STARLING Mike Walker Pictures Attention pictures As summer drifts into autumn and termperatures remain defiantly in the 20s, a hungry starling uses a fallow deer stag as a giant dinner plate, landing on the stag's back to crush and then eat a blackberry. The stag is getting ready for the rutting season, which begins later this month when stags with a full set of antlers, such as this one in Petworth Park, Sussex lock horns for the right to mate with the hinds. The rut is thought to be triggered by the shorter day lengths, making for spectacular fights between the stags at
STARLING Mike Walker Pictures Attention pictures As summer drifts into autumn and termperatures remain defiantly in the 20s, a hungry starling uses a fallow deer stag as a giant dinner plate, landing on the stag's back to crush and then eat a blackberry. The stag is getting ready for the rutting season, which begins later this month when stags with a full set of antlers, such as this one in Petworth Park, Sussex lock horns for the right to mate with the hinds. The rut is thought to be triggered by the shorter day lengths, making for spectacular fights between the stags at the park which houses the biggest herd of fallow deer in England in its 700 acres. Not that the prospect of being involved in a series of body-shaking clashes worries the starling which is also taking advantage of a bumper crop of berries in the park, home to the Wyndham family for hundreds of years. According to wildlife experts, birds often use grazing deer, horses and cattle to land on with their food and the deer never disturb them since they might also eat irritating flies. ends PIC MIKE WALKER, MIKE WALKER PICTURES
Size: 1512px × 1956px
Photo credit: © MIKE WALKER / Alamy / Afripics
License: Royalty Free
Model Released: No
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