I'm going bats.

 I have spent a lot of time over the past few months searching for the wildlife that has disappeared from my neighborhood. The hedgehogs have gone, the foxes are rarely seen, barn owls, all the small garden birds, red kites that have been seen over my house, all gone. Because I have not been up to it the garden has fallen into a bit of  a wild area this has resulted in many wild flowers growing on the lawn, which in turn has attracted the insects. This summer we have grasshoppers, crickets loads of butterflies and moths and now we have bats every evening. This has given me a new area for my photography. These two photo's are my first attempt at capturing movement with the aid of flash. I am not a lover of flash but I can see a good use for it. I can now sit in my garden in the evening and enjoy my photography again. Not my best photo's but I have the will to improve.

Fallow deer

 Where I live in Sussex there is an abundance of deer and local to me we have many fallow deer.

 It has always amazed me on the many colours they are found in. This is mum and offspring.

This is the dark variety of which there are large herds present. As usual all of these pictures were taken from my car.

Infra-red camera

 Been busy at home with not much energy left at the end of the day I have resorted to what is going on in the garden. This is Beatie seems more interested in the smell of the flowers than his supper.

This is a younger fox. You can see in the background the hedgehog dining room with one having its evening meal.

This is Beatie again, always last to leave having made sure there is no food left.

Oyster catcher

The camera hasn't been very rewarding lately. The field where I usually watch a barn owl was used as an overspill car park for a local museum, the grass was flattened and therefor the voles scarpered and left nothing for the owls. The foxes still visit the garden but I don't fancy sitting up till 3 in the morning on the off-chance of a shot. I did pop down to the wetlands for coffee one day and got this shot from one of the hides of an oyster catcher hiding in amongst the daisies. It now sits on one of my birthday cards, hoping that it sells well.

Still keeping busy

With my age is creeping up on me and I am not so avtive as I would like to be. Nevertheless some of my wildlife visits me in my garden. With my infra-red cameras I can go to bed at night and let my visitors photograph themselves and I can study the results in the morning. This is Beatie the fox a regular caller for his supper..

I get out in the car on some nice evenings and I have a favourite spot where I can sit in the car and photograph through the drivers window and you would be surprised at some of the creatures I get. This barn owl is one of a pair. I think they have young nearby, so I have my fingers crossed.

From the same spot as the barn owl I look out the other side and I and I have this steep chalk cliff the remains of a quarry and high up near the top is the nest site of a pair of peregrines. I am not sure whether they have been successful this year so my fingers are crossed for that one too.

This is the male, he's getting quite used to me, although he is a long way off.

I got both male and female in this shot and I didn't notice the wood pidgeon fly across but the male peregrine certainly did. Lucky wood pidgeon.