It was a day of surprises and unusual sightings. Which proves that sometimes you're just lucky, as the time I had to devote to any of this was next to nothing.
First up is this beautiful dragonfly exuvia (discarded shell) which was perched on a leaf in the pond right outside my office. You can see the exit hole created as the nymph emerges, just behind the head. The white strands are part of the breathing system. 
Dragonfly exuvia
Another grabbed shot was one that I'd been hoping to get, but I hadn't had the chance until now. Regular readers will recall the fun I had around this time last year with some seagull chicks. Well there are two more, very recent (they weren't around last week when I checked). As ever, a brief reminder never to disturb nesting birds. The shot was taken from a window overlooking their roof top nesting site. 
"We're back!"
That was taken at lunchtime, a brief (one minute) diversion before I had to head off to Crawley for work. The traffic was relatively light and I arrived with about half an hour to spare. I don't know the town, but I'm getting quite used to spotting local wildlife haunts and a 5 minute walk took me to Hawth Woods which is a site of 'nature conservation importance'. For a blazing hot day, the light in the wood was atrocious. I struggled with high ISO settings and absurdly slow shutter speeds. I did manage to grab a shot of a speckled wood butterfly, nestling in the filtered sunshine.
Speckled Wood butterfly
It was as I was heading back out of the wood, that the real surprise appeared. About 30 feet away was a young roe deer. To my astonishment it just stood and scratched as I desperately tried to figure out a workable setting on the camera. This is easily the closest I've been to a deer other than in private parklands. It was alone, and unperturbed by my presence. The first shot was taken at ISO 640, f/8 and 1/30s. Thank the heavens for image stabilization.
Roe deer in woodland shade.
This next was at f/5.6 and negative exposure bias of 0.7 giving a shutter speed of 1/80s:
I cranked up to ISO 1250 for this next one and achieved 1/200s as it trotted gently through the trees.
It finally disappeared, but was waiting when I emerged into the blazing sunshine (though not willing to hang around out in the open).
That last was a respectable 1/500s taken at ISO 800, still with -0.7 exposure bias.
All in all a quite wonderful and wholly unexpected encounter.
Camera note: all shots taken with the EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L USM IS lens.
SittingFox
1 Jun 2009Eh, the joys of photography under the woodland canopy. But that's a great shot of the speckled wood and the deer looks remarkably tolerant! Beautiful creature.
It looks like you found yourself a great area, but if you do end up in Crawley again, try Buchan Country Park. Most of my adder sightings have been there, and it's got a big nature pond now too, near the carpark. However, it is quite easy to get lost in the forest…
gdare
2 Jun 2009Satisfied seagull and scratching roe deer are tops of the day :up:
Flying Red Fox Blog
2 Jun 2009Wow lovelly photos :yes: Its great that i have most of this week off to enjoy the weather too!
Words
2 Jun 2009Adele, it was unbelievably dark in the wood given just how bright a day it was, but worth struggling to get those shots of the deer. I may check out Buchan Country Park. It's not too far from here and I've just had a look on the web and three red kites was spotted overhead in April. Very tempting!
Words
2 Jun 2009Thanks Darko!
Words
2 Jun 2009Mark, that's good timing having this week off work. :up:
eyemreli
4 Jun 2009Great shots :up: Thank you for sharing 🙂
eyemreli
4 Jun 2009🙂
Words
4 Jun 2009Thanks Elias!