Wildwood Trust

Fawn (Hand raised for easier herd management)

Last weekend I headed down to Herne Bay, Kent, to vist the Wildwood Trust. The journey there was quite long via the trains - and hour and a half to get to the Herne Bay Railway station, then another half an hour on the bus. The buses are a little tricky, bus 4 goes to Wildwood, and 6 is the one for the return journey.

One of the first critters (didn't process the photo due to crappy composition - my fault) to be seen were the Ravens. They are actually quite BIG in real life, far bigger than I expected. I do NOT want to meet them in the dark. Next up were the deer, and there were little fawns being hand raised, in order to keep them less flighty, and easier to manage e.g. for administering medicine. To be honest, they are probably the first critter I've encountered to be seriously affected by my camera. Every shutter release made them shudder. Hmm. Anyways, they were moving way to rapidly for my skill, thankfully I managed to get that shot above that I though well, not too bad but could do with the defocused fawn out of the way :P


Artic Fox

When I arrived in the early morning, I was rather lucky to be presented with the artic fox just enjoying a sunbath just besides the viewing portal (which is made of course, of evil glass). The 300mm wide open was just enough to capture the little furball. At a first glance I thought I was looking at a cub, and it was only later on I realized that it was adult fox sized, and the rounded ears would probably be evolved to keep body heat, rather like the polar opposite of the Fennecs and their oversized ears for cooling down. Later during the day when I returned, it was quite difficult to get a good shot as its enclosure seemed to be actually quite big.



Wild Boars

Just opposite the artic fox was another huge area where 2 wild boars were languishing whilst a 3rd, younger boar was foraging for food. The 70-200VR was very useful here to crop the shot the way I wanted it. The fencing here was quite widely spaced, enough for a lens to get an unobstructed view, but not allowing anything larger to pass through.

Moving on along, was another enclosure closed up for a year to allow the land to renew itself, followed by a red deer enclosure. Didn't bother to take a shot as I need a minimum of a 600mm lens to get to them, plus they were in the shade.



There seemed to be two packs of wolves, but in either case they were nigh difficult to shoot. The fencing in this area was very thick, and the camera constantly kept focusing on the fence (!!!) instead of the wolves. Grrr. In addition the entire park lives up to its name of Wildwood - trees abound everywhere, not just the wolf enclosure. This makes it somewhat difficult to get a shot, especially with the wolves in the shade. The fencing also causes a large decrease in the sharpness of the lens, a tad annoying but hey it's a conservation trust not a photography studio.



Red Fox

I seemed to be having lots of luck that day with the foxes. I was part of a sequence of shots where the fox was lazily yawning for the camera, when suddenly this huge gust of wind came by. I have no idea why, but at 630mm eq fov @ 1/80 of a second, I managed to get the shot =) It is sufficiently sharp, considering me being buffeted by the wind and the long focal length. Another one for a large print :)