Dorset, Durrell and Deer

This weekend I went to Poole in Dorset to pay my aunty and uncle a visit. The weather stayed sunny with a small shower just before we left. With the good weather we got to visit the New Forest. We saw the ponies that roam here and a herd of deer led by a large stag. I managed to snap him calling too before some walkers startled the herd and they fled into the trees.

A little foal

A calling red deer

At this time of year farmers let there pigs into the forest to forage for acorns which are just starting to fall from the oaks. We saw a small family consisting of a mother sow and 4 piglets standing in the road as if they owned it. 

The piglets in the road

Piglet in the road.

Horses where everywhere in the forest.

We had been told by my aunty that lots of urban foxes live in the area and she gives them the scraps. They supposedly come right up to the car. I was hoping to get some photos. However they stayed a good distance away and I was unable too. On the plus side 2 badgers turned up. I will try again next time I go.

Fungi on a stump

One of my favourite authors, Gerald Durrell, grew up in Bournemouth after his time in Corfu. I wanted to find the house he grew up in and wrote a few of his books. We found the house and saw the garden in which he once kept a deer in before leaving to become a zoo keeper (Durrell left to become a keeper not the deer). The windows at the top re the room in which he did a lot of his writing.

Durrell's old house