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My deer stalking skills are getting a little better but I am still taken surprise, with embarrassing regularity, by my quarrel actually sneaking up behind me.

The other morning I watched a young Muntjac and Mum skipping and jumping whilst having fun in the early, warmth of the sun. I couldn't believe my luck when they headed towards me, usually they run in the opposite direction.

That's when my grumbles started. Having set my camera up for deer being more in the distance of course they then got too close! They were in the shadows so the light was low and my ISO too high. There were too many grasses in the way for a clear shot ..blah, blah, blah...so I put down my camera and just watched them for a while.

They were very relaxed, I was very relaxed, it was all rather lovely.

As they scuttled into the shrubbery I sat up to move life back into the limbs only to realise that a Roe Deer Hind and twins were immediately behind me!



So to repeat myself: Having set my camera up for deer being more in the distant of course they then got too close! They were in the shadows so the light was low and my ISO too high. There were too many grasses in the way for a clear shot ..blah, blah, blah! They didn't hang around for long, with a contemptuous barking call, Mum called the twins away and they bid an elegant swift retreat back through the sugar beet!!



There is no pleasing some people!!

It's been a few weeks since I have been over to Algy's fields at Themelthorpe. A combination of factors including the weather conditions, it being a very, busy time in the fields for harvesting, fertilising and drilling, not to mention an inconvenient, personal, immobility issue, following a spectacular, flight through the handle bars of my bike! Good job I am built to bounce!

So it was with great joy in my heart that I got back to the fields this week to see what was happening. Within an hour of sunrise I had already identified three of the four types of deer known to wander at will. I counted three Chinese Water Deer, a couple of Muntjacs's barking in the woods and as well as a couple of solitary distant Roe Deer. The best discovery of all were three, different family units of Roe Deer Mums and twins!



Two of the three family groups were in the same fields so I knew I wasn't double counting and the third family are such a distinctive rusty red that there was no mistake. So a real bumper crop of babies!



Revisiting a couple of days later I identified one set of twins to be two males who now independent from their Mum. Although she let's them stay relatively close she is keen to send them out on their own and given to a head butt or two to send them on their way!



I am hopeful of some better shots of the "boys" amidst the now ripening millet.One did oblige for a quick head shot that I put on the home page slideshow and have no doubt that he will soon grow into those ears!

Am I the only one, at least certainly in a minority camp, liking Grey Squirrels?




I totally appreciate that they cause irreparable damage to trees and have had a huge, negative impact on the decline of our own native Red Squirrels. The latter being the sweetest of little creatures but still the antics of our local Grey Squirrels are amusing to watch and if they would just keep still long enough, fun to photograph!

Sadly, not the obvious pair of Partridges in a the pear tree scenario but a few photos to share of a happy little couple who have kept me amused watching their back and forth antics over the last few mornings.

I like that they are small in the frame images, giving some context to the environment around them. They were welcome distraction as I lay in wait of all things more furry or hairy..aka hares or deer.

You know that old saying..just like waiting for London buses?

You wait for ages and then three come along all at once?
Turns out my Norfolk Hares apparently know that saying all too well.

Is it possible to have jet lag having been on holiday less than thirty miles from home? The after effects of 3 weeks of very early morning starts and late nights out with the camera, plus the walking of two, very,keen labradors twice a day, feels very similar to jet lag to me.

The evenings gave me a chance to try and get up close to some Little Owls who favoured an old tree stump. One would turn up regularly most evenings, but most often immediately after I had given up on it making an appearance and had gone indoors.

However, I did get lucky for a couple of evenings and managed to get an adult sitting serenely in some wonderful sun down light plus a juvenile, going through that difficult transition of growing it's first full coverage of feathers through the baby down.

Entitling this blog Stumpy, could therefore refer to the tree stump perch or indeed the new, stumpy, little feathers. I wouldn't dream of using the term to describe the rather delightfully, round, shape of a well, fed Little Owl!



The following photos may well demonstrate how offended a Little Owl may be with such an outrageous suggestion as being thought of as Stumpy!

It's not the easiest of missions getting up everyday at 4am to trudge through the fields in the hope of getting an award winning shot. Let alone actually finding something to photograph, given that anything furry or hairy has decided to stay hidden in the coolness of the woods or fields.



After 5, consecutive and very unproductive pre-dawn starts, just as I was losing the will to live or at least bother getting out of bed, then bingo! at last the hares came out to play. So I guess that means 4am starts continue for a while longer!!



I've been trying to get more of the colours of the current landscape into my shots, rather than just portrait shots, so this little collection is rather pleasing to me with the early morning golds and subtle shades. I am looking forwarding to seeing them as prints ready for the Good Hare Day Exhibition at Wymondham Arts centre starting on 23rd July for two weeks.

