Oct 25th Holkham Hall and Holkham Pines

Holkham Hall

Its that time again! Its time for the annual visit to Holkham Hall for the rutting season. We left it a little bit late this year, so there was no chance of seeing the red deer in action as they've now seemed to have finished. However, the fallow deer were still going, making it worth the ride out here in the end. A large herd of them congregated by the edge of the wood on the north side of the estate like they've been doing every time we visit this place at this time of year. You could hear the bucks grunting and bellowing with the sound of antlers clashing as we made our way towards them. We had reached a small cover of trees adjacent to the woodland edge when suddenly the vast majority of them were flushed out from there. A stampede of over a hundred or so deer ran passed us and back down the way we were. They soon were back to business like nothing happened just in a different spot.

Fallow Deer

While at their new location on the open field, it gave me the chance to get a clearer view of them. A pair of bucks were in full battle mode as they clashed their antlers over and over with the fight raging on for several minutes. Other bucks continued to patrol the masses of does for potential mating sessions, sniffing them to check if they are ready while also continuously grunting to warn rivals from claiming their prizes. The does, on the other hand, were more interested in feeding and getting out of their way. Then, in reverse to earlier, most of the herd decided to stampede their way back to the woods creating a moving band of galloping deer bodies with the odd pair of antlers poking out.

Two bucks fighting!



Egyptian Geese



Cormorants and Black-headed Gull

Black-headed Gull

The new 'donut' building at Holkham Pines

After spending time with the deer, we then moved on to Holkham Pines for lunch. We wanted to check out the new donut-shaped building that had recently been open to the public. Inside are the public toilets, information panels and displays about the site and its wildlife and, the main reason why we're were here for, a café. It is quite an interesting café as not only was the food possibly locally sourced and produced, its the things they were contained and served in that really had to be praised for during this time of war against plastics. There's very little plastic here. Everything is bio-degradable, including the plastic wrappers for some of their products. Straws are made of paper and disposable cutlery are made of wood. However, though I am pleased about their anti-plastic method, the food is pretty expensive and if you want crisps with your meal, prepare to pay over £2 for a cup of them with slices of ham and hard boiled eggs on top! The cake slices are pretty good though.

The centre of the 'donut'

Pink-footed Geese

Out on the reserve itself, there were plenty of great wildlife on offer today. I was told that a yellow-browed warbler and a black redstart were seen earlier, but they were too far to get to before our car park ticket ran out. Thankfully, at the first hide (the only one we could reach in time for) I saw a great white egret land at a pool, several marsh harriers and buzzards, a sparrowhawk and a red kite all circling high in the sky as well as curlews feeding on the field. The best part of our visit, though, was when we actually arrived at this reserve witnessing hundreds, maybe thousands of pink-footed geese fly down to the field adjacent to the car park.

Great White Egret

Buzzard

The dunes