Only a couple of days now before my return from Mozambique. I have put together a few of my snaps of the wonderful wildlife which is still here although much of it is severely threatened.
You can click on any off the photos to see them full size…….. which looks better….
Three shots of Lions…. first three males sleeping in the sun.
Next a female hiding in the scrub.
And finally a male at night taken with the aid of the rangers spotlight.
Spent the day in the Forest of Dean, some sun and some snow! There was a heard of about 20 deer, unfortunately there was also a dog walker and a cyclist who sent them off into the trees. Then about 40 minutes later they started to reappear and at that point the dog walker returned and the deer moved off again. so I got shots of ones and twos, but not the nice group photo I was hoping for.
Where I live in England, there are a lot of wild boar. I live just on the edge of the Forest of Dean, in Gloucestershire and there is quite a high population of wild boar. However they are not quite the real deal. They are a diluted version of the continental wild boar as they have a proportion of domestic pig genes in their make up.
In Europe where wild boar never became extinct they are more authentic. Across the world there are several races. The central European race which extends across all the countries that now make up the E U community is what is known as the nominate race. The photo is a close up of a Central European wild boar which I took a few years ago in France. I do think though, that there are noticeable differences between the wild boar that I have seen in Spain, France and Poland. The Polish ones seemed blacker and bigger and the Spanish ones more brown and thinner.
There are 16 different subspecies which includes races from China, India and North Africa
The feral wild boar, in the Forest of Dean, originate from two groups, firstly a population established themselves in woodlands near Ross-on-Wye after escaping from a wild boar farm in the area during the 1990’s. Then another group of around 60, farm reared wild boar were dumped in an illegal release near the village of Staunton in 2004. By 2009 the two groups had linked up and interbred and a viable breeding population had established itself in the Forest.
The thing about farm bred wild boar is that in order to keep them in a farm situation they are crossed with domestic pigs, this makes them less timid, more manageable, less aggressive, they produce bigger litters and often two litters a year. They also put on meat more quickly.
How can you tell a real wild boar from a cross? Real wild boar have 36 chromosomes, pigs have 38 and hybrids have 37, but that’s not a lot of good as you can’t see chromosomes when a pig/boar is stood in front of you. Boar with some piggy genes often show pink on the end of their snout and under their back legs. True wild boar are quite shy and will run off whereas feral, Forest of Dean wild boar, will often walk straight at you.
So there you have it. Ask my grandson, he had the same female wild boar walk straight towards us 3 times on the same walk near Elwood a couple of years ago. After the third encounter he was quite frightened and we went home.
Coypu in Poitou-Charentes a couple of years ago. Sold the 50D today but it was a good camera.
Canon 50D I/200th sec f 9
Two visits this weekend to the Nags Head reserve, with the aim of seeing Hawfinches but also just to get some nice photos.
Saturday was awful it was so grey and walking about was quite a challenge on the wet, slippy, muddy ground.
With a zoom lens (100 to 400) the light was just not good enough, I had pushed my ISO up to 6400 and still was limited to a shutter speed of no more the 1/100. Still not to worry, there were no Hawfinches about and I spent most of my time sheltering from the rain with my woolly hat over my camera to keep it dry. My only photo was an obliging Robin, they do their best.
Sunday there was some sun but by the time I got up to the reserve it was clouding over and then began to rain. I met another photographer on his way back from the area where Hawfinches have been seen recently and he had not had any luck. We got talking and he had visited Canada earlier this year as I had and so we swapped stories about bears, humpbacks and orcas. He told me his name and that he was once a member of the Forest of Dean Camera Club but now is in the Ross on Wye club. I looked him up when I got back and he does have some excellent wild life photos. He also had a much bigger camera than mine; then again I know its not the size of your lens, its what you do with it….. maybe. Anyway he is Martin Russell ARPS so click on his name and see his photos.
I also failed to see any Hawfinches, I did see some Nuthatches, a Tree Creeper and a female Blackbird.
A couple of ladies came past on horses and that made a good shot.
Then I went to a bird hide and as I opened the window there were two Fallow deer in the bushes. Unfortunately that is were they stayed and slowly moved into deeper and deeper cover.
Better luck next time.
There were lots of grey squirrels to be seen on a recent visit to The Nags Head RSPB reserve in the Forest of Dean.
I sat in a hide for a couple of hours, hoping for something ‘exciting’ to turn up, but there were only grey squirrels and a couple of wood pigeons and one robin.
So I took some photos of the squirrels, there was always at least one in view and at one point I could see five. All the time they were snuffling about in the leaf litter looking for something to eat. It is not surprising that out of the several thousands of acorns which a mature Oak tree will produce each year that none survive to germinate and grow the following year. In the life time of the tree maybe one or two will actually escape the attentions of the squirrels and mice and jays etc and make a new Oak.
Getting bored with nothing ‘exciting’ I resorted to photographing the squirrels and when I got home and looked more closely at my snaps, I discovered that each of the squirrels had a brown nose, was this a new variety the brown nosed grey squirrel? No this was mud which they had picked up from their constant rummaging in the wet clay soils.
There are a lot of Palm trees in this area as you might expect and there is one very close to our patio, so in the morning when I am sitting in the sun having a cup of coffee it is there in front of me.
Early on I thought I saw some movement in the centre of the fronds, there are quite a lot of sparrows about and assumed that was what it was. Then I saw it was a little furry animal. To see it a bit closer you can click on the photos.
It was quite quick and never really showed itself, however with carefull observation I first of all determined that it did not have a fluffy tail, it had a long thinnish dark grey tail. 
It seemed to have quite a white underneath and not a very pointy nose.
Eventually I got some half reasonable photos of the little chap, it was bigger than a mouse but not quite the size of a full-grown rat.
I was hoping it might be some special Andalucian rarity like a white bellied palm rat or some such.
I looked up stuff on the computer and found there were lots of questions and answers about rodents living in trees in southern Spain, especially Palm trees but also in Almonds and Fig trees. Click this to see one of the detailed replies iberianatureforum.
It turns out that they are just Brown rats (Rattus norvegicus), they are quite happy in trees and will make a nest in the centre of a palm tree and only come down to seek out water or if the supply of palm fruits packs up. Shame really, I was hoping for something more exotic.
Alan Waterman photos 