Ashridge Halloween

I was slightly amazed when I downloaded my photos of the Ashridge Fallow Deer rut last week to come across this photo.  What was the buck and does looking at?  I had not spotted it at he time of taking the photo. Could it be an early Halloween Darth Vader helmet left by somebody in the field? 

 

Intrigued I looked at the next photo, only to find the explanation.  Slightly disappointed to find it was a Jackdaw, that had taken up a posture with its head down and its back to me, the morning sun glinting on its wings and back.

Still quite an interesting optical illusion!  Timing is everything.



Ashridge - Fallow Deer Rut - Camouflaged Buck

Photos of a young Fallow Deer Buck that had managed to snag a clump of bracken on its antlers, making it look like it had tried to camouflage itself last week.

 

This buck had a tan coloured coat with light spots was not fully matured, its antlers only showing a relatively small plate or hand in the antler structure, giving this type of antler its name ie 'palmate' antler.  He was spending time with a similar aged, but melanisitic (dark coloured coat), buck on the very edge of the main rutting stand in the field where the fully mature bucks were holding their ground (more of these in following posts).

 

The two bucks had started parallel walking towards me, often a precursor to fighting with their antlers, when unfortunately they spotted me in the undergrowth, and eventually left the field in the opposite direction.



 

Two days later, I came across this non-camouflaged tan coloured buck in the surrounding woodland in a small clearing with bracken.  I think it may have been the same buck, and possibly where it had got its bracken from earlier?

 

Over the last fifteen years I have noticed a reduction in the sightings of these pale coloured deer, both in bucks and hinds, the melanastic being the norm, and only the very occasional extremely pale or  'white' deer at all recently.  I wonder if it is the policy of the Ashridge Estate to deliberately target these lighter coloured deer in the annual cull, which according to the webpage on Deer Management on the Ashridge Estate starts on the 1st of November. It is my own observation, but the webpage is silent on the selection of deer to be culled.  Or are they the target for illegal poachers, shooting for a trophy?  Having said that, I have to accept that generally the cull is necessary, as the numbers of deer on the estate are high, and that the damage done to the woodland by browsing deer, including the common Muntjac Deer is detrimental to the diversity of other woodland species, with areas where there is little undergrowth left.

Ashridge - Buzzards Battle High in the Sky

Out at Ashridge again this morning to see if I could photograph any interesting rutting behaviour of the Fallow Deer in the bright sun.

 

Just as I stood on the edge of the tree forest, I heard Common Buzzards calling above, and looking up through a gap in the canopy, I spotted high up four Buzzards.  Two broke away, the adult pale Buzzard dropping down onto a darker bird....

...... with the darker bird defending itself, before....



 

.....the pale buzzard continued its attack.

This went on for just half a minute, with the dark bird being pursued by the pale before they disappeared behind the tree canopy.  I wondered if the this was a juvenile bird being driven away by its parent, or just an encounter at the edge of territories.

 

Photos not as sharp as I had hoped, but they were at some height, and even with a good telephoto lens they were not quite small in the original images.



Ashridge - Fallow Deer Buck Looking after his Harem

A trip to Ashridge yesterday afternoon to take photos of the Fallow Deer Rut.

 

A buck chases a hind back to his harem with some gusto!

 

Possibly with gusto because there was another buck in the field shown in the wider view of the photo above.

Stockers Lake Rickmansworth - September Insects

A few photos of some insects taken last month.

 

A strange 'True Bug' which I have not been able to identify with any certainty, but possibly a Dock Bug

 

There were over 50 of them confined to just one small area on different foliage with some dock plants around (these are on a nettle)....

....even sneaking into the background of this photo of a parasitic Ichneumon Wasp (possibly Pimpla Hypochondriaca).



 

A possible suitable victim for the Ichneumon Wasp to lay its eggs in?

 

One of the Flesh Flies, hairs and all.

Autumn Spiders

A selection of photos of Spiders taken in mid-September.  Sorry I have not been able to identify the species.

