Rutting season

In the past years Peter and I visited the National Park De Hoge Veluwe to capture red deer during the rutting season. This year was no exception.
We arrived in the park around 10.00 am and started with coffee, pie and later a nice lunch as well. We walked and biked through the park, mostly looking for nice landscapes. We knew we wouldn't see any deer during daylight.

Around 15.30 we picked a spot where we believed deer would come out of the woods during the twilight. By then the big waiting game started. 

Around 17.30 a few more photographers joined, and by 18.30 the game was on. 4 big stags came out of the woods, as expected and a few groups with female deers followed. What a great sight!

Unfortunately the distance was quite far, I guess at least 200 meters from us. We were hoping that they would come closer but they didn't. The wind came from the wrong direction. I came from behind us towards the deer and on top of that, somebody (80meters on our right) had had the brilliant idea to take his dog along. The barking didn't help to get them any nearer.
Also the light wasn't too great. It had been sunny all day, but around 17.00 clouds started blocking the sunlight.

Therefore the photos I took suffer from a lot of noise and too small subjects. Most of them can go straight to the bin.
But I must confess I do like the result in todays blip. It give a good impression of the atmosphere, at least to me it does.

It was a great day anyway! New chances next year!


Previous rutting seasons:
2018
2020