Month: October 2017

As you know the BBC broadcast Autumnwatch from Sherborne last week, and they really  wanted good footage of the local deer in daylight, not just on infrared, but they found them quite elusive. So I thought I could supplement their coverage with these shots, both taken in 2013 in Sherborne.

The first shot is of fallow deer, a single buck and a lot of does!

The second shot is of roe deer, with fresh antlers still covered in velvet, in the grounds of Sherborne House en route to eat our rose bushes. Judging by the way he is licking his lips, the daffodils also tasted good.

I do admit, however, that the BBC caught footage through the trees of a pair of deer rutting in the woods, so not surprisingly they win this lop-sided wildlife photo contest.

My usual way of learning to look carefully at wildlife is to take photos, but last night I tried something new. I went to Shoreditch (London’s Brooklyn, but cooler) to a drawing class run by Wild Life Drawing, http://www.wildlifedrawing.co.uk, a wonderful idea started by Jennie Webber. They bring wild (or wild-ish) animals, give you paper and pencil, and let you draw them for a couple of hours. In the past they have had raptors, and wolf cubs, but this time it was snakes.

They are all rescue snakes abandoned by their owners for some reason. This is Peanut, a 14-foot long Burmese Python, investigating one of the artists.

As some of you know, our son Andrew once had a boa constrictor, so I am comfortable around snakes, but this was the biggest one I have ever handled. Luckily Burmese Pythons are typically quite docile, and if it was your first snake experience you would never recoil from them again.

Harking back to an earlier blog post of mine, his underside is pretty stunning too. Notice the large horizontal scales that he uses to grip as he moves.

There were also four smaller snakes, including two Royal Pythons, and a Corn Snake. (The pumpkins were in honour of Halloween).

I was 30 years older than anyone else in the room, and some of the others did beautiful watercolours or charcoal sketches. My drawings are not as impressive, though this smaller Royal Python seemed to like it:

The larger one got bored:

We gathered a substantial crowd outside the windows who couldn’t quite believe what they were seeing. One small child came in to pat the biggest snake.

Many of these drawing sessions support wildlife trusts, which in addition to rescuing animals perform an important educational service, with open days and school visits. If anyone would like to know more about this reptile rescue centre, they are called Snakes Alive, http://www.snakesalive.co.uk.

PS: All these are iPhone photos, but they came out OK.

PPS: Since this is a posting from London, I decided to use British spelling!

Every evening this week the BBC nature unit is broadcasting Autumnwatch from my village in the Cotswolds. So I thought I’d show you a corner of it, all photographed yesterday.

This is the Broadwater, a stream turned into a chain of small lakes by Lord Sherborne, and now sadly silting up because the National Trust has made a decision not to dredge them.

There are fewer over-wintering ducks than there used to be, but we still have wigeon and of course mallard.

And the swans and egrets are there year round.

Away from the water, there are jackdaws, and horses too…

(The weathervane is on top of the old stables block, they did things in style in those days.)

Back in London, in the very centre of the city, I have a tiny courtyard back garden, heavily shaded. Even there, all kinds of life goes on. There are parakeets, but they won’t let me photograph them. So instead I have settled for a late bee! There’s very little nectar around at this time of year, but in a not-very-well-tended corner of the garden this bee has found my Fatsia japonica flowers.

The flowers are tiny, but there is plenty of pollen for the bee to dislodge:

and then carry on its hind legs to another flower.