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 :-)

Adders

Adder, Vipera berus

With the excitement of baby adders at the Centre, I thought I would share a few adders photos, old and new.  Most of you will know I have a soft spot for adders... they have a very bad reputation. They are fairly docile animals, and tend only to bite if agitated or disturbed. But then I think most wild animals would do this.

Above is one of my favourite newer portraits of a male adder.

Male Adder

And this one you may have seen before, one taken of a male while they were dancing. Well, the other two were, this one was more interested in me and ended up crawling over the camera to see what I was doing.

Female Adder

This shows of the coloration of the females quite well. Males tend to have more contrast in their bodies... a paler sandy/silvery base with a very black zig-zag markings. The females show less of a contrast, with a brown/copper base and a dark brown zig-zag.

Adder Neonate

A baby adder! Not from this year, this was from the last litter we bred here about three years a go. The females tend to breed ever four or five years, but it can vary. We a very slow intake of food it takes a while for the females to get back in to good breeding condition.

Adder Feeding

One of our adders feeding on an adult mouse.

Dancing Adders

One of my favourite portraits of our adders. This is actually of two males dancing, but difficult to see that. This was taken a few years a go now.

Fish-eye Adder

And last for this post, one that didn't quite work out... I was trying something with my fish eye lens, and got close to why I wanted, but still needs more work. I will try again next year as it needs to be done when more inquisitive, i.e when dancing and less wary of other things going on.

Thanks for looking.