A parent's work is never done when you have 10 hungry mouths to feed, thank goodness for birds they don't have clothes to launder and can therefore focus on feeding and bathing times. Not forgetting of course all the other important survival techniques required to battle the elements and get through another 24 hours..it can't be easy.

Therefore it must have seemed a really good idea to line up some of the brood on a convenient clothes line and at least know where half of the family was at any one time.



Sitting amongst Molly's washing and using pegs as comfy leaning props these little birds found that laundry day doesn't have to be such hard work for them

I have been trying to get some new images for viewing at the Wymondham Art Centre (WAC) for a two week long exhibit called A Good Hare Day.

2018 is the year of the Go Go Hare in Norwich
Over the last few years Norwich has put on past summer Go Go festivals, featuring painted models of either Dragons, Elephants and Gorillas. Local personalities, businesses and groups support the open air art collection that enables viewers to walk round our very Fine City and interact with the models on show.

To support this event locally, WAC has asked Wymondham artists, sculptors and artisan crafters to put on a celebratory collection of all things hare!




With a few weeks still to go, I still in need of a few more shots that show the captivating personality of the Brown Hare that we are so enamoured and mesmerised by..if only they realised this and would pose more often for me!



The date of the Good Hare Day exhibit is 24th July - 5th August and it would be wonderful if anyone reading this blog and were passing this way, would swing by take a look at the exhibit.. my hare inspired cards and pictures will be for sale.

I have been trying to spend as much time in my garden given the lovely weather and the abundance of baby birds at the moment. Waking up to the bird song is so much more joyful that the rude sound of a alarm clock.

The combination of warm temperatures and overnight showers have led to the inevitable need to weed and cut back eager growing shrubbery. I confess to not being so green fingered and many of my shrubs look savaged rather than sculptured, given that I tend to cut branches to clear for bird feeders and sightings, rather than stylish topiary.



However, doing a spot of garden clearance does bring dividends of being shadowed by eager parents, looking for tasty, protein packed, morsels, to feed their constant demanding broods. If I am patient enough and the coffee breaks extends a little longer than planned there is a photographic opportunity or two to be had.



Heaven knows the weeding can wait a while longer!

Last year I discovered that its not just the customers at Algy's farmshop that love the asparagus as most of the wildlife frequenting the fields used the crop for cover, shade and an easy highway to commute from one field to the next.

I had been a little inpatient waiting for the crop to getting going this year but at last it is now starting to come into its own, looking lush and green as the stalks turn into their fern like foliage.



It is a gamble each morning where to lay in the hope that something will choose the very row I am laid down in to run towards me..the odds are usually stacked against me and so often I have turned round to find the very animal I have wanted to photograph is actually behind me..sometimes even sat with me!



But on the occasion where the plan does work I have been lucky to have the most magical of experiences this year with Roe Deer, Leverets, baby bunnies and more. The more, being the most wily of Fox's, who continues to outwit me every time but it won't stop me trying!

I've decided on a new collective noun for hares. Having spent so long trying to get close to boxing hares I am at the point of exasperation. Why do they always position themselves way out in the middle of an open field, where I have no hope of ever getting close to the action!



Occasionally, a leisurely traveller, potters by to see what all the commotion is about but mostly I have to watch in wonder from the hedge border and sidelines, at the acrobatic prancing and dancing, leaping and barging that goes on!



Thereby my new collective name is going to be a Frustration of Hares!

In truth I cannot really say I am a morning person. It's a struggle to make myself get out of bed at 4.00am but having made the effort it is joyous to be out in the fields as the sun rises. The bird song and calls alone make the effort worthwhile, with Skylark, Yellowhammer, Lapwing, Whitethroat and of course the ubiquitous Robin and Wren, all singing their little lungs out full blast!

There is something so positive about a new morning, with the promise of excitement and surprise. Although I always go out with a plan of what to try and photograph, the local wildlife doesn't always get the memo! So I am always thrilled to come home with a few images of whatever has popped his or her head out long enough for me to photograph.



I particularly love the dewy grass at this time of year and so do the baby bunnies who get their ears washed while they play and feed. Who doesn't love a baby bunny? Unwittingly I also photographed a leveret, it was bouncing about with the baby bunnies and I just thought it was a very small newborn rabbit..now I know differently it is a oh my goodness moment!



The youngest Roe Stag still looks super surprised and bewildered by the whole process of his antlers emerging whilst the hares continue to vex me in either being too far away or way too close!



It's still wonderful to come home with stories of shots missed as well as achieved..all in all I'd much rather be out there in the fields than missing it all by being still asleep!

I am just back from having spent a few days in the enchanting forests in the Lower Tatra Mountains. I was hopeful of seeing and photographing European Brown Bears and maybe a few other forest inhabitants.

The scenery was stunning and magical, everywhere I looked there was something exciting to see. Fast pace bubbling brooks full of energetic Dippers, Golden Eagles majestically perched on tree branch perches and even on the tracks through the forest were deer, fox, badger and hares, making sudden and surprising encounters a real treat.



