Trentham garden mammals

The problem with wild mammals is that many are most active at night and/or adept at avoiding humans so, even if you do learn where and when to look; it is difficult to take a good photograph. As a result the pictures shown below are very much a ‘work in progress’. All of these creatures have been in our garden but with the deer, I had to resort to photographing them in daylight in part of the Trentham Estate. The deer herd apart, I have had to be content to take a picture of a single individual, even though we have seen the animals in groups. For example, we have watched up to four hedgehogs in and around the food dish and, on one notable night, there were as many foxes appearing to play close to the house. The human eye can take in a scene like that whereas a camera would struggle, even if it were at hand when needed. Some animals seem very camera shy, while others, like our badger, do not seem to mind, provided you do not try to go towards them (or trigger the security light up to ‘full’ to get a better picture). I hope that I can add to this collection species that I have never got on camera: such as our bat population, so please ‘watch this space!


My wife was rattling the door handle to get the badger to look towards the camera. Immediately after I had got my picture, it resumed eating	The badger usually arrives at the food dish at about 23.30 and cleans the dish. So any hedgehog or fox wanting food needs to get there beforehand!

This fox cub was collecting ‘windfall’ pears	This picture shows that it was quite young

This is a young vixen looking for food in December 2010	We have several colonies of bank voles but this is the only individual I have caught on camera

Hoof prints in the snow, show that we have been visited by deer but what type I am not sure of	These two photographs are of the Trentham Black Fallow deer, which were introduced on the Trentham Estate by the Duke of Sutherland

It is very unusual to see a hedgehog in daylight but this was mid summer	This hedgehog made the mistake to being in the dish when the badger arrived and got rolled out. I wish I could have got them both in shot

We have many squirrels about and they are quite a nuisance eating fruit before we can pick it, whether netted or not	Fortunately this is the only rabbit we have seen in recent years otherwise we would have lost many more vegetables