. We left Lower Hide and headed back to the carpark for a bite of bait. After bait we saw a sign for the Campbell Hide which was pointing to a path which went uphill. However, to be on the safe side we asked a fellow photographer for directions. He said follow the path then turn left. We did this for probably ¾ of a mile and did not find the hide so we turned around and headed back to the carpark. On the way back we saw another photographer and asked him for directions he said as he was going to the hide, he would show us the way. It turned out the hide was no more than fifty yards from the carpark we had walked all that way for nowt. It wasn’t all for nowt after all because when we did finally get into the hide I did not expect to see half the things we saw. It’s because of this that this Blog has more images than I would normally use.

Fox Cub. It didn’t look up once and I didn’t see any adult so I hope it was ok.

Fallow Deer.

Hawfinch.

Spotted Flycatcher.

It’s not often you get Firecrest (only the second time I have seen one) and Spotted Flycatcher in the same frame.

Firecrest.

Goldcrest.

Male Pied Flycatcher.

Female Pied Flycatcher.

Blackcap.

Mistle Thrush.

Song Thrush.

Male Siskin.

Female Siskin.

Treecreeper.

Goldfinch.

Blackbird.

Wren.

Blue Tit.

Studley Royal

 Studley Royal deer park is home to three different type of deer Red, Fallow and Manchurian Sika. Unfortunately, there was not much rutting going on between the red deer stags while we were there last Tuesday. However, one red deer stag was doing a lot of bellowing and posturing and at one point he did chase a younger stag off but that was it. We did see some of the younger stags practising for when they get older by locking horns but it was nothing like the real thing. A couple of the images here are quite graphic but that is the nature of the rutting season.

This was the only Fallow deer we saw.

Sika deer stag.

A couple of Sika deer stags together.

A Sika deer fawn.

A couple of visitors were getting quite close to these Sika deer so they were running back to the larger herd.

Red deer bellowing a warning to other stags.

A couple of younger stags “play fighting.”

These two stags could hear the bellowing from quite a distance.

This stag does not look pleased to see me.

This was the stag that was doing most of the bellowing and posturing.

Sniffing the air to check if any of the females are ready for mating.

More play fighting between the younger stags.

A portrait of one of the younger stags.

My favourite image from the day.