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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Farnboro John" data-source="post: 1725483" data-attributes="member: 36432">Saturday 6 FebruaryA long session of sorting through Mum's and our stuff in her house now it is sold and we have to either get everything out or let the house clearance people do so, left us weary and miserable.  Maz went to visit her sister and I went for another round with the Moor Green Barn Owls.I arrived at about 1530 and had a bit of a fox-fest, with up to four animals involved, three on view at once being the maximum.  The pheasant-hunting pair were socialising on their bund, and another was curled up enjoying the sunshine just below the lip of a bank near the far West end of the gravel pits.  In addition, I had a good view of one much closer (but when the p-h pair weren't on view) being mobbed by a Carrion Crow as it made its way along one of the ridges dividing the working areas of the pits, and got a pic of it being closely buzzed by said crow.Thee were also four Roe Deer feeding on the far bank near the curled up fox, looked like two pairs.  The buck that had cost me a pic of the Barn Owl was also in the horse paddocks just across the river again, but after a glance I studiously ignored it.I had quite a long wait until one of the owls appeared further up the river, sat for a while on a fence post then flew, hunting, straight towards me.  I had a good position with a clear view right along the bank, and I thought this time he was toast, but the evil git waltzed along in full view till he was about sixty yards from me then slipped a yard to my right and vanished behind a broom bush.  He kept coming and bounced back into view less than twenty yards away to fly straight past me six feet up or less, and I swear he was laughing at me!  I did get the camera pointed but I could only see the facial disc so didn't push the button.I then had some nice views just outside photo range and gave up once he disappeared among the birches, to whizz over to the canal for a bash at Badgers in the last light.  They didn't bother turning up but yet another Red Fox was scent-marking its way across the field behind the sett.Sunday 7 FebruaryMark was at a loose end and after the failure the previous weekend I wanted a proper day out, so when a conference threw up the idea of going to Woodwalton Fen after Chinese Water Deer I was happy to be up at half past five to be on the way to his house. It also gave me the opportunity to give his bins back!I was a bit late, partly slow starting, partly the verdamnt M25 roadworks, but the journey was enlivened by my first black Rabbit of the year, by the A405/A414 roundabout.  Once we transferred my kit to Mark's car it didn't take too long to get across to Woodwalton Fen, seeing a dead small deer on a verge as we went.  I hadn't been there before.  It is quite a wet place (yes, I know, a fen will be), with the tracks nearly awash at the moment and boots or wellies essential.  The whole landscape around there is flat as a Yorkshireman's hat, you can see the sky between the buffalo's legs (well you could if there were any buffalo: Highland cattle came closest).  The reserve is a grid of reedbeds and willow carr with green grass tracks dividing the area up.  Both Muntjac and Chinese Water Deer are present, with countless tiny deer slots impressed into the mud and a lot of droppings.  I am not sufficiently experienced to separate Muntjac from CWD pellets.We walked straight through the middle of the reserve to emerge cautiously onto a high bank running the length of its far boundary.  Unfortunately the seven or eight Chinese Water Deer we could immediately see were all a considerable distance from the bank, but one to our right was walking towards it so we headed that way.  With the willows on the reserve preventing us being skylined and the wind in the right direction we were hopeful of a close approach, but we hadn't reckoned with two more CWD in tall reeds much nearer us.  Before we were aware of them, they spooked and in running off, took our quarry with them.We carried on in order to peer round the corner of the reserve boundary and check the fields there for CWD, and presumably as a result of us a Brown Hare also bolted out of the reeds bordering the fields at the foot of the bank.  It ran along the line of the reeds giving us a decent view from our elevated position but rapidly dwindling into the distance.  There was nothing to see round the corner so we started back.Having about-faced we could see that one of the CWD that had been feeding well out in the fields left of the steps up onto the bank, had moved much closer in.  