Bramley (Nature Reserve)

We are about 30-40mins west of Wimbledon, so when it rains here, with the direction of the wind and clouds, you can bet that the covers will be going on pretty soon.

One such time, it began raining really heavy outside, so I went out the back yard for a quick check of the sky to see this fairly young stag about 30ft away at the end of my garden.
 

He walked off into the maize that the local farmer is growing this year and stood and watched me for ages. 

If it had not be absolutely throwing it down with rain at the time, (and if I had recharged the batteries in my camera), I would have taken more photo’s.

He comes round quite often of late. I guess he’s been kicked out of the woods by the older stags so he’s off trying to find his own new patch.

It wasn’t until a few months back that I realised just how many deer there are in Bramley Woods.  I was walking my two dogs and as I turned into one of the fields, there must have been hundreds of dear just ambling around in the middle of the field enjoying the sun and eating the new grass.  They didn’t mind the two dogs until we got within a few 100yards of them , when they just bounced off back into the woods.

Earlier on in the day, I had already seen a Green Woodpecker on a tree in the neighbours garden.  I could hear a tapping on the tree and there this was.  Usually they are quite timid and have only got hear the slightest noise and they are off.  But this one I think had a few youngsters waiting for it in the field.

Again it was absolutely throwing it down with rain and was standing against a fence under a tree in my back garden.  I took these on min the way aximum digital zoom and low resolution.

And a few days before, one of the Red Kite’s was flying over.

We have about 4 of them living around here and every now and then they will soar on the thermals above the fields (assuming that there is any sun, which for the last few weeks we haven’t seen much of). In fact I really should upload a picture of the damn thing so I can remind myself what it looks like. I’m sure the last time I saw it in anger was in France a few weeks back.

Again, this photo was taken at the maximum range of my zoom, but you can still make out the profile.

They look absolutely amazing close up and I often spend an hour or so watching them soaring. Clicking on the last image of a Red Kite will take you the the UK’s best Red Kite web site. (Note: If you couldn’t tell by the standard of the last picture, I didn’t take it and I ‘borrowed’ it from their web site)