3 ticks followed me home

As things turned out, we didn't go to Essex or any of the places I mentioned.

Being the lazy types we thought we should start out somewhere closer to London.

First destination - the London Wetland Centre. Xi, Fidel and I met up there with Ray and a new friend, Kiat. A good place for bird photography, but if you're a naturalist then this mightn't be the sort of place you're looking for. They say it's natural surroundings and all - well, to a certain extent it is, but to me it feels of artificialness. It's set out more like an open-range bird-zoo than anything else, with the centre organised into different themes of wetland habitats, and fences and gates to mark the borders (which have no practical value, since the birds can fly anywhere as they please). A bit commercialised, really. 40 hectares set in the heart of London (kinda). There're ducks... lots of 'em, and many 'imported' or non-native. Geese, too. Nothing much of anything else... in the line of bigger shorebirds, there was only the Grey heron. Might need to go there at different seasons and more often... the checklist holds a number of uncommon and interesting birds, so frequenting that place might bring out some rewards.

That took us half a day, though I wouldn't have minded if we stayed there the entire day. We headed to Richmond, where after about two hours walking about along the Thames looking for the famous Richmond deer herds, we discovered that we weren't even in Richmond Park. We walked a lot. A little bit uphill too, and circling inside Richmond Park following a map that gets even SAF officers lost. Useless English maps. We asked people where the deer were, or where the main pond was. Nobody knew. So we walked on. The gang was tired, hungry and the non-photographers were bored. We almost wanted to give up... until... "Is that what I think it is?" - in the woods slightly off the road, there was a shape... which looked like the head of a deer. Hah! There were more... an entire herd of Red deer, and another herd of Fallow deer east of them. Stalking deer in the grasslands, ticks swarming up my trousers and onto my legs. It's a new experience; so different from shooting birds.

It was fun. Staying in the field makes me happy. Anywhere outdoors where there's green makes me happy. :)

Red deer

posted by Husky @ 5/31/2005 03:35:00 PM  |