An Inspiration to Watch Wildlife

For the last week this Mouse has been spending his nights out in the countryside watching Badgers with the cold as my only constant companion. I have been planning to do this for a while, and it has only been a change of circumstance that has enabled me the time to start what will now be a year long project. Part of the reason for needing to watch the badgers is simply that there are people out there who are intent on doing them harm. Then, as I wrote about just a day after starting this project, the government’s chief scientist starts calling on the government to cull badgers in an attempt to reduce the problems of TB in cattle.

Apart from the fact that this is bad science, but it also sends out the wrong message to the type of people who are involved in badger digging, badger baiting and dog fighting. Already I have seen strangers abroad in the night looking for the Badger sets, following the coverage in the media. On my previous nights out over the last few months that was something that was not occurring. It could be that it is just coincidence but I suspect that these people think that they can get away with harming badgers if the government is planning to kill them anyway.

Locally, I don’t actually think that Tuberculosis is much of a problem, at least not from talking to two cattle farmers in the local environs. But the increased activity is worrying.

The Badgers themselves appear to be doing quite well and while cautious seem not to be effected by the men out with dogs and lamps. However, it does make it difficult for me to observe natural behaviour, other than seeing the badgers disappearing at the sent, sight and sound of these men.

I myself am quite well hidden, and while I still have not devised a way of photographing the Badgers at night, I have had the chance of seeing Foxes and Deer as well. In fact this morning I was so busy taking pictures of a fox that I nearly missed seeing two Roe Deer. If I had not been filming the fox, I would have been able to get some great pictures of the Deer. They were only thirty meters away from me, but I risked disturbing all the wildlife in the vicinity had I not remained calm. Difficult when I am so excited to see all this natural history so close.

I do have a clip of video of the fox that I hope to place on this Blog if I can ever work out how to do it.

As I said part of my reason for wanting to watch the badgers was to ensure that they are protected. My experience of Badger watching stems from reading a book, A Forest By Night, which I found in my local library as a child. It was about the author’s experiences of Watching Badgers in what was my then local wood, Epping Forest. This inspired me to go out and watch the same Sett’s and what must have been the offspring of his Badgers. Although I never met Fred Speakman, I owe him a lot.

Only recently have I been able to buy a copy of this book, and rereading it gave me an idea of doing my own. I even have two publishers that are willing to read the manuscript once it is written. That doesn’t mean it will ever get published, and apart from anything else I still have to write the book. However, it does give me a justification for spending my nights out in the dark while my peanuts get frosted.

A Day Watching Wildlife

When I bought my new digital camera, a second hand one off of the Internet, it was very much with wildlife photography in mind. While I am still a fan of old fashioned film, I had grown to see the real advantages derived from digital. Therefore I decided I would head off and put the camera through its paces yesterday and headed off to a hide to try and photograph some small birds.

As with any public hides, you do have to put up with “the experts” who always seem to know better and will always tell you what you have just missed. Yesterday was no exception and the moment I was through the door I was being told I had just missed seeing a Yellowhammer. Now there is a great community sprit among wildlife watchers, and I know that my enthusiasm for what I have seen can create a blurred fog in the eyes of strangers. Yet often some of my fellow wildlife watchers don’t seem to know when to just observe. Sometimes it cam be like listening to a bad commentary on an otherwise great wildlife documentary.

Although, many pairs of eyes can mean that you get to see more as we are all looking in different directions. Therefore, even with one person pontificating about what they can see, its normally the person with the most expensive gear, there is a great shared experience gained from using public hides.

This one in Thornley Wood is set up specifically to allow the observation of small birds. Many you will see in the English garden, but on a much more grand scale. There are feeders and simple bird tables set up around a small pond, and you can see the tits and a myriad other birds flitting on and off the tables and feeders. Some you will only get a brief look at, others will stay a while longer, but all relatively close. In fact at this hide you often don’t need binoculars to watch the birds. That can encourage children and young people to start watching Birds and wildlife in general.

However, I knew that yesterday was going to be a good day as on my way to the hide I saw two Red Kites while on the bus. I had wanted to get off and photograph them but as it was a Sunday I knew I would have a long wait for the next bus, so I just enjoyed watching them.

At the hide there were several people with big expensive cameras, in the past I perhaps would have been just like them, except that I always felt self continuous about appearing flashy or pretentious, and to be quite honest conversations about equipment drive me mad. Therefore I was grateful that my little camera doesn’t make my look as if I have a problem with the size of my phallus. As for me it’s about seeing and if I can photograph what I do see.

Also, while I do enjoy seeing the rare and less common species, its not about ticking it off some list, I see sighting something less common as a good indication that we are doing something right with and about our environment. Therefore, I am always happy to see birds like the Blue Tit, Great Tit or the Chaffinch, picture above.

However seeing birds like the Great spotted Woodpecker (see image) or the Yellowhammer is a treat too, and one that I had yesterday. What also made the day rather special was a brief glance of a Deer, a roe deer I think, and a fox that came trotting through the clearing.

