Lucky Find

On Thursday evening my neighbour knocked on the kitchen window while I was cooking.  He had been clearing a large clump of ivy and weeds from under one of the windows of his house and almost stood on these:

There was no sign of the mother around, and they didn't appear to be moving so we opted to pick one up and were relieved to find that the were indeed very much alive.  We estimated the hoglets were around two weeks old and had yet to open their eyes.

We thought there were only two in but in fact there were actually four.  We covered them back up and set up a trail camera to see if the mother would return. If there was no sign of her on the trailcam the next morning then we would call the RSPCA to collect them.

Next morning, the mother was indeed there and we left her to it.  my neighbour placed straw over the nest to keep the elements from them since they had been deprived of their cover and shelter.

The mother hedgehog must have felt this was all a little strange and decided to move the young to another location during the darkness of Saturday morning (There was fuzzy footage on the trailcam that confirmed this).  We have an idea where their new home is (underneath some very thick and tall shrubs) but I'll set up the trailcam nearby to see if we can get any interesting footage.

Feed Me!

For the past couple of weeks we've been watching a pair of blackbirds flying in and out of a climbing rose next to the patio area.  They've upgraded an old blackbird nest that was last occupied two springs ago.  I was able to take a few photographs of the young chicks, (five in all, crammed into a tiny nest) by standing on the top of a step ladder and utilise the Olympus' zoom lens to get in close without actually disturbing the young.

I'm not a Pheasant Plucker...

Over the past couple of years, we've had the odd pheasant or two that strolls through the garden occasionally.  We tended to hear them more than see them (sometimes unfortunately around four o’clock in the morning when you just want to throttle them).

In the past six weeks, two hens and one cock appear to have taken up a semi permanent residence in the garden.  The size difference between the two hens makes us believe that they are mother and daughter.  The mother is more at home with us being close by, often passing within a few feet of us if we are sat outside.  Their destination is always the bird feeders we have located in different parts of the garden, pecking at what the other birds have dropped from the feeders.

Last night, we had the rare sighting of all three of them at the same time.  They are beautiful birds, even the hens that manage to make variations of brown pretty and they are comical to watch, especially when they get spooked and run away in a cartoon manner.

The cock usually keeps its distance, often displaying usually to the downright disinterest of the female.

I don’t know how long they’ll be around for, but it’s nice to see them on a regular basis and I hope they survive once the shooting season starts.

Rother Valley

Last week I had the full week off from work and my partner and I decided to stick the bikes on the car and head off for the afternoon.  We opted to go to Rother Valley, which is a decent sized country park with a large lake for water-sports a well as a wildlife reserve.  There are plenty of bike routes to follow ranging in difficulty.You can also join the Transpennine Cycle Route here. This time we opted for the main path around the lake itself.

We timed it perfectly as we had just stopped for a drink when across the other side of the water the jet-skis were just getting into the action.

The wildlife seemed used to having people on the water and close to them on the shore.  These geese weren't in the least perturbed at having me a few feet away.

You can also try your hand at water skiing, using cables around the lake instead of boats on the water.

If you like the outdoors then Rother Valley is well worth a visit.

On The Doorstep

It’s very easy to take what we know for granted.  The village where I live is surrounded by farmer’s fields, the countryside itself you can describe as “flat” and agricultural; not the undulating hills and meadows of what most of us think as the countryside should be.  There are dozens of country lanes, public footpaths and bridleways to explore close to the house.  I’ve seen hare’s sitting on grass verges watching me trundle past on the bike (the lack of hills a positive when it comes to the casual cyclist).  When Spring arrives, those fields suddenly come to life.

What you lose in rolling hills, you gain in big skies and long horizons:

I got drenched taking this photograph but I thought it was worth it.

Sparrowhawk

We have a lot of bird feeders in the garden and it's always a pleasure to see the variety of British birds taking advantage of the free meal.  I've been told that if you see a lot of birds in the garden then you have a healthy garden. The downside of this (for the birds anyway) are the predators they attract.  Kestrels and Sparrowhawks are usually moving so fast that you hardly have time to register them let alone train a camera on them.  I was fortunate with this one.  I actually had the camera in my hand after trying to photograph something else when it swooped into the garden.  The Sparrowhawk was very obliging and stayed put for almost five minutes and seemed quite tolerant of me being nearby.

The Basil Exposition First Post

First things first, I'm not a professional photographer.  Amateur seems a little grandiose as well.  I don't have thousands of pounds worth of equipment.  I have a 4/3rds Olympus EPL-1 Camera with a 35mm kit lens and a 40 -150mm zoom lens that I bought of Amazon.

I have a full time job and fortunate to live in a semi rural area in Nottinghamshire.  A lot of the photographs I take tend to be in and around the garden (There are two Tawny Owls that roost in the conifers in the garden and  know just the right place to sit so you can't take a good photograph of them).  There are some nice places nearby and I like just wondering off for an hour with the camera and see what's out there.  I don't have time to spend hours tweaking photographs in photoshop.

The reason I decided to do this blog was through friends saying I should really be doing  something with the photographs I've taken instead of just storing them away on the computer.   So, I've decided to try it for a while and see what happens.

Hope you enjoy.