The Leaping Bambi
Paul Murdoch’s Nature on the Hoof - Part 1
So, welcome to this new blog which will also run as a podcast. You see, it’s all about the pictures and, probably more importantly, what’s in the shots. Nature and me go way back... Let me think...about 58 years, when I began asking - What’s that? what does it do? Why does it do that? Etc etc... I’m not a patient man, so hides and long stake outs aren’t my bag. All my shots are pretty much ‘on the hoof’, hence the title of the podcast.
My plan is to take some pictures and then talk about them. It might be a bird or an insect or even a specific view, all of which I’ve been posting on Facebook in sets of five. People have been asking to know more about the animals in the shots and even how I took the pictures, so here goes...
Am I qualified to talk about this stuff..? Well, I do have an honors degree in Zoology but that was yonks ago. No, I’m going to rely on my 58 years of asking questions and of course you to put my right if I get it wrong, which I’m bound to do...hopefully not too often. But please feel free to add any extra info in the comments. We’re all learning.
The first set of pics I want to talk about are the ones I call my leaping Bambi set. They were taken on the 24th of May 2020, in and around Alexandria, West Dunbartonshire.
The most stand out photo is probably the one of a buck Roe Deer caught in mid air about four or five feet off of the ground, but I’ll start with the first in the set which is a landscape shot with some yellow gorse in the foreground and Dumbarton Castle and the River Clyde in the distance.
I liked the way the top wire of the fence in the foreground forms a kind of v with the outline of the Clyde. It kinda tells your eye to focus on Dumbarton Rock in the distance. A good five miles away. The castle there dates back to 580 AD or so and was the capital of the Strathclyde Britons. However, I like this shot because it’s taken from one of my favourite spots.
The second picture is the puffed up young Dunnock. I thought it might have been a young Whitethroat at first, but the red tinge to its eye, the pink feet and the grey around the head meant I plumped for the Dunnock, which is also called the Hedge Sparrow, Hedge Accentor or even Hedge Warbler. It’s often misidentified as a female house sparrow but has a much more slender, pointed bill. I literally saw this bird out the side of my eye on my way down from the moor. Because it was a youngster, it wasn’t that afraid of me which meant I could get a few good shots from about fifteen feet away. It was also perched a bit higher than usual. Dunnocks like to feed low down, under the hedges or on the ground where they eat insects amongst the leaf litter.
The buck Roe Deer, I spotted well ahead of me in a higher field. With the wind in my face, I suspected it would just be movement and sound that would give me away so I crept as close as I dared, behind a hedge. I judged the distance and adjusted my zoom and settings as I moved. Once I put the camera to my eye, the buck instantly saw me.
He stayed put initially, staring me out, which gave me the initial shot and then he bellowed in annoyance and turned away, breaking into a series of leaps and runs. I had the camera set on multi-shot and one, lucky snap gave me that gazelle-like leap, in mid-air. I had no idea I’d captured it until I stopped later and took a quick squint at my shots. Lucky or what. Clear enough, it framed the animal nicely, all four legs bent and at about four feet off the ground. Maybe more. The beautifully clear, sunny morning helped too.
The Roe Deer is native to Scotland along with the much bigger Red Deer. The Fallow, Sika and Reindeer have all been introduced. As a wee aside, Deer differ from Antelope in the way they annually shed and regrow their horns. Gazelles etc have theirs for life. Gazelles also tend to have single horns whereas Deer antlers are branched and more complex. The rapid and complex growth of the Roe Deer antler always amazes me and I often wonder if the biology involved might unravel a few secrets or even lead towards a cure for some disease. Oh, I forgot to say that I overthink stuff a lot.
Finally, there is the Song Thrush. More common than the much bigger Mistle Thrush, it lets you know where it is with its fantastic song. Often perched high up, it will sing away, repeating tricky phrases. They will eat worms, insects and also snails. They will habitually come back to a certain stone and smash snail shells to get into the fleshy bit. These stones are known as Song Thrush Anvils and are pretty unique to the species. The Song Thrush population dipped by about 50% in the last few years but, personally I’m beginning to see and hear more of them again. I haven’t seen any Mistle Thrush since about February, which may mean our lot have travelled south for the summer.
The Song Thrush shot was at full optical zoom, X50, and on an advanced manual setting using a final manual focus. They won’t hang around if they see you but, like this one, they can sometimes be right into it. Mid-song, standing proud, temporally distracted by their own prowess.
It’s always easier to get a good shot of a bird when it’s showing off. Displaying or singing. The trouble with this time of the year is that the leaves are pretty much all out, so singers and dancers may be well hidden.
All these shots were taken about twenty minutes walk from my home and all within that first twenty minutes. I continually look and shoot. Much of the time it’s blurry nonsense, where a bird has already gone or an animal scarpered, but the more shots you take the ‘luckier’ you get. As I was about to snap the Song Thrush a Cuckoo raced over a gorse bush and nearly smashed straight into my face. It was being chased by a very angry Skylark. Now that would have been a great shot.
Hope you found all that a wee bit interesting. So, until next time... This is Paul Murdoch saying chow for now.
Links - for more info, bird recordings, equipment etc
RSPB site : https://www.rspb.org.uk/birds-and-wildlife/wildlife-guides/bird-a-z/song-thrush/
My Camera : https://youtu.be/GjaiUp3mVXk
Other Podcasts : https://www.paulmurdoch.co.uk/old-bloke-goes-podcast
My website: www.paulmurdoch.co.uk