Tag Archives: wildlife

Feeding the Birdies

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).

The Kites Hang Out Together

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 Thought You Were a Dog and You Didn’t Know I Was There!

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.

If You Go, I Can Come Back to My Feeding Spot

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…

People and the Deer in Close Proximity

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!

Parakeets Are Noisy Little Sods

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.

Rutting Stags in Action(ish)

Part of the reason for our visit to Bushy Park was because the rut was underway and I thought it might be possible to see the stags at their best. I hadn’t anticipated just how prevalent the deer herds would be. One herd was right in the middle of the trails and, while there was a dominant male that was overseeing things, there were a couple of younger stags within the herd.

These two were trying out their jousting skills. They would engage their antlers and push each other around for a bit before getting distracted by something nearby. They would look at that for a while and then get back into training. It felt like they weren’t really trying to prove anything to each other but were just getting in practice for the days when they might be genuine contenders for dominance.

Initially, I was on the side away from the sun and thought I would have to make do with that. However, it proved easier than I thought to walk around them and get shots from the other side. They seemed uninterested in the people that were watching them. After grabbing a bunch of images, I thought that video might be a better way to record their action – even if it makes it clear that they weren’t really going for it.

Koalas Are Too Coy

Over the years, I have been to plenty of zoos. As a result, I would have thought I had seen koalas at some point but, as I write this, I am struggling to think when I might have done so. Marwell has some koalas so, maybe they were the first I had encountered in person. I am not sure whether they recognised the potential significance of this moment. While there were a few of them in the enclosure, they didn’t seem that bothered about our presence.

I understand that they have a reputation for being sleepy (and bad tempered) so having to wait for open eyes was going to be a problem, but they also seemed to want to have their heads turned away from everyone. I waited a bit to get something, but it wasn’t going to be worth holding everything up. This was the best I could manage.

Cattle Waiting at the Feed Stop

The final day of the charity bike ride had me suffering from the previous two days and with enough knee pain to make another 76 miles seem like a bad plan. Instead, I spent the day in a support vehicle moving from rest stop to rest stop helping out the riders that weren’t as feeble as me. At one of these stops, I went up the access road to await the riders. A herd of cows were lying in the field by the road, and they looked so tranquil, I couldn’t help but grab a few photos.