Out and About !

Yesterday I ventured out to Carnmenellis following CBWPS reports of Red Deer sightings in the area recently

Red Deer are not easy to come by down here in Cornwall to the extent that I have personally only had two worthy encounters in ten years.

Well I did eventually see and photograph four Red Deer that were browsing the treeline up on the high ground around 800m away,  I took a few images using a lens with a reach of 1275mm but it was hardly what you might call an encounter but I was pleased to see them and watch this space for a more informed visit again in the near future.

Moving from distant sightings to an in your face one was this cute little ' Larry the lamb'  as he came running up to me as I passed through one of the local fields,  I soon realised that he was looking for some fuss and attention that I was happy to provide but not before taking a couple of images

I called in at Stithians Reservior southern cut-off before leaving the area and was treated to a swim-by from a proud pair of Canada geese and their five recently hatched Goslings

For a closer look at some Deer I called in at one of my local moors on the way home and eventually managed to take a few difficult to focus doe Roe Deer images in the ever-moving wind driven reed beds

My thanks go to Simon and his wife for providing me with heaps of useful info on the Carnmenellis area and for allowing me access onto their farm

Skye Red Deer

 Our Red deer sightings tended to come along as by-the-way encounters as we travelled through the mountains on single track roads on the lookout for Golden Eagles in their known territories

Most were of single or small groups of doe with this years young in tow,  No encounters with the 'Monarch of the Glen' but we did see the occasional young stag on the hillside,

With Red Deer being a rare sighting to us down here in West Cornwall these frequent encounters were very welcome !!

Wildlife of the Isle of Skye

My wife and I have just taken a somewhat restricted five day photography trip to sample the wildlife opportunities available on the Isle of Skye.  Due to the size of the island which is around sixty miles long by a max of thirty wide and our limited time scale we decided to try to increase our chances of success with subjects such as the Sea Eagle shown above by hiring the services of the wildlife Photography Guide Stewart Dawber as seen in the image below.  Stewart has been resident and working on all manner of wildlife projects on Skye for the last ten years.

  He seems to have taken a shine to my current Camera/Tripod assembly.

What it says on his brochure is just what we asked for and Stewart delivered .    I have posted a couple of images here showing the results !!

In my next couple of blogs I will show a full portfolio of images and go into more detail about how we worked on each of the above subjects on this trip.

The Monarch of West Penwith

Its not every day that you encounter one of the greats of  the  UK's wild animals down here in West Cornwall, but this morning I found myself looking up at the antlers of a seven to eight foot Red Deer Stag just on the opposite side of a Cornish wall about eight metres from me and was I impressed,  You bet I was!  For this first shot I had to hurriedly remove my 1.4 converter from my 500mm lens and back off around 20 metres to achieve the composition for the image posted below.

This fine animal showed no fear or any sign of moving away so I gradually moved in closer taking the next four images as I did so.

But there was more to come ; as another younger stag entered onto the scene to provide me with the portrait in the next image below.

The two stags moved in close together and eventually started to rut with each other providing me with some fine interaction images.

This was followed by the larger older male thrashing his antlers about in some vegetation before they both sat down in the field looking very relaxed,

These two fine stags were still sat there watching me as I retreated from their territory and I happened to look back up to the field opening that I had just left only to see a lovely pair of young Roe Deer stood there silhouetted against the skyline,   What a wonderful Morning !!!

My appreciation and thanks to John St Ledger for telling me of his Red Deer sighting yesterday.