Exmoor, May 2014

My latest stay on Exmoor was for two weeks, which included some of the best weather in May. I was out early most mornings with my camera. Despite much searching, I found no good spots to photograph dippers or grey wagtails and, again, some local badgers proved elusive when I was anywhere near their sett (could only photograph them in daylight at a distance).

However, four mornings spent watching a pair of great spotted woodpeckers proved fruitful. They had excavated a hole halfway up one of the poles carrying the electricity supply to Hawkridge. The parents worked in shifts with one going to collect food whilst the other tended their young. The best shots were at shift change. The pole was on a steep slope so with a long lens I could position myself almost level with them:

Spring is not the best season for red deer as the stags have still to grow their antlers. Nevertheless, I tried for a few shots. Stalking them just resulted in shots of them staring at me, but another evening I sat camouflaged and waited for them to come to me; this worked until they were frightened by the noise of the camera (a problem with DSLRs):

Exmoor ponies and their foals abounded on the commons. I caught two males play fighting...

...found another bathed in beautiful early-morning light...

...and a mare scratching (?) herself on a bridleway sign:

Whilst at Tarr Steps one lunchtime, a stream of riders passed through on the Golden Horseshoe Endurance Ride. The faster ones looked good negotiating the ford:

One evening, I was surprised to find a young tawny owl sat on the bank of a stream. Return visits found no trace of him/her.

With the good weather came clear nights and heavy dew. These are a few shots of the dew in the field containing the woodpeckers' pole:

Bluebells were still in full bloom. These were by one stream:

Further downstream, a long exposure picture of mayfly produced an interesting result:

Finally, with a new variable ND filter I experimented with waterfall shots, with some long and short exposures:

Badgers, Dursley, May 2014

I recently left a trail camera overnight in some local woodland next to what I thought might be a badger cub play area. To my delight, this was correct. The camera recorded 30 second bursts of video every time there was some movement - one night produced 1.5 hours of video, much of it documenting their attempts to wreck the camera. By the morning, the camera was filthy but it did survive. Just look at this:

These are some video clips:
Tiny, one of the adults, scratching himself: PICT0022.wmv
Tiny playing with four cubs: PICT0027.wmv
Tiny scratching: PICT0028.wmv
Two cubs trying to wreck the camera: PICT0103.wmv
Two cubs playing with another very pale cub: PICT0197.wmv

Later in the month, closer to home, I recorded these video clips:
Tiny in a relaxed state again: EK000618.wmv
Another badger indifferent to peanuts being tipped on him from an automatic badger feeder: EK000131.wmv