An occasional alternative place for us to visit, usually when we have something to do in Loughborough, is Charnwood Water which we visited yesterday. It is quite popular with some of the more common waterbirds, but as we sat in the car looking out towards the lake we saw some very rapid movements on the bank.
Warning! Don't look if you're scared of rats.
TOO LATE!
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| Canon EOS 7d, EF 100 - 400mm L lens 1/200 @ f6.3, iso 1600, 400mm |
The wild Brown rat (Rattus Norwegicus) the common rat in the UK. When you see him in the wild, you see a sleek, well groomed animal in his proper place.
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| Canon EOS 7d, EF 100 - 400mm L lens 1/500 @ f6.3, iso 1600, 400mm |
I stood quite close to this family of rats, watching them running back and forward along the lake side. As long as I didn't move too much they weren't at all bothered by my presence. There was a large male, a smaller female and three young. They all darted for cover when someone walked by with a dog, but soon came out again when they'd gone. The family were feeding on a variety of things, but their favourite seemed to be bread pieces that had gone astray when thrown to the ducks.
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| Canon EOS 7d, EF 100 - 400mm L lens 1/640 @ f6.3, iso 1600, 400mm |
We were sitting in the car having our lunch when we noticed a squirrel on the roof of the public conveniences, it sat in the guttering for a while feeding on something we couldn't see. Then descended to the path. I took the camera out again but the squirrel seemed to have disappeared.
After a few minutes it reappeared from a bush and sat eating something, that's always a good photo opportunity. But then I noticed the teats were prominent and that combined with her size must mean she is soon to give birth. We'll be going back there in a few weeks to see if there are any young ones about.
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