Some New Arrivals

The bluebells are starting to show and there are little ones everywhere!

Images below....

1. Canada Geese - Water level shot.
2. Greylag Goslings.
3. Canada Goose drying wings.
4. White bluebell.
5. Traditional bluebell.








Rob

Bugs!

Broke out the macro lens and went bug hunting!

Image 1: Shield Bug
Image 2: Shield Bugs Mating
Image 3: Cockchafer (Maybug) Larvae
Image 4: Lily Beetle






Rob

Wild Boar

Tracked some Wild Boar yesterday evening. Two sows and half a dozed piglets. They didn't hang around long and I lost the light before I could find them again!
There are two piglets in the second picture, just to the right of the young sow.




Rob

Birds

A few from earlier today, before the clouds rolled in and blocked out the sun!

Female Mandarin Duck
Male Mandarin Duck
Common Sandpiper (Large Crop)
Tree Creeper







Rob

Macro

A few macro shots from my garden today. The first one is a pond Skater!

For more detail, click images for larger view.







Rob

Adders and a Nice Walk

Here are a couple of pics of a male and female adder, plus a nice winding path, which I was wanderin' up on one of my days in the forest!

The brown adder is the female and the light coloured one with the dark zig-zag is the male. Sorry his head is not showing, but it was quite thick undergrowth and I didn't want to disturb him by trying to get a better angle.
His head was at the bottom and he was watching me closely!






Rob

Horrific End for a Giant

This will probably be disturbing to most, but I need to post the pic to raise awareness on the plight of our wildlife when people fly tip and just discard their waste without thinking or caring about our wildlife.
This fallow deer buck had obviously picked up this twine and had made it quite deep into the forest before getting tangled up with the tree.

This is where he died, after a slow agonising, excruciatingly painful death!

All that is left are his antlers, still tangled in the twine and some scattered bones, which would have been dragged away after he was scavenged by foxes, birds and anything else that came by.
The bark had been rubbed off the tree from him going round and round trying to free himself!

I am hoping that this pic will make some people think twice in the future and if only one person thinks twice before throwing their coke can out the window, or the local builder takes his rubbish to the correct disposal point, then this fella would not have died in vain.
Thanks to Neil Henderson for bringing this to my attention and allowing me to use his photograph.

R.I.P - for your last days on earth were hell!


(c) Neil Henderson


Rob

BBC Hereford and Worcester

Here is a link to BBC Hereford and Worcester web-site. They have used some of my reptile pics to accompany an article detailing a new project, which is close to my heart.
The conservation and protection of our native reptiles.

BBC Hereford and Worcester

Rob

Juvenile Adders

Below us a pic of a juvenile adder that I found and photographed earlier today.
She is one of last years offspring and very tiny. I nearly missed her and had to really stare before focussing on her.
Also a couple of lizards and a slow worm, plus a male adder with a female sneaking up on him!

Poaching in the Forest of Dean

Open the link below, which will take you directly to a newspaper article I contributed to, highlighting the illegal poaching issue in the Forest of Dean.

Newspaper Article

Juvenile Adders!

I found two juvenile female adders the other day while surveying. They look like they are last years offspring, very cute and very small.
As well as these two, I also found another 9 adders of mixed sex and size.
I will endeavour to photograph them on Thursday or Friday and upload some pics for you. The weather is supposed to be hot and dry on these two days, so ideal conditions are on the cards!

Rob

Bats!

Do you like bats? If you do check this out!!!

The following recordings have been made with Avisoft-UltraSoundGate 116-200. In order to make the recordings audible, the files have been slowed-down by factor 10. Spectrograms were created in Avisoft-SASLab Pro.


http://www.avisoft.com/sounds.htm#bats


Rob