Monday 23 July 2012

Wildlife Everywhere!

Had a cracking day in the forest on Sunday with a good friend Scott Passmore. Spent 6hrs in a hide and managed to see fallow deer, red fox, buzzard, lizard and great spotted woodpeckers before heading out into the forest to try and track down some wild boar.
Didn't find any boar as the bracken and grass was just too high, but did see a goshawk, loads of butterflies and moths, and also 20+ deer, although one had seen better days!!!

Ten hour shift searching for wildlife and finding loads, so a very productive day. All photograph below are of wild animals, seen in the Forest of Dean on Sunday 22.07.2012.

Hope you enjoy looking at them as much as I enjoyed taking them.



Not great for photography and pretty hard going on foot, but I love exploring areas like this!


Forest of Dean




Enormous Ant Hills!



At Least 15 Speckled Wood Browns (I Think?)



Cinnabar Moths Crowding a Thistle Flower



Sneaky Red Fox




Fallow Buck in Velvet


Roe Buck Skull, Complete with Antlers


Rob


Friday 13 July 2012

GlosARG

We are off and running with our new group; GlosARG!

Gloucestershire Amphibian and Reptile Group has been set up for the conservation of all our native reptiles and amphibians throughout Gloucestershire.
We are an affiliated group of ARG UK.

WE NEED YOUR HELP!

If you would like to get involved, please contact us through one of the links below. We have a website, Facebook and Twitter pages, so you can easily get hold of us.
The feeling you get from knowing you have done something to conserve wildlife can not be beaten, so please get involved. It is fun, interesting and educational.
Get the kids involved and give them a passion, which will carry them well through life. What a feeling it would be to see your own children pass this gift onto your grandchildren!

We have only been running for a few weeks and in this time we have already discovered a "new" Great Crested Newt colony in the Forest of Dean.
These newts are endangered and protected by European law, so we couldn't have hoped for a better start!

You can reach us through the following links below.

GlosARG Website
Facebook
Twitter

ARG UK

Thank you in advance.

Rob

Sunday 8 July 2012

GlosARG and Some Bucks!

GlosARG


If you are not already aware, along with a good friend Scott Passmore I have founded Gloucestershire's very own Reptile and Amphibian Conservation Group. This group is only a couple of weeks old yet we have already discovered a new colony of Great Crested Newts living in an old, secluded pond deep in the Forest of Dean.
A great start to our new venture and we hope for many more discoveries in the years to come.

If you live in the Gloucestershire area and want to help us by becoming involved. Please visit our website, Facebook page or even Twitter. You can contact us on all of these pages and we will be delighted to sign you up!
I have been finding, surveying and managing areas for the adder and grass snake for years. In turn this helps other reptiles and amphibians in the area. I have a wealth of experience and I would be delighted to pass this on to the right people so that together, we can make Gloucestershire a recognised place where Reptile and Amphibian Conservation is concerned.

See links under adder pic.

Female Adder

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Now for Some Deer


These two chaps (Fallow Deer Bucks) were having a lazy stroll through the foxgloves and the more I observed them, the more I noticed some peculiar behaviour.
When fallow deer breed the buck will bite the back of the doe, like what you can see in the photograph below, so either this chap was getting a little frisky, or he was just getting some practice in for the big day?   
Their antlers are still in the early stages of growth and are covered in velvet at this time of the year, but over the next couple of months the antlers you see here will grow to a massive size and during the month of September they will rub the velvet off on trees surrounding their breeding territory.
If you look at the two front points of the antler, which are growing out to protect the eyes during a fight you will notice that they are quite long. This indicates that when fully grown, these two chaps will have some pretty impressive palmate antlers.
They may look firm friends now, but come September/October, they will be bitter rivals and will even fight for the right to mate with the doe's in this area.
As long as they do not move to a different part of the forest, I will do my best to find and photograph these two chaps as their antlers grow and the rutting season commences. 



Rob