The bears themselves were a little clever in that they decided to make appearances in front of the hide during the very early morning and late evening making photographing them impossible.

Small, compact and with extra cuddly round ears they had to be the sweetest bear I have yet had the pleasure of watching. A couple did venture out one afternoon into the meadow and we were rewarded with chances to photograph two bears. At one point a military aircraft zoomed across the skyline and a male bear watched it with interest, definitely a facial expression that asked: "Is it a plane is it bird moment"



Would I go back is usually the question I ask myself ...and despite the lack of photographs this time round, my answer would be yes I would!

It's not just the spring bulbs that are popping up at this time a year but the local Roe Deer bucks are sprouting new headgear.



Often the antlers are bloodied and look so very tender. It can't be pleasant having those grow out of your head each year!

The dominant adults look proud, the youngsters look bewildered.

I know that feeling of wanting to hide from a camera lens when my hair is rocking that just got out of bed look. As is so often the way with my camera shy, Roe Deer, there is always a blade of grass, a fence post or something they think they can hide behind!

Unable to travel and take advantage of the snowy landscapes this week I have stayed in the warm and literally photographed my garden visitors though the dining room window! With the radiator off I still had to wear coat and hat to keep the chill out!



It was rewarding to see the regulars come to the feeders and even a few hungry first timers like the Fieldfare who stripped the last few berries off my holly tree.

Sensibly, very few birds perched for very long, presumably it was even too cold for them to sit still and pose for me.



However,they made even faster work of emptying the feeders they have needed refilling on a daily basis.

Wow!

It was certainly more by luck rather than by design that a week away in the Somerset Levels put me right in the middle of an estimated 750,000 Starlings, gathering to roost in the reed beds of the Avalon Marshes.



Each morning thousands of birds would fly high over our little barn idyll, some gathering in "swarms" on nearby trees to sing in chorus. From a distance the trees looked as though they had a covering of leaves. Often the noise would drown out all other background noises but then a two-second silence would signal a group take off and the “leaves” / starlings would become a cloud of beating wings.



Later in the day the Starlings would regather and regroup to head over to the marshes where the real murmuration spectacle would begin. Smaller flocks joined to become super groups, actually murmuring communicative calls to presumably direct and get the flock into position.


Once gathered the Starlings were ready to head to their chosen roosting spot, hovering Marsh Harriers caused them to create some of the incredible acrobatic twists, turns and shapes that are now so well documented.

Often the birds were just a river of blurred movement across the darkening skyline creating bands of light and darkness on the skyline that I really liked the simplicity of.




The mutterings were from me, never quite being in the right place to capture exactly the winning shot but a wonderful spectacle and privilege to behold.

During the last throes of December and into early January seems to be a very good time for my garden to have what I've now come to expect as our annual gold rush.



Of course I'm talking Goldfinches and so far the all comers record to beat is 33 on the three feeders at any one time..I've counted 27 in one sitting in the last few days so with colder weather on its way I am hopeful the numbers will go up and maybe that record will be beaten.



Unfortunately, when large numbers of small birds gather then so do the predators and as much as I can ward off the local, black cat I can't do much about protecting the finches from aerial strikes by Sparrowhawks.

One male Sparrowhawk cheekily sat next to a feeder sheltering from the rain for over 2 hours the other afternoon but apart from a mob of very brave Blue Tits, cat calling from the shrubbery, no actual finch got to feast for a while. Fortunately neither did the Sparrowhawk!

The Goldie's are looking rather splendid at the moment so worth the time waiting for the better light and opportunities that will continue to come.

I thought it was about time I sorted out the content on my website so I have pledged to do this throughout January and makes things much easier to find.

Please bear with me in the meantime if you visit me midway through the spring clean and re-organistion!

Happy New Year!

Sarah

Not one too usually boast but as I haven't got too many new photographs to put up on the website at the moment I wanted to be share another recent proud moment.

For the last couple of years I have entered a couple of photographs into the annual British Wildlife Photographic awards, where professional and amateurs photographers compete for top recognition in several different categories.

Last year one of my Bank Voles photographs made the first shortlist but failed to get any further into the final rounds.




However, this year I am thrilled to have been warded the status of Highly Commended with a hare photograph called "Asparagus Camouflage" in the animal portrait category.



This was another project with my favourite animals on my favourite farm in Bintree, Norfolk, where Algy the farmer had sown a new field of asparagus. The young shoots, the soft, sandy soil were so enticing for hares to gather, rest up and wallow in the warm trenches. The difficulty was getting a clean shot as they quickly learnt that by using the stalks as camouflage and hiding their faces they managed to blend all rather too well into the background of the crop.

After many mornings and even most lost hours my tenacity paid off as I finally got this shot.