Oare Marshes October 2011

Oare Marshes in North Kent on a sunny day with a rising tide has to be a great place for close views of waders. Flocks of golden plovers, avocets, dunlins, lapwings and black-tailed godwits gave fantastic views in the autumn sun. With no signs of predator activity, these birds seemed to fly just for the sake of it. The golden plovers looked almost electric as they turned this way and that, the sun catching the gold, then the white contrasting with the lapwings that joined them. “Scar-face” a regular little egret was most confiding at the edge of the tide while the avocets stayed slightly further out in the scrape.

Deer of Autumn 2011 - pictures include Red Deer stags and Fallow Deer

Bushy Park has been the site of some very busy Red Deer stags this autumn. The weather has been dry and not particularly cold although the temperatures on one or two mornings have been low enough for a foggy start. This makes for an unnerving time, listening to the baying of the stags as the dawn begins to break behind a curtain of fog… in other words it is really difficult to work out where these creatures actually are. A high level of caution is required to maintain safety but the draw of that ever elusive picture can have photographers going one step too close to these magnificent animals. As the Red Stags begin to quieten at the end of October so the Fallow deer take over and provide their own spectacle.

Bushy Park – 2nd October 2011

I decided on the spur of the moment to go for photos of the Red Deer in Bushy Park… it was 5.00 am Sunday! The air was still and the sky clear, I felt that there could well be some good atmospheric conditions around the lake and with the deer in full rut, I might get a few shots. I was not disappointed, the colours changed every moment and the light on the deer varied depending on the directions they were facing. It was a great morning and by the time the cyclists and dog walkers were up, I was heading home for coffee!