Friday 30 September 2011

Surprising September!

This month has certainly been interesting. It is going out with some superb weather in the mid-twenties centigrade which is very unusual for this time of year. I guess it cuts down on heating bills.

I am always busy in September when we have visitors from the north. This year we were able to entertain them with some obliging badgers.

I have been quietly watching the badger sett in the woods next door for most of the summer. Sadly, several weeks ago, I spotted some undesirables out shooting in the woods. I was not just concerned with my own safety but I did not want these guys to find the badger sett. So, I decided I should stay in my own garden to watch the badgers.

I have been putting out peanuts each evening, spread over a wide area. The badgers pass by at a very regular time and we have been watching from our conservatory. They literally "hoover" up the peanuts. There are 2 of them, one from the sett in the woods to the east (with a vertical line down his snout) and one from the sett in the woods to the west (with a spot on its nose). Unfortunately, every time I set up the camera and try to trigger it remotely, they get spooked, so no decent photos.

The roe deer family have been more obliging...

Roe Deer Doe and Fawns

A week or so ago, Mum and twins were all on the front lawn. The twins are both boys which you may be able to see from the photos. Their little antlers are just pushing through.

These photos were taken through the window, so are not the best. Just opening the window to take the shots, would have made them flee.


Roe Deer Doe and Fawns

I also recently visited a local garden centre in a quest to find more summer-flowering pretty flowers which the deer will not eat. Someone suggested Pentestemmon which I had never tried before so I bought some to give it a go. So far, they have not been touched by the deer. Hopefully, next summer we may have more colour during the summer months.

I noticed a long time ago that the deer don't eat Primula. The primroses in our garden run rampant in the spring but I did not know how many pretty types of primula there are. We visited Armadale Castle and Dunvegan Castle Gardens on the Isle of Skye in Scotland this year. They had some wonderful displays of primula (primula vialii, primula bulleyana, primula beesiana, etc). I have planted some this year and hopefully they will do as well in the garden as their native cousins.

Finally, the buzzards and red kites are continuing to thrive. They do their best to avoid posing for the camera, but I did get one reasonable photo this week.

Red Kite






5 comments:

Sandra said...

Hello Jenny,
The only place I can see to write to you is here! I have just looked through your book: "A Year in the Life of an English Country Garden". The photos are stunning and the whole book is beautiful! I wish I could have put a comment against the book, but every time I put in a user name it was already used! So I'm writing here instead!

May I ask what sort of camera you use and what type of lenses? You have mastered the art of photography so well.

Your book is a pleasure to look at. Well done for such professional work. Beautiful!

Jenny said...

Hi Zinnia,

I'm very pleased that you like my book. It was a really interesting project but quite hard to keep it up for a whole year.

I have a Canon 40D with a selection of lenses - a Canon 60mm macro, a Canon 70-300mm IS, a Sigma 170-500mm and a Canon 17-85mm.

I still have a lot to learn where photography is concerned but I feel I am making some progress. I very much appreciate your feedback.

Jenny

Sandra said...

Hello Jenny,

I've just come back from a holiday in England and was able to enjoy the countryside in The Cotswolds and also visit favourite haunts in London! The weather was great and I got the tail end of the lovely warm period with blue skies!

Thank you for answering my queries about your camera and different lenses. You have a really good choice.

I have a Sony 500 with only two lenses. The basic 18-55mm and a Sigma 50mm macro which I'm just learning to use! I would really like to take a course on photography in the near future so that I can learn how to get the best out of my equipment.

In the meantime, I'm enjoying the autumn colours over here and preparing a few photos from England to send to family and friends and for the blog.

Zinnia

sussexsarah said...

Your photographs are absolutely lovely - particularly your three headed deer. It must be so difficult juggling the needs of all the animals that share your space when that includes Roe deer. Do they just keep on increasing because there is no top predator or are they culled in some way by the roads for example?

Jenny said...

Hi Sarah,

Thank you for your comments.

There is quite a lot of woodland around here and the deer seem to roam freely. Some years we see more deer than other years.

We sometimes hear shooting in the woods and occasionally deer are hit by cars, so I guess this keeps their numbers down somewhat.

I think they are such beautiful creatures, especially the roe.

Jenny