Deer Watching Wab Meet 2008

[Gypsy Orchid]

Hi guys I have been following your plans over the last few weeks and really interested to see how you got on even though I could not be there love the pics thanks for sharing the weekend
Sylv

[Dutchess]

Yes, thanks guys (and gals) Where did you all stay in the end? I suppose no-one camped after all? Was there a social/get-together in a pub afterwards? Or did I miss that bit...this thread seems to have been running forever

And Martin, your one-liner wasn't lost on me, intentional or not, it made me chuckle; "It was the giant puffballs that caused me to loose you all. "

Only on WAB...

D.

[pressld2]

Well I've sorted through my pics from Saturday but it will be another couple of days before I can get the Sunday ones done (and then I need to get back to the unidentified fungi from Cluimber the weekend before!).

Lets start with some pics of WAB members:


RobT searching for red deer on the heath.


jennyb


mbaldw


monkey


rogpow


Rookie 300d


RobT and jennyb


Group on the heath (including Steph and Deer Stalker)

There wasn't much happening on the heath so we headed over to the fallow deer area where Linda plied us with coffee & biscuits...


L to R: Rookie 300d, rogpow, steph, mbaldw, WhiskeyBottle, monkey, jennyb (behind monkey), Keith Talbot, RobT and Deer Stalker.

And if you need something to look at while you're drinking your coffee, how about this...?



As we made our way back to the heath there were a few deer visible in the distance and people got their cameras ready...



Back at the heath there was a herd of red deer visible near the tree line but there was no serious challenger to the big stag...



While we watched we were treated to a glorious sunset...



While across the other side of the heath, the Hunter's moon was just a couple of days away from full...



Just before we left the stag led his herd across the heath and they came a bit closer to where we were standing...



By now it was pretty dark - that last shot was taken at ISO 6400, max aperture (f5.6) and I still only got 1/20th of a second.

I'll post some photos from Sunday, including some much better deer shots, as soon as I can!

Dave P.

[Keith Talbot]

lovely pics dave,

glad to see i managed to avoid being in most of them

keith

[mrs fish]

Pleased to hear you all had a great time and what lovely weather you had , WAB meets are are so good for the soul and give good memories

Photos are great

[Tormentil]

Originally Posted by monkey

Seems to be a bit of confusion here, as to where the deer are !!!

Glad you all had a good weekend.

[Rob T]

Hi everyone, I think Im the only one not to have made a comment on the Weekend.

Thank YOU all for turning up and making it a success, it was great to meet so many polite,freindly and patient people. We didnt have as much deer contact as I hoped for but good to talk to other members and no one asked for their money back.

Arriving on the heath we met up with the passionate Ranger who is responsible for the area he was a bit nervious of the amount of cameras and told us of a horror story about a couple of 'photographers' who chased the big stag off the heath for nearly 2 miles scattering his hinds in all directions and followed him untill got the close up shot they wanted.

Its a shame that two morons can give a thousand photographers a bad name.
I hope theyre proud of themselves . . . . and coverd in deer ticks.

He also told us that they rounded up the stag with the electric fencing around his antlers in a local sheep pen to remove it just when they thought they'd got him he jumped the 6ft. fencing and went on his way.

We walked around a bit and after a coffee break we saw a stag following his hinds into the wood.

He did stop to give us one of those looks only stags can give.

This was followed by watching at a distance the west end boy keeping his very much younger stag mates distanced from his hinds. Just on darkness the hinds made a run for the woods all he could do was watch and follow.



Dave 1/6, 5.6 ISO 1600 handheld cropped

We wernt bored or anything but the moon was a highlight at one stage.



Dave 1/250, 5.6 ISO 320 handheld, I.S. very much on.

Sunday saw an early start with loud groaning heard over a mile away we got as close as you could get to two 180lb Bucks but one followed 6 or 7 does into the wood, the other spent some time covering at least 2 does in the meadow before the blumming mist got too thick to see the end of your camera lense.



We then walked the heath and round the paths in the woods and at around midday still heavy mist, walked back to the car park.

Unfortunately I had to leave for a 16 hr.nightshift at 15:00 but some stayed and did a second lap.

The photos and comments so far have all been very good, well done.

Again both days were great fun and and everyone behaved impecably and was very patient a credit to W.A.B. Thank You.

Regards

Rob

[Kayleigh]

Glad you all had a great time..I have enjoyed reading all about it and loved the pics..

[deer boy]

Glad to hear you all had a super time, sounds a lot like Exmoor this weekend started very foggy but then a lovely afternoon.
The Deer were quieter this weekend compared to the the previous 2 weeks as well.
I suppose there allowed a little rest during the rut

Excellent pics & good to put a few faces with the names

[mbaldw]

I've had a couple of people contacting me to say they couldn't view the New Forest Deer Rut watching guidelines. I think this has something to do with the part of the WAB site to which I've uploaded it. Hopefully the below link will work:



Cheers,
Marc.