Autumn Splendour

I decided to get to Bushy Park this morning to photograph the sunrise and the rutting stags. I set my alarm early and was at the park by 6.50am....and then had to wait outside the locked gates for 40 minutes as I did not realise that it did not open until 7.30am due to the culling season. I thought that the culling was finished last week, but no, I was wrong.

By the time I got into the park the sun had risen and the stags seemed to be hiding. I took a few photos of the birds and then decided to move to another part - on my way I met another photographer and we ended up spending the morning together as we were both a little nervous of the stags. There was a very bossy stag near the main road through the park who amused us all morning. His herd kept wanting to cross the road but he would not allow them to escape and so he would run after a female as she tried to get away - each time bringing the flow of cars on this road to a standstill. He kept crossing and re-crossing this road, chasing after the females - poor chap, he was probably exhausted by the end of the morning. The autumn colours seemed particularly noticeable in that area of the park and I loved the colours framing this stag as he was crossing the road yet again. I have added a set of my photos on flickr if you would like to see them.

It was quite cool this morning, autumn is definitely here now. I was pleased to get home to a hot cup of tea and breakfast.