Wildlife on My Doorstep: 2017 Species Highlights! (Part 2)

(Feature image – Deep thinking – Night Heron looking out at pond)

In the latter part of the summer I went away with my family to a small village called Stoke Climpton in Cornwall, that is right on the Devon boarder. West country, wildlife certainly provided me with some amazing experiences, such as seeing as seeing a curious field vole feeding on some seeds and burrowing and rock climbing over a stone wall. I also managed to see a heron and cormorants up close and little egrets.

reflexitive — Reflective – Little erget looking at it’s reflection in the river

Then as the darker, colder nights drew in I got stuck into the rut of my new life at university and being a student again. One of our first trips at university was visiting Tatton Park, where we observed the behaviour of the red deer stags and fallow deer bucks; by doing an ethogram in which we looked out for certain behaviours such as scent marking.

fallow deers two — Male and female fallow deer

Throughout the year I visited my local patch, Coton Hill, Community Woodland, where I saw kestrels and buzzards and an array of azure damselflies. I visited Attingham Park several times in the winter, where I got chance to improve my photography of the fallow deer and in the spring months capturing the demoiselle darting across the pond.

CSC_0324 — Banded demoiselle – it is an electric emerald colour and to big black beady eyes

stag do black and white — Stag Do- male fallow deer running to get there food – (black and white photograph)

stag black and white — Proud – Stag fallow standing with authority – (black and white photograph)

observing stag — Thinking ahead – Fallow deer looking

However, a lot of these species sighting has also highlight the fact to me that our climate is changing the impact which it is having on the natural world is immense. For example, seeing a night heron at my local park, this bird is more commonly found in southern eastern Europe and during in the winter months it migrates to central and west Africa. I only became aware of its existence because a friend told me and then I made it my mission to find it. After many months reading about this new local celebrity in the paper, I stumbled upon the night heron. It was an amazing experience to see a stout bird like this it had rich red eyes, a black crown and brown and grey feathers.