When Stags Find Their Voice

A red deer stag with large antlers decorated with vegetation stands in a grassy field with his mouth wide open mid-bellow, displaying typical rutting season vocal behaviour.
A red deer stag with impressive antlers decorated with grass and vegetation stands in a grassy field, having just tossed plant material into the air which is suspended mid-flight above its head during rutting season behaviour.

I travelled to Kerry this morning to photograph the rutting in Killarney National Park there. There weren’t many stags to be seen but this fellow was lying in the middle of a field I suspected would have a stag or two. After a few moments he stood up, digging his antlers in the grass and tossed his head from side to side with grass flying everywhere.

Despite the dramatic behaviour, he looked over at the human photographers again and lay down, chewing some grass and ignored us once more.


Apertureƒ/6.3
CameraILCE-7RM5
Focal length387.6mm
ISO12800
Shutter speed1/640s

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Published by Donncha

Donncha Ó Caoimh is a software developer at Automattic and WordPress plugin developer. He posts photos at In Photos and can also be found on Mastodon.

6 thoughts on “When Stags Find Their Voice

  1. Something bothered me about these images. The stags have coats that camouflage them. That means photos like this don't allow the animal to stand out against their natural environment, sometimes. Like in these photos. Unfortunately I couldn't ask him to move over to the other side of the field where the grass is green.Instead, I brightened the background using a radial gradient, with the subject removed, and I really like the result.It's late, apologies for not copying over ALT tags.

  2. @HarriettMB I spent a week in the Glenfin gaeltacht later summer and was bowled over by the biodiversity in plant and animal life – hopping with insects, red squirrels at every turn … and so many sightings of deer. Those are wonderful ?pictures you shared @donncha – grma

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