New Forest

It's now the time of year that I spend a few days watching and photographing the Rutting of the various Deer in the New Forest.

Over the next couple of weeks I will hope to add a few more Blog posts with new photographs and experiences in various locations in the New Forest area, but for now please read on for details of my first 'scouting' visit to the Forest a couple of days ago...

The morning started well, with the almost perfect dewy, misty sunrise with only scattered cloud, so the first photograph of the day was of a scene that was a pleasure to watch unfold.

Deer, of which there were two species that I was hoping to photograph on this day, have a tendency of being very elusive, but within a few minutes of my arrival and brief walk, I spotted pair of Fallow Deer Bucks walking from a nearby wooded area into the open heath. The sunlight from between the clouds lit them up beautifully in the mist.

This was about the last I was to see of the sunshine for the day as the wind was picking up and cloud was building to a dull uniform cover which meant any further photographs would require a higher ISO and slower shutter speed - not perfect for wildlife photography!

Now that I had seen the two Fallow Deer, I knew there would be more relatively close by, so the next couple of hours were spent looking in heath to forest areas until I spotted a small number of Fallow Does deep within a forested area far beyond where I usually sight them. With the wind strong, and unable to get into a favourable position, I decided to sit tight and hope for a few chance photographs of any Deer moving in my direction and was soon rewarded with a lovely creamy white (but not a true albino) Doe.

After the Does had moved on, I carried on my search and soon spotted a Fallow Buck strutting around in a lightly wooded area, but with the wind yet again coming from behind, the Buck knew I was there and I only managed a few photographs before it moved deeper into the forest.

Obviously, the New Forest has an enormous amount of wildlife and scenery, and I don't only go to this wonderful environment just to photograph Deer. Here are a couple of the highlights of the day, although with the lack of sunlight, landscape photographs were never going to be high on my agenda!

At this time of year, the forest floor yields a great number of various Fungi, and these are always good targets for a photograph. One of significance that I spotted was of the 'Fly Agaric' species, striking in it's red colour with it's wart like cap scales.

It was during a time when I was photographing another Fungi that a young Fallow Buck appeared. I had not heard it's approach, and he did not notice me, so with the tripod still set up low I slowly moved the camera on it's swivel mount to focus on the Buck. The area of woodland was dark under the cloud cover, so I had to quickly up the ISO to 1000 to get a useable shutter speed - of only 1/15th sec! I only managed a couple of photos as at this close distance, the shutter sound alerted the Deer and the next couple of minutes (which felt at the time like an eternity!) were spent crouched behind the camera and tripod until the Buck went back to it's grazing. At that point I slowly retreated as it moved off itself.

One of the highlights of the day had to be when a young Fallow Doe walked out in front of me onto a footpath. She didn't notice me at all and this allowed me to catch one of those classic 'Bambi' moments.

As I mentioned earlier, there is an enormous amount of wildlife to be found in the New Forest, and one species of it's inhabitants are the Grey Squirrels. I know they are well known as a rodent, but I still believe they have their place. This chap didn't think I had noticed him as he was trying to hide on a branch whilst peeking at me!

It had taken most of the day for me to sight the Red Deer, my second on the list of Deer so locate and photograph, and even then only 2 were seen. The Stag, however, was a wonderful sight, covered in mud, which is part of the pre rut ritual, and strutting along behind a Hind.

In all, a good day spent in the New Forest, even though the weather wasn't perfect. Lets hope for better weather over the next couple of weeks!!

A day with the Seals

I had a wonderful experience yesterday, with some wildlife that I never thought I'd get anywhere near to, let alone see in the wild.

The plan was to go and photograph a group of Common Seals (Phoca vitulina), also known as Harbor or Harbour Seals.

The journey started off early with a drive to the mainland followed by the usual motorway delays on the way to meet up with a relative, Jim, who would help show me where Harbour Seals might be. It was reported that the Seals hadn't been seen in the area we were going to for a while, so my expectations for us finding them was not that high.

Jim had bought his home built canoe along for the trip - and what a wonderful canoe it is! It's design and lightness made it very agile and fast on the water!

After a 30-40 minute run on the water, we tried the first inlet where the Seals had previously been seen but there was no sight of them at all, so we headed back into the main channel for a further 20 or so minutes until we reached the next inlet and it was Jim who sighted the Seals hauled out on a sandbank a good distance up ahead. With a quick change to the electric outboard for a quiet approach so as not to frighten the Seals, we headed upstream on the opposite side of the water keeping a good distance from the Seals and they seemed quite at ease with our passing them.