I would loved to have stayed longer among the strangers there, but the chatter of the expert was driving me mad so I left early and went for a walk. It is somewhere I will be returning to as apart from being a beautiful place it is rich with wildlife.

Tree Creeper

While out the other day I noticed a little flash of white, I instantly knew what it was as the flight and behaviour of the tree creeper is quite distinctive. This rather illusive bird is present in significant numbers but unless you are lucky or observant, usually both, you may not even know that they are there. As most small birds have developed quick movements and rapid flight so that they can avoid predators, even seeing small birds can be difficult let alone trying to photograph them. So I was thrilled to get this image at all.

Small Copper Butterfly

While walking home yesterday, I noticed the flash of colour of a small orange butterfly dancing upon the breeze. As anyone who has tried to watch or photograph butterflies can tell you it is not always easy to get a clear view, and I had to spend about half an hour patiently moving slowly to get close but after spending that half an hour dancing along the ride, skipping from Dock to Dock, I got this picture of this Small Copper Lycaena phlaeas

Great Spotted Woodpecker

While yesterday I really just wanted to stay in bed, I had to be up and out early, as I had to meet up with the welder who was going to secure the tubs to the tracks for us (The Friends of Chopwell Wood). As my regular reader will know the Friends’ have just refurbished these coal tubs after a stolen car was dumped on them and set alight. One of the effects of this was to partially break the welds that ensured the tubs couldn’t be rolled along the short stretch of track that the friends laid previously when the tubs were first installed.

This work was needed as if any children, or adults that had left their brain at home, should get the tubs rolling, it could cause serious injury, each of the tubs weighing about four tonnes. However it was a relatively simple task for the chap who did the work, and my role was purely that of banksman. You will be surprised just how many people seem to want to get very close to industrial or dangerous processes. But one look at the mouse and they turn tail and head off in the other direction.

With that done I was able to start getting through some of the letters and correspondence that goes with promoting Vice in the wood. I doubt that this month I will complete my allotted tasks, but who knows I may still be able to pull something resembling a rabbit out of that cap. Part of the difficulty is that I accept one part of some task and then all sorts of other matters arise. Or as in the case of the Bat Survey, I am asked to do a little bit more in addition and its often the practical aspects that have to be completed by a certain date or at a particular time.

It sometimes feels as if looking after the wood is like a full time job. That said it is great to have the opportunity to be out in the forest as it is a great place to work and play.

However, this sometimes makes it difficult for me to write my Journal or to keep up with mail etc but recently in an anonymous comment, I was asked by an American reader if we have Red winged Blackbirds over here? Well better late than never, I have to say that we don’t, we do have Black Winged Blackbirds, but we just call them Blackbirds. I am hoping that I can get more images of the birds we have locally, and in this the new digital camera is paying dividends as I have been able to snap a few pictures that had I just been using my film cameras I could never have taken.

After today’s rest I have another very busy week ahead but while it will be busy, I will enjoy just being out in the countryside in my patch, I hope you will get as much enjoyment from the open spaces where you all live too.

The Picture is of a Great Spotted Woodpecker that I came across the other day.

Copper Beech

Here in Chopwell Wood we have along one of the rides an avenue of Copper Beech trees and while they look great at any time of year, in autumn they are spectacular.

Digital Wildlife Photography

One of the main reasons that I started this on line journal, was that when I moved to the village, I started encountering some remarkable wildlife and I was having some really great experiences. It was in fact my excitement at these close encounters with the natural world that made me want to share. However, I didn’t want to just post up some geeks list, even though to many I am a geek, and I wanted to try and make the postings interesting. (One of the people that knows me said that it’s like reading your soul.)

I quickly realised that images were going to be important. While I had and still have some good film cameras, what I really needed was a digital camera if only to share what I was seeing at the time and not weeks later. The one I had at the time was not that good. Having worked in the professional photographic industry, image quality has always been important to this mouse. However, the cost of going digital appeared to be out of my league, so I compromised and got a reasonable compact digital camera, and many of the images here were taken on that. A Fuji A350 for all those geeks (like me) out there.

However I had expected to use my film cameras to do most of the wildlife photography. Yet this created a paradox, often it was the unexpected occurrences of an animal, bird or insect, which seemed to make some of my posts more entertaining. Therefore I was finding myself weighed down with equipment, or I just would not have the right lenses with me.

Further I was starting to rely on the digital camera much more. I have to say that I am now becoming a convert to digital photography. It does have its limitations, for example anything high contrast it doesn’t cope with well. But that may be the nature of the model of camera I have been using. Also it may be that unlike film we need to know more about the chips used in the cameras. But I was never that much of an anorak about film cameras so I don’t particularly want to waste my time, or fill my head with technical rubbish about what’s best this week. Apart from anything else, it goes against my non-consumerists grain.

