Bank Vole

Sometimes you hit the limit of physics and your kit, the outcome is, ahem, aesthetically underwhelming to say the least, but you have captured a beautiful memory and that’s all that ever really matters. Here are some technically awful, through a window, ISO crazy, super slow shutterspeed (1/20th on a 400 lens with extender, ISO 64,000 for the photographers among you) grab shots of an utterly charming dusk encounter with a little russet-furred, round eared field vole that has made its home near our patio.

A favourite prey species of pretty much everything bigger than itself, including Barn Owls and Kestrels, I first identified this as the little short-tailed field vole (Microtus agrestis) , but the russet fur and round ears suggests he is actually a Bank Vole (Myodes glareolus). (S)he used clever predator avoidance tactics including hiding, freezing and zooming and taking varied circuitous routes round my collection of pollinator pots to harvest bittercress flowers, dandelion leaves and gnaw through a gone to seed dandelion flowerhead, which took quite some doing for the tiny creature working to stock its larder.

I quietly watched for some time, just enjoying the moment, before eventually reaching for my camera. Its certainly made me halt my plans to weed the cracks between my patio flagstones. Who knew that a few pollinator pots could bring my patio alive in such an unexpected way?

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Short-tailed field vole using our guttering as cover before venturing out

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Short-tailed field vole harvesting a gone to seed Dandelion flowerhead

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Short-tailed field volves have much rounder ears than mice.

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Short-tailed field vole battling with a gone to seed Dandelion flowerhead

Red Deer Rut

Red Deer rut in the month of October, and there are many very accessible places you can witness this natural spectacle. I went for the first time with my husband to Bushy Park in London. The best time is at first light, before the park becomes busy with humans going about their daily activities. We arrived shortly before sunrise after a chilly clear night which had created a dense fog. As we walked into the park grounds visibility was only a few feet, and I started to hear the bellows of the rutting stags.

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Photo of the Month October - Stag Silhouetted In Fog Taken: Bushy Park, London

The sound echoed in the fog and seemed to come from all sides. It was an eerie, atmospheric experience. Then gradually the fog thinned and I started to make out shadowy figures of the stags. As the mist cleared I witnessed more of the Stags' rutting behaviour -  staring and snarling, licking their lips, tossing their antlers in bracken and charging each other. Within couple of hoursthe sun had risen, the park was filling with people and all the action had subsided and the deer settled down to rest. As we left it was funny to think that these joggers, dog walkers and parents with prams were using the park totally oblivious to the drama that had unfolded at first light.

Note: Please take care if you decide to visit a deer park during the rutting season. Even in parks such as Richmond, Bushy or Bradgate, where they are semi-habituated to humans, deer become extremely aggressive at this time of year. Several people are killed each year trying to approach too close to rutting deer. Do exercise caution and common sense at all times and bear in mind the following hints and tips for watching the deer rut safely without disturbing the animals:

Keep a respectful and healthy distance away at all times when observing deer and be watchful for any sign of response to your presence or disturbance.  Retreat calmly straight away if you find any deer starting to stare, pull back its lips or show teeth - they are warning you you're too close and they could charge. Always move slowly and steadily and avoid sudden, unpredictable movements. Keep your arms and tripods low. Never wave or try to attract their attention. Always avoid a deer's path and move out of its route if one approaches you. Be aware of you position in the herd and avoid getting between a stag and his hareem of females or a mother and young, which could trigger an attack. Never approach a deer directly, head on or or from behind -antlers are daunting but they can buck and kick too.

Red Squirrel

Photo Of The Month September 2011 – Foraging Red Squirrel. Taken: The Yorkshire Dales

I was recently fortunate enough to visit Simon Phillpotts up in the Yorkshire Dales (find out more about Simon at www.wilddales.co.uk).

He’d been very busy building a new red squirrel hide and wanted to give it a test drive. It was getting to be the time of year when the squirrels were starting to get very busy squirreling away (forgive the pun) their nuts for winter. They didn’t stop around for long, and they’re harder to photograph than you might think, but I was lucky to catch this one doing a mission impossible impression.

Fox and Leveret

March may be famous for the "mad March hare" but June is the season for leverets.

You can actually observe "mad March hares" boxing anytime from January into late March when their courtship season comes to an end, but European brown hares live in arable fields surrounding the Ridgeway, South Oxfordshire and across the UK all year round.

After giving birth, Brown hares raise their young in late spring into early summer, but tend to be harder to see at this time of year as the crops have grown much higher, affording the younger hares protection from hunters and a plentiful food supply.

During the daytime hares usually hunker down into their "forms" to conceal themselves. Dawn and dusk are perfect times to watch them. One evening shortly before dusk. I was crouched in a rapeseed field margin watching a young leveret. All of a sudden it reared up on its hind legs, sniffed the air and dived off into the rapeseed crop.

A few moments later out of the bushes trotted a large dog fox. He paused just a brief moment, his head turned towards me. We exchanged looks, acknowledging each other's presence, then he moved calmly onwards, following the scent of the leveret. On the way home I spotted a fresh trail of pigeon feathers. 

I'd like to think the leveret was lucky and lived to fight another day...

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A young brown hare or leveret rears up on its hind legs, alert to approaching danger. The Ridgeway National Trail, South Oxfordshire

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A large "dog" or male red fox crossing a field margin in search of prey on a hunting trip. The Ridgeway National Trail, South Oxfordshire