Welcome to Matthew Peaster's Countrymans Diary.
Award winning wildlife photographer Matthew Peaster from Over Stowey writes about what to look out for in the natural world right on your door step. All you need to do is read this feature, turn off that computer and get walking — not always very far either!
Autumn on The Quantock Hills
Exmoor Stallions
Exmoor Stag
Stag at Sunrise
I may have said this before – autumn is certainly my favourite and most photographically productive time of year. From September there has been an all too rapid change in the daylight hours. The increasing darkness coincides with the fall in temperatures. This in turn signals the start for the broadleaved trees to start to turn through their final dramatic display of colour for the year. Of all the trees the Beech exhibit the greatest colour shift of all. The best places to see the Beech are in the Forest areas of Ashley Combe and Cockercombe. Also Cothelstone Hill and the broadleaved woodland from Nether Stowey to Holford.
This year I also followed to photograph the pony round up. The Quantock ponies were rounded up in mid September to gather in the foals for the annual pony sale. It’s quite a sight to see the ponies racing back across the top of the hills to funnel down The Drove to Quantock Farm. Traditionally they have been rounded up by the Commoners on their horses but it is now much easier and faster to use motor and quad bikes. The Exmoor ponies are also rounded up on Exmoor but not until mid-late October. Having photographed these I could see the ponies being rounded by mounted riders as well as a few quad bikes. They sorted and inspected these at the same time – making a coral and picking out the foals from the mares and stallions. My eldest daughter helped photograph as well and it was, at times, quite exciting. They get the stallions out the way first, but they don’t go far as ‘their ladies’ are still penned up. They mill around, spar and fight. This is dramatic as they rear, kick and bite. We had to move quite quickly at one point!
The peak of autumn for me, as most may know, is the deer rut. On the Quantocks it’s only the Red Deer which rut at this time (the Roe rut in August). I spend as much time as possible out photographing this testosterone charged event. The stags strut around and roar their challenge to other stags. The number of stags to hinds either makes this thoroughly exciting or a bit of a damp squib! If there are a lot of stags then the action can be quite hot. If there are fewer stags and lots of hinds then there’s no real need for the stags to chase and roar endlessly – they’re just wasting effort! As the rut has started a bit earlier on Exmoor than the Quantocks this year I’ve spent several days there following the action and looking for stags from previous years. One I managed to call up – he came charging across the heather to roar right at me. Silly, stupid but unbelievable! These animals can do some damage, especially as I didn’t have any cover, but as I didn’t look like another stag he carried on in search of some hinds!
With the forecast of wet weather I had better make the most of a dry day, so until next time ....