But I have started looking seriously at what’s out there and what fits my needs. I decided I would look at older second hand cameras and found a Dimage Z1 on an internet auction site. While not anywhere near the resolution I would wish for, I thought I would see if this was closer to what I needed.

While I do want to take decent images, there are times when just being able to say that today I saw this bird and here’s the picture was becoming just as important as not being laden down with heavy and cumbersome equipment.

Well here are the results of me playing with my new toy. I could see be becoming a convert to digital. Further as it will reduce my pollution levels as I will not be causing a lot of nasty chemicals to be used, it will ease my guilt about despoiling the earth while trying to save it.

On the River Derwent

First, I thank the person who pointed out that there was a problem with the counter that I added. It is here more for fun than for any other reason, I just liked the idea of it being ladybirds. And while it is nice to know that this mouse’s efforts are being read, for me it’s the quality of the people not the quantity.

The counter is now at the bottom of the page, and all the digits can now be read, I was told it was showing zero, well it just shows that apart from you dear reader, I don’t have any readers. Well at least you’re a member of an exclusive club.

The picture for now is another taken down by the river.

River Derwent

Just thought I would share this picture of the Derwent River taken the other day.

Good Bug or Bad Bug?

It is strange that our culture provides us with different reactions to different insects. Here for example is a Seven Spot Ladybird Adalia 7-puncatata as a beneficial insect, even as children we educated to respect it, even nurture them. Yet the other picture is of a Burying Beetle Necrophorus vespilloides another colourfully marked insect yet while an equally beneficial one, is treated as though it were a plague carrier. Yet often our pets, cats and dogs, carry more germs then do these beetles. I just wonder why this should be?

A New Season

It is remarkable the difference that a few days can make as the seasons turn. Just a few days ago it looked as if there was autumn hint just around the corner, today it looks as if the season has really started in earnest.

The start of autumn marks an important anniversary for me too as its one year since I moved to my village and fell in love with my forest. And what a year it has been. If last year someone had told me that I would be living my life as I am now doing, I would not have believed that person. While living in this former mining village has had its difficult moments, where I was living was far worse. It was a very deprived inner city area, which was so depraved that in the morning I could look out of my window upon the view of people injecting drugs, openly, in the street. It was so rough that it was impossible for the town to get twinned, but I believe it did have a suicide pact with Beirut.

Thus moving to this village was and has been a breath of fresh air for me. I have always been in love with the natural environment and had I not been able to reconnect with nature in the way that I have been able to do, then I think I would have gone mad. Not in any metaphorical sense, but very much in a literal sense. I already had to take anti-depressants, what I called my happy pills, as I had to live in conditions and an environment that no human should have to live in. But that was then, now I have a beautiful forest on my doorstep, and I have encountered so much wildlife that I have to remember that my old life and living space is still only ten miles away.

The other positive aspect of the move to this village has been the reawakening of my creative sprit. While I tried hard to retain previously, it almost impossible to be creative when all you can see is destruction and destructive people around. As I have said before its far easier to destroy something than to create something.

That’s not to say that there are not destructive forces around the village, but fortunately they are still in the minority. Nor am I saying that living here is some kind of rural ideal, it is far from that. But I would rather live with the beauty of the countryside and wildlife than in some inner city hovel.

The picture is of the reflected wood in the Derwent River.

New toys for the wildlife

Recently, a couple of weeks ago, I decided that I had to get a decent pair of binoculars. I used to have three pairs; one was a compact pair, one was a normal size but very bright and made them excellent for low light levels and one pair that was a zoom with both high magnification but bright as well. However, as an ex of mine had been an alcoholic, she disposed of them for the price of a drink or two, hence my need to get something decent again.

So I looked on Ebay, and while I saw many that were cheep, I wanted to be sure that I didn’t end up with cheep and nasty ones either. I also noticed that there were many that also have a digital camera built in. While I was interested, I was also concerned that the quality of both the camera and the binoculars would be compromised. However after a couple of unsuccessful bids on normal binoculars, I was successful on a pair that has a camera built in.

I must say that the binoculars are actually better than I expected, and quite bright, brighter than most compact ones. And while the blurb on the box says that they are ideal for wildlife, I have used better, but unless I suddenly find that I can afford the best quality ones, they will serve me well, as binoculars that is.

The camera part is useful, but doesn’t even match the focal length of the binoculars. T the binoculars being an eight times magnification the camera is at best only five times. Also as with so much electronic equipment it is full of bleeps with every operation, making it nearly useless for anything to do with wildlife.

I have tested it out, and it has some uses as the picture above of a moorhen shows, but I will not be expecting to create anything spectacular with them. But who knows, I may just be surprised myself one day. Though it is in helping to gain a positive identification that it can be most useful. As this picture of a House Martin shows, I was being told that the birds were swallows, yet by getting the picture and checking in a field guide it was clear that it’s a House Martin.

Just a picture in the woods

With so much that I want to talk about and so little time, I thought I would at least post this picture of the clear blue sky that I had in the woods today.