Studland Point - From Ants to Deer

The weather was fine for our morning visit to Studland Heath with a wide range of subjects from Fallow Deer to Black-tailed Skimmers, Wood Ants and Sundew

 

Snowdrops Supreme at National Trust's Attingham Park

The snowdrops are at their best at Attingham Park. We walked round the estate looking at the deer and trees before arriving at the best of the snowdrops so the light was dropping quite fast giving a surreal feel to the carpets of white. I didn't get the close focus point right on some of the shots but have included them as I love the light through the petals and the patterns they make. The house itself looked great in the afternoon sunshine as did the Fallow Deer herd.

Sunrise at Richmond Park

We were so lucky with perfect weather this morning for our early visit to Richmond Park - clear skies, mist and frost. Plenty of rutting Red Deer with decorated antlers and lots of bellowing. There were also some herds of Fallow Deer. With the thick mist, we thought we were on our own photographing a large Red Stag until it moved towards us followed by over a dozen photographers!! 

A few more images are on My Website

Bradgate Park

 Stopped off for a couple of hours at Bradgate Park on the way to lecture at Melbourne, Derby. Light came and went but when out the sunshine was a wonderful warm colour. There were lots of people walking lots of dogs but the chap above had the most I think. Didn't come across any Red Deer but several herds of Fallow Deer. Tried the waterfalls at 1/3200th and 1/6th second.

Mixed Bag from Strumpshaw Fen

 A few more images from last week's trip to Strumpshaw Fen. There was a large flock of fieldfares and Redwing feeding on the berries and also 3 Waxwings, which we failed to locate. The Snipe and Gulls were more cooperative and the mammals came up trumps with good views of Chinese Water Deer, Otters and Rats

Fallow Deer and Grey Wagtail

I was staying overnight very close to Bradgate Park (Leicestershire) so got there early as the sun came up. The first one is very high ISO (128000) but I like the way the orange sunlight is just catching the antlers. The Red deer are in full rut at the moment and very noisy but I decided to contcentrate on the Fallow deer today
The Yellow Wagtail was flitting around in the stream - the yellow under the tail shone out in the bright light.

Muntjac

Looking out of my window, thinking about going out and doing a bit of weeding, when a muntjac came through the hedge. It stayed for about half an hour trimming down weeds (and more precious plants) very effectively.