Day 19.279: In a rut

At this time of year the deer are in their mating season (known as the rut). Photographers flock to Bradgate Park in groups and individually to try to capture the excitement. I was not there for that purpose,, but it didn't stop me getting a few photos as we passed by. The red deer stags in particular are noisy and potentially aggressive. The fallow deer are a lot quieter about things but we also did our best not to get so close.

These two populations of deer are kept inside the park and managed to keep their numbers in check - but are otherwise effectively wild. On the last morning we saw a wild roe deer (my sister has also seen muntjac) - they get in through gaps in the wall but presumably move along again rather than staying in the park.

Day 19.278: Bradgate Park

I joined three walks with the dogs at Bradgate Park - on Monday morning and afternoon and on Tuesday morning before we left. Here are a few pictures.

Such a beautiful place. 

Day 19.277: Birds in the UK

A non-complete record of birds seen during our trip. * indicates first record of the year, ** indicates first life record.

Days 19.270-272 (Oxfordshire)

No photos, but list includes these (many already reported here):

• Feral pigeon
• Common starling
• Common magpie
• Red kite*
• Jackdaw
• Common wood pigeon
• Eurasian blue tit
• Great tit*
• Long-tailed tit (heard)
• Rook*
• Carrion crow

Days 19.273-276 (Leicestershire)

Eurasian chaffinch

Eurasian sparrowhawk*

Eurasian skylark**

Some photos of a red kite

Harassed by a corvid 

Common wood pigeons

European goldfinches

European greenfinch

Common magpie

Eurasian sparrowhawk

Black-headed gull

Common buzzard

Eurasian jay**

Eurasian jay

European robin

Ring-necked parakeet** (populations have become established in much of the UK - much to our surprise). More surprising was the sight of three of them visiting my sister's feeders. I missed that, but was glad to see this one when we returned from walking with the dogs.

Also recorded:

Eurasian wren (heard)*

Eurasian coot*

Common kestrel

Those last two records and a fun repeat came from our last hours in the UK. As we stopped for fuel near Heathrow Terminal 5 we saw the coots in a strip of water by the road and a kestrel hovering nearby. Inside the large terminal building we saw another sparrowhawk patrolling from perch to perch - presumably on the search for something like I saw in Newark airport a week or two ago. 

Day 19.276: Morning owl, night owl

This morning we were eating breakfast at my sister’s house and pouring tea from this teapot with an adorable tea cozy:

We just got home - before midnight local time but around 4 am by UK clocks. Time for bed I think.

Day 19.275: Final gathering

A couple more substitutes for our final gathering - dinner in the pub.

We have a few more hours here before our return journey. It's been a lovely trip with a total of 18 family members caught up with (all too briefly) in a very short time.