RSPB Rye Meads - Coot Diving Behaviour

More from RSPB Rye Meads Nature Reserve.

 

Coots are common and present many opportunities for photos, but despite this they are difficult to photograph with the contrast between the black feathers and white frontal shield and bill, with the dark red eye often being lost in the dark head.  Whilst sitting in a hide as the day clouded over I spent several minutes watching a coot repeatedly diving for weed on the lake bottom, and decided to have a go at trying to capture the dive and the return to the surface.  Results were a bit mixed, but with a little help from Photoshop, I managed to record this behaviour.

 

A dive producing an interesting pattern in the water.

 

Bobbing up to the surface with the water on its back....

 

.....running back onto its back like a silvery coat almost immediately.

 

Another interesting shape from the water as the coot emerges.

From all my many attempts to catch a coot face on, apart from the middle photos above, the coot managed to avoid facing me!

RSPB Rye Meads - Kingfisher

A return visit in better light than my previous visit last week, principally to photograph the male Kingfisher that is still frequenting the pool adjacent to the artificial breeding bank where he helped raise two broods this summer.  In particular I was hoping to get a decent shot of the bird in flight.

 

Looking for a fish....

...and spotted...



....and diving off its perch.  (The best shot in flight I managed, but not really worth publishing on its own.  I will have to keep on trying)



 

Another frustrating shot, as whilst the Kingfisher was close, it was partially obscured by vegetation.



 

London - Tate Modern Pt 2

More from my recent visit to the Tate Modern.

 

  Teenagers having fun on multiple seat swings installed as part of the Hyundai "Superflex One, Two, Three Swing!" Exhibition. 

 

The new Tate Modern Extension.



 

The lobby to the Viewing Gallery in the new extension.



London - Tate Modern Pt1

A quick visit to the Tate Modern on a rare visit to London this week.  The Turbine Hall offered an opportunity for some fun with the camera on the Hyundai "Superflex One, Two, Three Swing!" Exhibition.

 

A two second time exposure hand held of the entrance with the pendulum swinging across the top.

The Turbine Hall.



Zoom during a long exposure.



 

Reflection in the pendulum.

A few more shots to come next post.

 

RSPB Rye Meads - Birds

Photos from a quick trip to Rye Meads on a dull morning this week.

 

Mute Swan that flew conveniently close to the hide.



A Little Grebe, also commonly known as a Dabchick also passed, causing interesting ripple reflections...



....and then passed a male Mallard resplendent in its new feathers, and giving a good guide to the relatively small size of the Dabchick.  Other regional names for this bird apparently were 'Divedapper', 'Divedrop', 'Doucher' and 'Divy Duck' (Ref Birds Britanica)



Male Teal in flight.  It is interesting that the green wing feathers appear blue on the farthest wing. 

 

Starlings sitting in a pylon.  They are now beginning to form flocks as winter approaches.  Here at Rye Meads Reserve, there were a couple of hundred sitting on the nearby electric cables.

NW Scotland - Evening Light

Beautiful sky and light in the evening in early June this year.

River Colne Rickmansworth - Hornets and Nest

Photos of Hornets and their nest in a willow on the bank of the River Colne adjacent to Stockers Lake taken from two visits over this and last week.

 

Hornet female workers only live approximately 6 weeks, and by mid-September next year's queens will have left the nest and mated.  The current queen will by now have stopped laying eggs, and so by early November all the hornets will have died, and the nest will be silent. 

 

A hornet resting in the sun, perhaps soaking up the warmth.

 

The nest 2m up the willow tree.

 

A hornet that had fallen from the nest into the edge of the river.  When I first spotted it, the insect was on its back, but it eventually managed to get out of the pull of the water's surface, and fly up to the nest again.

 

Photos taken from the shady side of the nest, with hornets arriving and flying off to forage.  They were quite evident flying past me 100m down the path from this nest (assuming that they were from this particular nest)