Sunday, April 04, 2010

Postcards from Brownsea - Wildlife

Brownsea is a wonderful place for watching a bit of wildlife (and there are a few tamer creatures to be found too!)
On this trip I had some wild fun before even stepping on the Brownsea Ferry. This cheeky black-headed gull and a couple of others wanted to share my gourmet breakfast - a packet of mini cheddars. They hovered around for ages buoyed around in the wind, they were moving around too much for me to get an in focus mid-air shot but it was funny to watch!
A couple of Crows were hanging around on the railings at the ferry point too, although this isn't the best photo I love that he is all wind swept and ruffle feathered :)
On the island itself there are any birds and animals to be seen. Some tamer than others, there are lots of pheasants and even though this fellow had most of the raisins out of my lunch packet he still wouldn't oblige and pose for a good picture, this was the best of the bunch.
Had a bit better luck with one of the many handsome peacocks that wander the island. AM pleased that the area round his eye seems to be in good focus in this one. However, my favourite shot of the day of the peacocks would have been this next one. I really like the quirky angle, and the texture of the feathers on the top of his head. If only I'd managed to not chop the end of his beak off!
There are lots of wild birds to be seen too, and on this visit was lucky enough to see a green woodpecker, a couple of nuthatches, some of the long tailed tits that I love and also lots of seabirds including my all time favourites, the Oyster Catchers. Sadly they all stayed too far away from the little zoom on my camera to be able to get pictures. But to finish off on the birds of the island a quick snap of one of the handsome cocks crowing and possibly the scruffiest chicken in the world.
Brownsea is also home to a population of deer, and I have caught glimpses of them on a couple of the previous trips I've made to the island, but this time was lucky enough to stumble across a whole herd (this was probably because the island was so quiet on the day of the visit, not too much human traffic around disturbing them). Still they were very way and this was the closest shot I was able to get.
Even though there is lots of wildlife to see, and I've been to the island on quite a few occasions now, still the main attraction for me is the possibility that you might get the privilege of spotting a red squirrel or two. I wasn't disappointed and got to see several squirrels frolicking around in the trees :) Again it's really hard to get a picture without a good camera with zoom lens. This is my best effort. lol, not much too see I know but I couldn't post about going wild on Brownsea without a squirrel shot. This guy was so funny, if you look closely you might be able to see he has a stick in his mouth, the stick was a lot longer than he was and he was dragging it up the trunk of the tree, brilliant to watch :)

2 comments:

Vicki W said...

Fabulous photos! Doesn't the pheasant have the best color palette?

coral-seas said...

Wildlife is so uncooperative about being photographed. I don't know how many hours I have tried and faile to get a good pic of some critter I've enjoyed watching.

Peacocks are a favourite of mine but those cocks are such a tease, flirting and flashing their tail feathers ... until you point a lense at them, then they go all camera shy.

Loved the scruffy chicken; gave me a good chuckle. Hubby wanted to know what I was laughing at. I told him you had to be there (not watching MoTD2).

Happy Easter, hope you are getting some good walking.