A brief non-mothy entry today. I spent the morning reconnoitring the last stages of the route for our local Beating of the Bounds (leaving Holy Cross church, Shipton-on-Cherwell, at 11am on May Day, Sunday 1 May, if you're anywhere near. I can supply more details through Comments).
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| Cameraman spotted. I'm off |
There were only brief spells of weak sunshine and I didn't see any butterflies, nor did I set up any moths. But the local woodland down by the river Cherwell was full of deer and here are some pictures which I managed to snatch. Deer are quick to scram, very prudently, but I developed a technique of pretending that I hadn't seen them, slowly unzipping my camera case and raising the camera as unobtrusively as possible. And then...click!
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| The scuts are a fine sight when the deer flee, bobbing up and down as they go |
The results aren't brilliant and were mostly taken with the zoom well out. Luckily the camera has a built-in anti-wobble mechanism and I hope the pictures given an idea of the excitement of such large animals living wild on our doorstep - and many, many other UK doorsteps; deer were just as common where we lived on the edge of Leeds.
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| Wading through oilseed rape on last year's Beating of the Bounds |
2 comments:
I've never managed to photograph deer, they just move too quickly once they realise you've seen them. I did find the best ever fallow deer antler last weekend in the woods though (actually the dog found it rather than me). It will join the collection of fallow and roe antlers on our window sill and be taken to events for children to see.
Fabulous emperor moths by the way. Our ruby tiger (not quite as impressive as your moths) hatched and was released this morning. I found the caterpillar in the garden about 3 weeks ago, and luckily it made a beautiful silken coccoon and chrysalis in a plastic pot, so we were able to see most of the life cycle.
Hi there on a chilly morning - which impresses me all the more about your Ruby Tiger. I wouldn't want to be a caterpillar out in the wild at the moment. Not just the cold but the hungry birds! Great that you were able to see the entire life cycle too. However often you experience that, it is still amazing and wonderful.
Good luck with future deer photography. I am not at all a good photographer - it's more that the deer round here are pretty fearless, though I have got quite good at pretending I haven't seen them and then grabbing a pic while they are still trying to work out whether or not I might pose a threat.
Antlers is a great idea. I haven't seen many if any with them here, but I shall look out now, both on the animals and on the ground
all warm wishes
Martin
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