Sunday 20 January 2013

Muntjac

There are some trees behind our house, a shelter belt from the main road, which lends itself to wildlife. It is a scruffy mix of native broadleaf trees and bramble in the undergrowth, enabling birds such as Tawny Owl, Sparrowhawk and Jay (amongst others) to nest, but it is sometimes home to mammals. We regularly get up to 5 Hedgehogs visit in the warmer months and we have even had a fox make an appearance in the garden. Yesterday we had a visit from a Muntjac, although not actually in the garden, it was seen in the trees just over the fence. A welcome addition to the flora and fauna of a back garden in Werrington.



Below are a couple of short videos.



I can't quite work out how to put the two together to just have one video! I am not very technically minded!

16 comments:

  1. Lovely post John, you are so lucky to get Muntjac, although I gather they can be destructive to fruit trees.
    You can use windows movie maker to stitch your videos together. Just make sure they are either wmv or avi (sometimes the codec can make movie maker jumpy esp in windows 7 and vista). Drag them on to the timeline, you can fade them into one another using the transitions if you want.
    It is pretty intuitive.

    Pop by and see who came to see us this morning, not as exciting as your visitor but I got a great shot.

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    1. Hi Charlotte,
      It was quite a shock to see it so closely. They can be destructive and not just to fruit trees, but it was still a thrill to it.
      Thanks for the info, I will endeavour to try it out, but as I say, I am not very good at this technology lark.
      Saw your visitor, a very nice addition to your garden, it shows you have a healthy population of birds!
      J

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  2. HI John...When the animals come near my house I always feel honored ..maybe odd sounding by I feel like they trust me ; )
    He is wonderful just going about his eating,and what is so delicious there??
    Very different then the deer I have here, such a nice colored on it's coat!
    There sure is a noisy bird about though! : )
    You at least got the video on ..me..haha not techie at all!!
    grace

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    1. Hi Grace,
      Yes, although I am pretty sure that if I had made a noise it would have run for it! It looks to me like bramble, it must have a rough mouth to withstand the prickles!
      The bird is a Blackbird making a row due to the fact a Sparrowhawk had just made a pass through the garden!
      J

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  3. There was an interesting article in Saturday's Times by Simon Barnes about Muntjac Deer. I was surprised to learn that they were introduced in the nineteenth century. I had always supposed that they were native. They had a lovely photo but your video tops that! They were lucky to find some evergreen leaves.
    Click here for Bazza’s Blog ‘To Discover Ice’

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    1. Hi Bazza,
      We have only two native species of deer in Britain, the Red and the Roe deer, the others have all been introduced at some point. I think the Muntjac 'escaped' from Woburn Abbey initially, but that was probably in the article that you read.
      Thanks for your kind words about my film making! I will try to get a handle on the movie making process! ;)
      There is plenty of brambles in there for it to eat, maybe it will come back?
      J

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  4. The beautiful Muntjac Deer, I have never seen one of those yet, lovely.

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    1. Thanks Bob,
      We are lucky around here that there are a few.
      J

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  5. You'll have to make a hole in the fence John, and then you might get it as a garden tick lol

    Good shots through the branches.
    For video I use Serif X5, (they're on 6 now), and it's quite easy to string clips together.
    Windows Live Movie Maker probably does the same too.

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    1. Hi Keith,
      I don't know about that, we just paid a fortune replacing the old one! ;)
      Thanks for the info, I will have a look and you never know, I might do a movie to rival yours. I doubt it though :)
      J

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  6. How sweet an animal this little deer is and so nice to have it roam up so closely to your home. You were right on it being able to photograph it and also video clip it too. Happy week~

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    1. Thanks Mary! I was lucky in that my wife was looking out of the upstairs window and noticed it in the woods against the white of the snow, otherwise it may have passed me by!
      You too. :)
      J

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  7. It looks pretty healthy to John. They are everywhere now.
    I saw one by the r/about Paston Parkway/ Gunthorpe junction one day.
    It just walked across the path in front of me.

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    1. It did indeed Roy. My wife has seen a few around the Boating lake and Ferry Meadows, but this is the first time near us!
      J

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  8. How lovely to have that over the back fence John, what a treat! Lovely little creatures, I have seen a few around here, never over the garden fence though ;-)We used to have Foxes and Hedgehogs regularly but not seen either for some time.

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    1. Hi Jan,
      We were very privileged to have such good views. I haven't seen a fox for a while, although my wife had one walk right in front of her today as she was walking a couple of dogs! Nice!
      J

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