Pairing-up

As Tania and I were walking through Cromer we both heard a screaming above us and instinctively looked up. The Peregrines are back!

Chasing one another in courtship display around the church tower they were making such a din. This went unnoticed by the majority below however friend Eddie was also staring upwards from the pavement. It was good to see him looking so well. It was also good to see the Peregrines back too. It looks as though Cromer church is going to be well established as a breeding site. Eddie and I wondered how long it would be before Southrepps and perhaps even Northrepps church was similarly blessed.

As we drove the coast road the other evening a dark shape in the centre of a grazing marsh attracted our attention. As we pulled over to take a closer look we could see it was a Muntjac. Two to be precise. It appears the mild weather is prompting everything to pair-up!

Taken to tusk

I quite like Chinese Water Deer. They are very ‘bambi’ like. Much cuter than the rather brusk faced Muntjac. This one appeared out of the reedbed as we were waiting for Bittern. Although he was be-tusked and moulting he didn’t lose any of his charm.

Chillaxed

As a photographer you don’t want your subject to show any startled or unnatural behaviour. You want it to act as if you weren’t there. You want it to be relaxed. This Muntjac we saw the other day was taking that to another level.

 

He did wake up after a little while though…

Oh deer!

There were two Muntjac in the garden the other morning giving it what for right in the middle of the lawn. This male looked particularly indignant at being disturbed … but he still had a smile on his face!

Muntjac for Breakfast … and some.

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When I started this entry it was about a Muntjac joining us for breakfast on Thursday. The morning however developed rapidly from there on.

 

It was supposed to be a laptop day; a day to get ‘things’ done. Little did I know. After the Muntjac shared his breakfast with us I settled down and logged in. Glancing out of the window to see if the small deer was still around the largest orange butterfly imaginable flew past the window. It was a Fritillary. But which one? I rushed outside … it was nowhere. Then out of the corner of my eye I saw a bird flit between the sycamores at the top of the garden. Er … just a minute. Not a bird … a bat. It flew my way almost hitting me in the face. I tried to photograph it. Despite it being large it was too quick. Strangely it had pale patches. It flew behind the Sycamores and never returned.

 

Sharon arrived and I was just telling her what I had seen when an Emperor dropped in and started egg laying. As I was photographing the little lady a Demoiselle flew past us. Oh my god it was a Beautiful not a Banded. Well out of range. We tried to find it but it had already moved off. The Emperor was joined by an ovipositing Broad bodied Chaser and an odd female Large Red Damselfly moved in. She too was laying eggs. I thought they were only supposed to lay when coupled with a male; and aren’t they supposed to have black legs … not blue. Strange. I guess there was just a movement of insects over the hill.

 

We did have another visitor too … but I’ll save that for another day.

 

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Standing Ground

It was mid-afternoon on Saturday before I had finished on the phone taking bookings for day tours and completing other miscellaneous chores. It was far too late in the day before I managed to get outside and have a walk around the hill. By the time I was half way around it was already getting dark. I had seen very little. The hill tends to be a place for passage birds rather than residents so not much to see at the moment. It was as I passed the edge of the wood that a heard of Roe Deer came into view. As they became aware of me they gradually made their way into the trees. A Muntjac however stood ground.

Expect a Cull

As we waited for an Otter to show last week we encountered this little chap. Completely oblivious to us at the other side of the river he was slowly munching his way through sprouting bluebell leaves.  Muntjac, although native to Asia have now spread widely through Britain after escaping from wildlife parks.

They are regulars in the garden here at Falcon Cottage and we even saw one a few years ago on one of our tours to Scotland, well beyond their reported range. They are set to be the UK’s most common deer. Given numbers of deer generally are said to be at their greatest ever within the UK (a claim to which I do not subscribe) undoubtedly Muntjac will be swept up within the proposed recommended deer cull. It would be a shame to loose such a charming little animal but it has to be said they do a great deal of damage to the understory of woodlands that would otherwise support breeding Warblers, Nightingales and the like.

 

Bending Light!

The late morning sun was streaming in through the branches that surrounded us within the open copse.

We were looking upwards, methodically searching the flock of Lesser Redpolls for something a little more special. Our necks were craning and binoculars were being lifted and then rested at regular intervals as we inspected each bird dangling from the alders. To my left I heard movement among the leaf litter.

I could see something quite large … well … larger than the redpolls we were watching moving around among the dense vegetation. I repositioned myself and refocused my bins. It was a Muntjac, or Reeve’s Muntjac to give it its proper name, quietly grazing on new buds. Our silence had enabled it unwittingly to venture close to us.

I slowly moved the camera from pointing at the canopy and attempted to get a clear line of sight to the deer. To avoid foliage, branches, twigs and an assortment of brambles I would have to seemingly bend light! With a degree of bobbing, ducking and at one point kneeling I got some sort of shot as the sunshine lit one side of the deer’s face.