As the nights start to close in with increasing speed, time spent out after work with the camera is starting to be a bit of a juggling act, an hour and a half of good light seems to be about all that was on offer the first week in September. Finally some Wildlife showing up again now though, I caught up with a
Roe Doe and her two Fawns one evening as the sun had just gone down, the first deer I've seen on the water meadows in about 2 months. A welcomed sight.
 |
| Roe Doe |
 |
| Roe Doe & Fawn |
The next night I did have a pleasant surprise, forced to walk through the cows out in the water meadows due to Fishermen on the river, I came across a new patch tick, and a complete new species for me, one that I had been hoping to catch up with for a little while. A
Redstart, a juvenile male, but a Redstart none the less. I picked it up on the thistles around the cattle troughs and was quite startled as this gorgeous red plumaged bird disappeared off across the field in front of me. luckily it stopped on the gate posts to one of the Fishing huts, and proceeded to feed and flit about giving me great views at about 40 yards. What a bird, I must admit nothing could wipe the smile off my face for the rest of the evening.
 |
| Redstart |
 |
| Redstart |
 |
| Redstart |
 |
| Redstart |
 |
| Redstart |
Still high on my first new species for a longtime, I had a wander around the Half Water the stretch of river on the other side of the water meadows, a tributary of the River Test and fisherman free for the day. Plenty of birds here, with
Great Tit, Blue Tit & lots of
Long Tailed Tits frequenting the branches above the water.
Little Grebe could be heard further downstream and still escape my lens on every trip, there awareness is by far the best I've ever encountered in a bird. I did see 2
Kingfishers and hear another but both moved so fast a picture was near on impossible. Leaving me to look back across the meadows as the suns got lower and lower, backlighting the below shot of a Cow quite nicely.
 |
| Backlit Cow |
I would be more than grateful for any 'Likes' or Comments on my FB Photography Page too so feel free to comment or criticise about anything.
Great post Martin, you are right about the short evenings now, a bit depressing heading into the winter but still loads to look forward to with the camera, love the Deer shots
ReplyDelete