New friend

 This young for which I named Junior has been visiting my garden for around 2years. He came first time with his parents.  They don't come anymore so he came by himself for a while and then brought a yong fox along for a few weeks. He then made friends with a hedgehog, that lasted several months until the hedgehog disappeared and now he seems to be having a relationship with a cat. I wonder how long this will last.

Old faithfull

With my age still creeping up on me I am finding difficult on some days to go out with my camera's. But as luck will have it young 'junior' has started comming round for supper again.

The infrared camera doesn't flash. It just has a tiny red glow when it fires but somehow Junior appears to spot it some five metres away. We have auto lights in the garden and when these come on they don't seem to bother him.

He's very tidy, never leaves any mess, even cleans up after the hedgehogs.
 

Back to colour

On the way back from a Sunday appointment at the hospital Jacque and I took a diversion to one of our favourite coffe stops. After which we made our way home via the back roads. We stopped at a place which we had decided previously as a possible spot for photo's. To our surprise we saw this handsome beast about 30m away looking straight at us poking his tongue out.

He did not run but just stood and stared.

Close by two of his females did the same thing. Just stood and stared.

A third female was spotted a little further away and again was not bothered just stood and stared. These animals had the freedom of the woods and fields which is what I like to see. They are part of the Knepp Castle rewilding prodject. I think the owners deserve a huge pat on the back.

There will be a lot more to come.
 

My new patch

I had the feeling that something was very fishy with the disappearing wildlife in my area of Sussex. I headed north out of my village for about 5 miles and found the area rich in wildlife. It was farming country but animals and not cereals as it is close to home. I saw many small birds and of course there were raptors like the common buzzard above.

I have come to the conclusion  that the difference in farming methods was to blame. In this new area there were no crops just animals with large wooded areas. This area backs on to the Knepp Castle estate. The owners renowned for their rewilding prodject.  In the future this is the direction I will be spending my time.
 

Where has all the wildlife gone.

When I moved into my present home several years ago I looked forward to having loads of wildlife close by with  lots of photography to do. It started well with plenty of bird life and animals coming into the garden I thought I was in my element. Two years ago I noticed a decline, the village pond the herons vanished, the cormorants went and the swans there now are artificial in an effort to keep the canada's away. Of the 40 odd swallows that nested every summer in the local houses this year just one pair were seen with no record of a nest. The feeders in my garden are rarely touched and I often throw the seed away before it rots. I paid a visit to the RSPB at Pulborough Brooks which is just 3 miles away at the week-end and in one hour I saw just 2 rabbits and a crow. I spoke to a photographer who was just leaving and asked what kind of day he had and all I got in reply was a shrug of the shoulders. The ponds had dried up, the feeders had gone. I have been a visitor there for more than 30 years and it has been high up on my photography sites list and a large proportion of my 40,000plus photo's have been taken there and to see the area like this hurts. This has nothing to do with the virus, I am sure it is air polution.