It seemed to us that if we could gain the steps unnoticed, we could drop down and make our way along the foot of the bank on the reserve side, hopefully without falling into the flooded track at the base, and pop up right opposite it and very close.We put the plan into operation forthwith, finding walking along the steep base not too difficult but occasionally the crunch of cut-off reed stems under our feet sounded like a nuclear explosion as we tried to keep quiet!  No doubt the bank blanked it from the deer completely.  When we thought we were in the right place we clambered up the bank and raised our heads: Mark spotted the CWD a little further on so we descended, moved along and stealthily (!) brought our cameras into position from almost on top of the Chinese Water Deer. A rattle of DSLRs brought its head up (ta!) but it began feeding again.  We shuffled onto more comfortable stances atop the bank, opened the tripods we had been using as monopods, and began to take more deliberate pictures.The CWD heard the shutters, looked up again and this time resolved us into threats - and it was off at top speed!  It leapt the wide ditch between the grass it had been feeding on and the wide expanse of fields and rocketed off into the distance.  Oh well.  That's what happens with most deer.  We'd got good pictures anyway, so we were pretty pleased.We had spotted a Muntjac on the bank we were standing on, further along the reserve beyond the point at which we had to get off the top, but by the time we had finished with the CWD it had dropped onto the side of the bank to feed.  We decided to try for pix of that as well, and once more descended the bank. An s-curve in it prevented us from seeing the Muntjac while we made our way along the base of the bank, but once we rounded that we could see its back end pointing our way.  This gave us a good chance to close on it and we managed a few record shots without it becoming aware of us.  Our further progress was blocked by deep floods and we had to retreat.Walking back through the reserve we found a Grey Squirrel that obstinately refused to let us close enough for good pictures.  This reminded me of an idea Mark had put into my head earlier and we agreed that once we had got outside a cup of tea, we would drive down the A1 to Letchworth for a crack at black Grey Squirrels, which Mark reckoned were about 10:1 vs normal Greys in the parks there.On the way we stopped to check out the deer corpse and found it to be as we had thought, a CWD.  In addition to an impossibly twisted neck it had blood from nostrils and elsewhere on the head, and had evidently not moved since the vehicle that hit it had flung it where we found it, so it must have been killed instantly.After dicing with a huge crop of Sunday and just plain bad drivers, we reached the centre of Letchworth and no sooner had we kitted up than four black squirrels came tail-chasing through the trees towards us, down onto the ground and then back up to vanish into masses of ivy.  Well, that was easy, now to try and get some pictures!  That wasn't so easy, but once the sex-crazed chase had broken up the individual squirrels calmed down a bit and we managed to get some shots of them that weren't silhouetted - anyone can photograph a black squirrel by putting the light behind one!We checked out another park nearby but the only Grey Squirrel showing there was actually Grey - boring!More tea and onwards to Fowlmere RSPB to finish off the day.  The sightings board had not only Fallow Deer but also recent sightings of two Otters, which we felt would top the day off nicely.  Down to the paddocks for Fallow Deer, then up to the tower hide then....We found just one Fallow doe feeding at the back of the paddocks, and the rain began to come in thicker so we retreated to the comparative luxury of the tower hide to await the Otters.  The sightings board in there included mention of a showy Muntjac and after twenty minutes or so of freezing to death slowly I noticed a male Muntjac on the open ground leading West from the hide.  It was pretty close and we got a couple of pix before it wandered further away, feeding on green water weeds in the shallow pools.  It didn't go out of sight into the reedbed but turned at the back of the clearing and began to make its way towards us again, sticking to the reed edge most of the time.  Our cameras were going steadily (the light was awful but what is IS for?) but it pricked to attention, hearing someone approaching down the access track, and made more swiftly to the point where it could round the end of the reedbed and cross to where it had originally emerged. We took full advantage, shooting continuously and hoping one or two shots would be unblurred by movement.We stuck it out till about 1700 but didn't see the Otters and then gave up as both of us intended to go to our respective homes, sleep a couple of hours then watch the Superbowl till silly o' clock. Perhaps inevitably after a full day, I ended up missing the entire fourth quarter!John</blockquote>

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