Red Deer in Windsor Great Park - Page 2
November 6, 2006
November 6, 2006
Eventually we reached the fence that encloses a thousand acres of the parkland for the red deer. There is a lovely little Victorian cottage next to the fence where the gate crosses The Long Walk. I have to say I am envious of the park worker who lives there. Just imagine having the Queen's back garden as your own.
Imagine yourself living here
Now we had to start scanning the fields to either side of The Walk. Just because the deer were seen near The Copper Horse last week didn't mean they were still in the vicinity. A thousand acres is a lot of land for deer to disappear into.
At this point I have to admit that my eyes are not the greatest, even with my glasses, so I was happy to have "Hawkeye" Steve along. Eventually he stopped and pointed off to our right. I looked... I squinted... I peered... and gave up. "Where?", I finally asked. He pointed again, to the largest of several clumps of trees away in the distance, and said to look just to the right of it. "They're laying down.", he said. I still couldn't see them.
Leaving The Long Walk behind we headed towards the trees. The grass is still short but we could clearly see the 'deer paths' criss-crossing the fields and here and there the well defined impressions where the deer had lain overnight. Soon enough even I could see the deer. Off to our right was a lone stag, a magnificent old fellow with a huge rack. He was out in the open and I didn't want to spook him, so I tried for a shot from a distance. Oh what I would give to have a digital SLR with telephoto lens. My poor old Minolta is a nice enough little camera but just doesn't cut the mustard sometimes. In the photo below there is a crow sitting on the stag (the crow is the smaller of the two if you can't tell which is which
). I'm wondering if the crows here are behaving like oxpeckers and feeding on parasites on the deer; in another of my pictures there is a crow on a hind (female red deer).
Lone Stag With Crow
Straight ahead was the main herd. Just how big a group it was I didn't know until I got home later and saw the photos. Most of them were lying down in the shadows which made it hard to see them all with sun in my eyes.
Still a fair way off was the main body of the herd
The trees in The Great Park are another of it's attractions. There are oak trees here that are more than 500 years old; and some, to quote from thamesweb, "..... oaks remain in Windsor Great Park that are old enough to have been around in William's time." (William the Conqueror - reigned 1066 - 1087). I come from the east coast of the USA, where the ancient woodlands were logged. Most large trees there are 100 to 200 years of age with older ones a rarity. I am well impressed with the trees in Great Britain.