While out on a walk, we saw a load of sheep in a field. One of them was wearing a blue jacket. I am used to seeing people with coats on their pets, but I had never seen a sheep with an added coat. Wool usually does a pretty good job. It was slightly away from the other sheep, and I couldn’t help but decide it was a bit embarrassed by its attire!
Walking through the village of Longstock, we looked across a yard and saw a family of piglets with a sow feeding on the other side. It seemed that the fence they were near was actually for a park, so we walked around the edge to the park entrance and backtracked to see if the piggies were still close in. Sure enough, there they were. Much feeding was underway, but the piglets were also jumping around and messing with each other as kids are prone to do. At one point, one of them upset another and it let out such a squeal that we were both startled by the noise. It was something else.
They were definitely cute looking little creatures. After briefly being interested by our arrival, they rapidly lost interest and were back to eating and bugging each other. Just the occasional look up to see what is going on. We left them to it and continued our walk.
At the end of a walk we took in the New Forest, we were almost back at the car when we saw a gate with a load of little birds on it. At first, I didn’t understand why but then it became apparent that someone had left a load of seed on the gate for them. Then a lady walked up and told me that she was the one responsible for the food. It was very effective!
There was a wide variety of birds including blue tits, coal tits, great tits, finches and nuthatches gorging on the goodies. This meant getting shots was relatively easy. Small birds don’t hang around long in any one spot – they are pretty twitchy (see what I did there?). Consequently, getting photos can be tricky. However, when you know where they are going to be it makes getting shots a lot easier. I even got some of arrivals and landings. However, these were not well focused or with fast enough shutter speeds to be worth sharing but that is something I can fix another time.
Little birds are really interesting when you get close to them. They have colouration that is worth checking out and adopt poses that make them look like they are curious about what is around them. I spent a fair bit of time getting pictures, but it was still a cold winter morning, and Nancy was beginning to lose enthusiasm, so I headed off. Now I know what food they like, I might have to look out for good lighting conditions and go back with more of a photographic focus (no pun intended).
Randomly came across this photo recently and it made me smile so here it is for you. Maybe it will make you smile too. A feeding duck will often up-end like this. Nothing unusual. Just something silly for a morning.
The weather has not been great for cycling during the winter with it being wet. I have ended up riding the trainer indoors to try and keep in some shape. I did get one Sunday when it wasn’t raining but looked like it might. I decided to head out irrespective of the chance of it getting damp. I got lucky and, while it did drizzle occasionally, it was actually pretty dry. As I rode through the country lanes, there were loads of snowdrops along the side of the road and in the trees just off the road. I mostly rode on by but did stop on a couple of occasions to take some photos. Here they are.
Late one Sunday afternoon, I was walking across Chilbolton Cow Common. I had been out looking for something a little rare in the area without success. As I headed back towards Chilbolton itself, I saw a red kite circling above a tree. The tree was full of birds, and I wondered whether the kite was hassling some of the other birds. However, I was quite wrong. The tree was actually full of kites. Red kites are very common in our area, and you can see them circling in close proximity to each other. I didn’t realise that they would like to roost in a tree together though. I guess they are pretty sociable birds!
I was walking along the River Crane looking to see if I could get a shot of the kingfisher I had seen briefly zipping by. I wasn’t having much luck, and I suspect my presence was enough to send the kingfisher elsewhere. As I looked up the river, I saw something running towards me. Plenty of people walk through the area and I assumed that someone was walking their dog and that it had run ahead. It was bounding towards me and, only as it got closer, it realised I was there. It was as surprised as I was because, at that point, I realised it wasn’t a dog. It was a muntjac. It bolted around me and across the bridge over the river. I barely got a sharp shot of it given that it was moving fast and I hadn’t been ready to take a shot. I wonder which of us was more surprised.
Nancy and I were driving back down from Kirkstone Pass towards our hotel. I pulled off into a lay-by to take some photos of the valley and the opposite hills. I got out of the car and took a number of shots and then got back in the car. Nancy asked me if I had got good shots of the deer. I had not even seen them. I got back out of the car and spooked them. This was the first time I had seen them, but they were very close to us. They ran down the hill and then stopped. I took these shots of them in the undergrowth as they stared at me. I guess they were just hoping I would soon get lost so they could get on with their meal. I obliged…
The rutting deer I posted about previously were in amongst the large herds of deer in Bushy Park. The park gives guidance on keeping out of the way of the deer and specifically keeping dogs on leads. However, that didn’t seem to have any impact. People seemed to be close to the deer on a regular basis. Even dogs were running free. Strangely, none of this seemed to cause any trouble. Perhaps the dogs and the deer are just used to each other.
At the time I was more focused on getting photos of the deer and not having people interrupting the shots. Afterwards, I wished I had taken more photos to show how the two groups were interacting (sort of) in such a regular way. These shots hopefully give some impression of how close they were to each other. I am not getting that close to a stag, however relaxed it might seem!
It used to be that I thought parakeets were to be found in a park in London. They seem to have been quite effective at surviving and thriving in the UK and now they seem to crop up all over the place. I have seen them out near Heathrow and in Bushy Park. Richmond Park has had them for a long time, I think. They do provide a flash of colour in the south of England, but they are not a quiet bird. Their call is piercing, and they seem to be calling all of the time.
They are also fast fliers and getting shots of them while airborne has been a struggle for me. Since they are quite small, you need a long lens to get a decent image and picking them up with a long lens and then tracking – often against a busy backdrop – is very challenging. When they are in the trees I have had more success. Here are some shots that I have got of them in recent months. I will hopefully do a better job of catching them in flight before too long.
