Recent Photos

Hugo the Hedgehog

I have had very little time for photography over the past month. Work has been busy, and moving in to the summer opening period always leaves me with less time. I did manage to spend a few minutes with one of our hedgehog youngsters, Hugo, last week though. This is him above in his first photo shoot having been hand reared by Big Tom.

There's a few more pics of him below, but before that I thought I would share some of the others I have taken recently. 

Lots of youngsters born here this year, which is great news of course. This is one of our fallow deer fawns above.

One of our polecat kits... they are doing exceptionally well, and are part of a release programme for later in the year.

Two new weasels, both of which have settled very well. This is Neve in one of our outside enclosures... she has really established herself as a little star already, and has been posing beautifully for photography. 

Another litter of water voles in our display pen, this is one of the youngsters exploring from one of the tunnels.

Below are a couple of pics you may find interesting, or not :-) , but I'm going to share them anyway...

Someone found a dead mole, and brought it to the Centre for me as a gift... yes, I get unusual gifts :-) , not really sure what to do with it I noticed something I had not noticed before despite seeing, handling and working with many moles over the years... They have what appears to be an extra digit on their hind feet!

It looks almost like a sixth toe! Technically they still have five toes, but the way their paw has adapted shows this extra digit. Amazing!

Of course I took a photo, and while at it took one of it's front paw too... Look how amazing it is!

Incredible the way it has adapted and formed in to almost a shovel like hand. 

 So, here are a few more of Hugo.

Hey Hugo, where are "hugo-ing"

Thanks for looking :-)

2015: Catch Up

Harvest Mouse on Daffodil

All this Samsung over the past couple of months... I can tell you, it was lovely picking up my old Nikon again. You forget how much you get used to a camera :-) There will lbw a couple more Samsung posts, but that will then pretty much wrap it up... they seem quite happy with what has been done already, despite it not being how it was all originally intended. Oh well, if they are happy, I'm happy :-)

These are a few photos I have been taking outside of the Samsung experience this year. Not much has been done, but I did have a little shoot with a harvest mouse on a daffodil. It didn't go to well to be honest, but I was happy with the photo above. I really like the way the yellow of the petals is reflected on the underside of the mouses chin!

Water Vole

We put a new family of water voles out on our display island a couple of weeks a go. They normally take a little time to settle, and indeed are this time too for three of them, but the fourth is really bold! Often out on the feeding tile with people around watching.

I spend many an evening down there just watching them, and last night David (the owner) joined me. It was nice to just sit there with no camera and watch them all buzzing around and jumping in and out the water.

Baby Adder with Adult

You all know how much of a soft spot I have for adders, and it won't be long till they start dancing! To warm up though I have been watching them the past few days. The above is one of my favourite adder photos to date. A youngster curled up against mum... nothing maternal there, but it show how tiny they are next to an adult.

Baby Adder

A close up of the same neonate. I have seen three at once since hibernation, youngsters that is, and all five adults are now out and in the process of shedding. I would guess they will start dancing within the next week.

Baby Adder

Even from a young age they look quite fierce, but they also look quite cute don't you think?.. No?.. Maybe if you squint, and keep squinting till you can't see them?.. There ya go :-)

Thanks for looking :-)

Water Voles from 09.06.2014

Water Vole, Arvicola amphibious

I know all the posts up to now have been from the archives as it were, but I have a lot to share and a lot of requests from people to get through... However, I am conscious that it is new photographs and recent events around the Centre which will perhaps hold more interest to many of you.

With that in mind, and to show that new photographs will be shared here too, here are some that I took yesterday of our water voles.

"Ratty" the Water Vole

The owner of the BWC, David Mills, is currently working on a side project... part of this requires photographs and he has asked me to supply them for him. I have a very long list to get through, but have broken it to stages... at the moment I am working on marsh frogs and fallow deer.

What has this got to do with water voles? Well, while I was there with the frogs yesterday, the voles were on top form (the frogs weren't :-) ), so I took a few minutes to get some photographs of them too.

Reflection

My favourite is the first one of the vole swimming... He caught me by surprise and my camera was still set for a macro I was doing of a frogs eye, I would like it to have more of the vole in focus and been lower to the water, but I still like the colour of the sky reflected in the water. Above is another reflection shot coming our of one of the artificial tunnels we put in the island for them.

Aquatic Vole

One on the bank of the pond. Water voles used to have the latin name Arvicola terrestris, which suited them well in Europe as they are often found more inland then the ones we have over here. But fairly recently they have been reclassified as Arvicola amphibious... makes much more sense for our ones.

Big Old World Out There

We currently have our second litter of voles from our island display just coming out, don't they look tiny in the tunnels!?!

Finding Natural Food

They swim to the island feeding stations we have in place for them, put there is plenty of natural food on the island too... this youngster has already taken a liking to this rush grass... Having the natural food on the island is perfect for giving them a great start for when they will eventually be released, and means they will already be aware of what a lot of wild food is.

Confrontation

We offer a very natural rabbit mix, and apple (which seems to be their favourite), on to their feeding islands every morning. Here is mum and dad having a bit of a confrontation over a bit of apple...

Mum and Kit

... mum won, but was happy for one of the youngsters to come and share with her.

Fisheye of the Water Vole Island

Thanks for looking.