Taken last week on a hot day in the forest. This is the matriarch of the group, who were all resting in a very dark and cool spot late in the afternoon. She emerged to check out what was going on, then went back to the others.
Garganey
The Garganey is scarce, and unique among British ducks, being a summer visitor to these islands from its wintering grounds in central Africa. Photographed last week at Cannop Ponds. A pair have moved away to a much more secluded place, hopefully to breed.
Pied Flycatcher (female)
A female Pied Flycatcher making nest preparations last week in the Forest.
Tree Pipit display
This Tree Pipit was putting on a good show over the entrance road to Cannop Ponds last week.
Wild Boar
This is the mother of the tiny piglet that I uploaded a photo of on the 5th April. She is wary of people, and protective of her young.
As expected, those boar that were encouraged to interact with humans last year have mostly met an early death, but some remain. Thankfully I’m seeing less of this sort of thing this year so far, but still photos emerge – just because it’s possible to get close enough to touch certain young boar doesn’t mean you should.
There was one particular group of piglets last year who were tamed by people feeding them and their mother. This resulted in an easy kill for poachers, leaving the piglets to fend for themselves, with the tame traits of their deceased mother. Their tameness was exploited by many people, some of whom should have known better, in the quest for photos or simply to see them. To be fair, many of them will have done so without appreciating what the consequences can be. A year on, only one of those piglets survives. In a pathetic display of habituation, it now wanders up to parked cars hoping to be fed, just a couple of hundred yards from the corpse of its most recently killed sibling. People are continuing to feed it to this day, whilst they take snaps on their phones. I’ve had to chase that boar off in to the woods a number of times to get it away from traffic and people, but it’s virtually impossible to make it fearful of me or anyone else, and it surely won’t be long until something happens to it. Although the problem doesn’t seem quite so bad this year, I believe certain piglets this year might be facing a similar prospect.
It’s great to see our wildlife, and especially so at close quarters, but there are limits. Please do not attempt to feed the Wild Boar, and please watch and take photographs responsibly and respectfully.
Treecreeper
These are great little birds to watch as they scuttle up the trees looking for insects.
Nesting Peregrines
Recently I’ve been working with the Gloucestershire Wildlife Trust to ascertain whether Peregrines are nesting at Lancaut. I managed a few record shots on one of my visits, and will be returning to see how these birds are doing soon. Here’s a BBC news article on the group’s progress.
