Richmond Park Red & Fallow Deer

You may have seen or heard of the Fenton Youtube clip which sees a dog running amok amongst the deer, well that happened in Richmond Deer Park which I recently visited with my wife, and chose now because it is the deer rutting season. 

It proved easy to find and I'll try and highlight were my visit took me so that it can be a sort of reference. I drove through the park and saw Red Deer almost as soon as I turned in. I then parked up in the Roehampton Gate carpark to the East and four things stood out; it was also full of cyclists, we found parking space very easily at 8:45 on  a Saturday, it was a surprise to find that it was free and the Italian café there serves up real deal cafe lattés.

 

After a drink we headed out towards the centre and then had a rough route in mind to ultimately head for the view point in the South West. as we set off the loud and constant chatter of the Ring-necked Parakeets (page here) became obvious and didn't really subside during our visit. They weren't the only birds but they were the most common, along with Jackdaws.

 

Our route took us past two large collections of deer to the West of where we parked with a couple of males on or around the rugby pitches...What happens if they won't move for a game?! 

Even in this most  open and public space there were stags doing some pretty impressive bellowing. Again, the white lines show that this is near the rugby pitches previously mentioned. I was of course keen to get some snaps but equally mindful that the testosterone levels around the park were high so I did keep a respectable distance.

Up to this point we'd only seen Reds but chanced upon a mixed herd just a short distance away, and if you look in the centre of the picture you can see two Fallow bucks locking antlers. This went on for some minutes but I wasn't sure of it wasn't younger ones posturing because when they stopped neither left the scene.

 

Whilst the antler locking was going on there were Red stags still bellowing and large Fallow bucks (as well as young and females) within the mixed herd. We soon had White Lodge on our left and reached the two ponds and the bellowing of the Reds was still very audible, as we reached another testosterone bellowoff.

This big boy...

Bellowed at this big boy...

Who then bellowed back...

And then, well you get the picture.

I got a short burst of the bellowing (albeit done in little bursts as opposed to one long one). You can hear the Parakeets in the tree tops on the audio.

We kind of made up our route after passing the Tercentenary Plantation car park, but not before seeing this male  Red catching lots of dead grass in it's antlers repeatedly, and then having a Jackdaw land on it's rump. 

 The most Parakeet action was roughly in the area around Prince Charles Spinney and Gibbet wood where they seemed at their most concentrated. This page details one individual that deftly removed and processed a Sweet Chestnut in front of us.

 

At several points there were tick warning posters and there was indeed a lot of bracken about with this batch rather trampled and I'm guessing a male has turfed the shredded stuff out onto the path with his antlers?

We had meandered where the mood took us and had gone the wrong side of the Isabella Plantation to reach the view point. We instead reached Broomfield Hill Wood car park, and after a quick drink at the café, decided to head back along the road to where our car was parked. As we set off we thought we'd seen a large deer lying down by the road...

 

Remember I started with the Fenton link? Despite lots of advisory posters we saw this dog chasing a Red Stag and several Hinds around. The sad thing is it then ran off and it went some way until it disappeared from view so goodness knows where the ineffectual owner was.

We were interested to see how full our carpark was at midday on a sunny Autumn morning, and to our surprise there were still around 20% of the spaces free which bodes well for a visit at most times. As I've mentioned a  lot of places this is a link to the park map options page.

Ring-necked Parakeet Skills

My wife and I spent a most enjoyable day in Richmond Park with the view to seeing the Red and fallow Deer males strut their rut stuff...And we did.

But the Ring-necked Parakeets tried to steal the show, with one in particular showing how adaptable and dexterous they are to help them survive in this colder clime. 

The story that Monkey Puzzle Trees get their name because the branches look like monkey's tails and it's a puzzle how many may be in the tree. Well the proliferation of Sweet Chestnuts generated a similar effect with the long leaves looking very similar to the Parakeet's slender shape as demonstrated above. A vibrant Emerald coloured bird that 'disappears' in the same way that Turquoise Kingfishers seem to.

It then stuck it's head out of cover and then flew down to the cluster of Chestnuts in the front to the picture.

It then flew to the side of the cluster, as opposed to the top, and then deftly bit off a leaf that was hindering its calorific progress.

 

Having removed the leaf that was in the way and sent it earthward it then attempted to extract a chestnut from a shell.

It soon realised that it wasn't going to get anywhere fast trying to reach in sideways and it soon moved to another shell for attempt number two. It's beak soon teased one out of the shell (which had split a little) and it started turning it in it's beak.

After a while it started to hold it with it's foot too to give it more purchase. Luckily it was so engrossed in it's feeding that it was quite biddable as I snapped away. A bird that isn't everyones favourite but this individual was quite enchanting.

It wasn't the only bird to taking advantage of the chestnut bounty because literally two trees further on this Jackdaw extracted  one and then took it to the ground and pecked it to remove the skin. We also wondered if the Parakeets are found of acorns because we didn't see one in any Oak tree we remembered to look in, the Squirrels can't have had them all can they?