Well i’m here at last in the Cairngorms , and its cold but Crested Tit , Red Squirrels , Deer and Pine Martins are about here somewhere, all we have to do is find them !
We visited the Loch Garten forest today and straight away found Crested Tits at some feeders with a Red Squirrel turning up later , bit of luck ! hundreds of birds were around the feeders – excellent sight to see !
Well this time i had some luck on my side , out in search of Adders again i found a dead mouse , it had not been dead long and was right by where i had seen Adders sun bathing. After setting up and getting comfortable i waited to see if anything was going to happen,I could see Adders moving around in the area near me and as i was lying in the heather i kept an eye on anything moving close to me !
After a couple of hours i saw movement in the heather close to where the mouse was lay , i then made out the head of a good sized Adder , head up and tongue flickering moving slowly towards me quartering the area , obviously homing in on the mouse , How the mouse had died i had no idea , perhaps a victim of this snake ?
Having tried over the past few weeks to successfully capture a decent image of the Adders living near to me , yesterday payed off , with one staying put long enough for me to get some time photographing these difficult to see reptiles , i say difficult to see but it seems when you do find one you then find more – as was the case with this one when after it departed the scene i found another three. However they were not so obliging as they didn’t hang around long.
Out and about yesterday around Mid Wales in the Elan Valley and surrounding area , it was a lovely day but although the sun was shining it was still very cold .
I watched two crows bring down a Red Kite into the side of one of the small rivers but it was too far away for the camera, after this i carried on around the lanes towards Tregaron with the usual Buzzards and Kites wheeling around in the sky , i got out of the Truck to watch one Kite floating along the valley side and as it dropped out of view i looked around to see a large silhouette above me – i had a quick ” What the **!* is that !! ” moment when it turned and i could see it was a Golden Eagle !
Grabbing the camera out of the truck i took a number of shots but the lens on it at the time was not very big so the pictures have been cropped to within an inch of their lives !
Later i found out the eagle has been around for a number of years , and appears to be an escapee, the rings are visible on its talons. I did see a large bird of prey earlier this year nearer Brecon but thought i was mistaken , or not as it seems .
I’ve been trying to catch the Badgers in the sett near me in the last of the evening light, each time the wind has been in the wrong direction – leaving me with the fading sunlight in my eyes. Although not great for photography, having the breeze blowing in a constant direction made watching the young cubs at the sett a lot easier ! with the young coming ever closer.
The problem then is that they’re too close , literally under my feet – all you can do then is watch as they root around for food and scuffle with each other. most of the shots were taken at about ten to six feet away.
With the days getting longer i hope to see more of them in the light for a change.
The Nature of Wales - Mostly !!
Welsh Wild Stuff 