Jim held back upstream while I moved to a closer bank so that I could half beach the dinghy rather than photograph on the now flowing tide. I didn't want to get too close or frighten the Seals off so this further distance gave me the opportunity to use the long end of the lens and still get some nicely detailed photographs. There were 11 Seals in total, including a good number of Bulls (males), Cows (females) and a couple of maturing young, and soon one of the group slipped into the water to take a closer look at what I was doing, which gave me the perfect opportunity to get some lovely photographs of the Seal in it's home environment.

The Seals spent their time basking in the sun which allowed me to take plenty of photographs until the tide had risen to the point where I was starting to drift so, not wanting to get too close and frighten the Seals, I signaled back to Jim that I was now ready to move back out and away from the group.

Even on a neap tide, it's suprising how fast the flow is in this area and soon a number of the Seals had taken to the water, with a few being quite inquisitive, but I now felt it was time to leave them in peace and head back on the tide.

In all, a fantastic experience; a nice collection of photographs to take back, good company, beautiful scenery, tired but job done!

Always expect the unexpected...

For a few days now, I've been watching some Foxes and their routines. Every evening, one of them would take a particular route and so I decided to set up in a position where I would get a nice portrait photograph as he comes over the brow of the hill. My camera was set up on the tripod and turned 90 degrees ready for the right moment. After a long wait, the Fox turned up - coming from a completely different direction, a lot closer to me from left to right at about 20 yards so I didnt even have a chance to rotate the camera for a wider and corrected view. The result - a sequence of photos that would have worked perfectly had I not set up the way I 'presumed' the Fox would appear! If the camera was not rotated to portrait I would have had a nice composition without losing the legs and tail!

So, after kicking myself for thinking too much in advance, I popped back to a position where the Foxes would congregate, and instantly spotted one having a scratch in the late evening sunlight.
'Right' I think, I'll wait for a while here and see if he moves soon.
Suddenly, he jumps to his feet, looking, not towards me, but about 15 yards in front of me. I look forward and see a rustling in the stinging nettles. I focus on the location and there it is - a Badger, popping it's head out of the undergrowth!

Having watched the Badger for a short while, I notice the Fox finally starting to move on. He comes down to have a sniff at where the Badger had been, not noticing that I was still there, so I finally got a nice photograph of the Fox.

Canada Goslings

It's been a frustrating couple of weeks.

My main camera, a Canon 1D MkIII, has had to go in for repair and I have been unable to get out and photograph anything new, so I decided to buy a new backup - the new Canon EOS 7D. It's new upgraded auto focus has taken a little getting used to, but it looks like it will serve my style of photography very well!

Due to limited time - and the unpredictable weather, yesterday was the first day I got to really test the 7D, and I knew exactly where to test it.
I had noticed, a few days ago, that there were a couple of pairs of Canada Geese on Ryde Canoe Lake that had some young Goslings and they looked so sweet in their fuzzy greeny yellow appearance, so off I went to try and get a few photographs of them before they grew to much.

The colour of these Goslings really helps them blend into the surroundings, helping them to avoid predators.

The mother was quite happy having me photograph the Goslings - after observing them for a while I realised their main concern was the Mute Swans. They would chase the Goslings if they were far enough away from their mother. It was interesting to notice the male was never too far away, watching over it's young and ready to hiss and go on the offensive if anything got too close.

For such small young, these Goslings are so quick on the water. One of them (photograped below) was chased around by a Mute Swan and was unable to get out of the water onto the path, so the mother, followed by the rest of the siblings went in to the water and, with the help of the male, took the signet to safety.

I will try and follow these young as they grow, and get a few more photographs to add to a new Blog post in the not too distant future.

Barn Owl - 2nd session

The Barn Owl was out hunting again this evening, but not until the light was fast fading, so the shutter speed for photographs was not as I'd wished for tonight.


The Owl quickly caught it's prey on 3 occasions before I left, testimony that it must now have young to feed.



It's on nights like these that I realise how much better a faster lens would be! (time to start saving again....!)

Barn Owl

Found a new site with Barn Owls this evening, A Male was hunting, and I'm hoping it is finding food for it's mate who is on a nest. I can only confirm this if the hunting intensifies of the next few weeks when the young are hatched.

The light was fading when I took these photographs so the ISO was high to maintain a decent shutter speed.

Welcome to the Wight Wildlife Photography Blog page

Welcome to my Blog. I hope to update here frequently with news, new photographs and information from Wight Wildlife Photography. I'm not the worlds best web user, so please bear with me while I get used to this new format!

As far as whats going on with my Photography work, it's been a mad couple of weeks with many new animals and birds photographed and places visited - I will add a few photographs to my next Blog post!

I'm busy with final prepararions for my first big event of the year - the Robin Hill Spring Garden Show, 24th/25th April - I will be in the Craft Marquee, so please pop in and say Hi if you are there!