Oh, Deer

Instead of kipping under the duvet and enjoying the extra hour, I decided to head over to Woburn deer park for a wander. 

It would either have been heaving at the supermarket or everyone would have stayed at home to watch the rugby.

At first glance there didn't seem to be much close at hand, but after the long trek up the hill past the Abbey I was pleased to see lots of red deer, quite a bit of bellowing but very little rutting. 

Undeterred I took lots of shots of males rounding up their females or just sitting enjoying the sun.

Heading back down the way I'd come there was a bit of antler bashing slightly out of range for anything decent picture-wise, but as I came over the hill I could see the path was blocked by a large herd of red deer and got several decent shots of the females and the male, who was carefully moving them off the path.

I stopped at the bottom of the path to talk to a ranger who was listening to the rugby in his truck and got the latest score.  Such a shame Wales lost, but we can look forward to a good match next weekend.

I've added some extras.