Blog
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It’s that great spotted time of year
May 22, 2022
May be it’s a little early this year. Second half of May and we already have a nest of great spotted woodpeckers making a lot of sound and the parents frantically feed them. Usually, I think his has been more of a June time event so its about two weeks…
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A few days in Andalusia (Flamingoes & Vultures)
April 30, 2022
Last week we managed to get away to the Andalucia region of Spain. We haven’t been to this area for over 20 years; the trip reminded us what a beautiful area this is, especially in spring. Apart from grabbing a quiet time we manage to traveled into the interior up…
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Surprise Water Rail
April 4, 2022
Yesterday, I popped one to the Wildfowl and Wetland Trust’s reserve at Arundel to see what spring was revealing. Not so much spring though as it was very cold in the hides. I was fortunate to watch a pair of peregrine falcons on the ridge behind the reserve and a…
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Hare Today
February 12, 2022
Hares are difficult to photograph because they are exceedingly shy and have a tendency to bolt fast. When, as in the first photo, they lie motionless and can be exceedingly difficult to spot so any slightly darker smudge in the field is worth checking with binoculars. Nevertheless they are great…
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Dalmatian Pelican in England - do what?
November 4, 2021
So, here’s a thing. I like to take wildlife photos and rarely photograph captive animals. I just don’t like seeing animals in captivity. I make an exception here for this Dalmatian Pelican on a couple of counts.
First, this was the first Dalmatian Pelican I’ve ever seen. They are huge…
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Touchdown
November 2, 2021
I’ve been wanting to get this image of a Canada Goose for some time. Yesterday, at the Wildfowl and Wetland Trust (WWT) reserve at Arundel I eventually managed it. It’s a combination of the birds coming into roost from the right direction and landing close enough to me, the low…
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Move along, nothing to see here.
October 25, 2021
Or, spot the seal.
I have just been processing some photos that I took a few weeks back in Scotland (here, at the shore of the Isle of Raasay) of a group of Common Seals. What really struck me was just how well these animals were camouflaged against the shoreline…
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After the Rut
October 23, 2021
Late October and the red deer rut here is now all but finished. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to get to my favourite spot, the Royal park in Richmond, during the height of the rut itself. Nevertheless, I took the chance today in somewhat unpromising weather conditions. This time, it worked…
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Stranded
September 27, 2021
I does feel like I’ve been stranded for a few months, stuck on a rock and cut off from photographing wildlife. Residual Covid lockdown effects stopping me getting out and about. Well, hopefully for the next couple of weeks we can see a return to form as I’m up on…
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Project IR Continues
July 25, 2021
Today was a duller day after a week of blistering heat and blue skies; except for the odd thunderstorm that is. So we set off for a walk and dodging showers. I decided to go Infrared again to experiment across some watermeadows and the chalk down that lie to our…
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An Infra Red Diversion
July 2, 2021
Those who follow this blog will know I have a slight side interest in infrared photography. Mostly this relates to my main passion of photographing wildlife. However, I do photograph other things too but don’t share much of that here. These images are more landscape but I’m sharing them because…
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Roe Deer
June 26, 2021
I have been seeing more roe deer in our woods recently. From time to time one of these small deer pops out and then quickly disappears. Today, I was standing quietly in the woods listening to the birds and one walked out onto the woodland path in front of me…
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Low Flying Kestrel
June 1, 2021
Yesterday was the best day this year and the good weather had a local farmer out taking a cut of spring hay / silage. This left a couple of fields trimmed down to the ground and in the afternoon the predators and scavengers (red kites, buzzards and kestrels) were to…
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Cheating…
May 28, 2021
OK, so here’s the thing, a new lens was delivered this afternoon. So I unwrapped it, stuck it on my camera and went out in the garden to try it out. Here is one from the first burst I snatched. I wasn’t really trying and the light was low and…
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Just a bluetit
May 25, 2021
I’m keeping this one simple. A bluetit at the nest in an attractive tree. I think this is a second brood but I didn’t want to disturb them or draw attention to what is a relatively busy site adjacent to a footpath. The birds have enough to contend with this…
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Long winter but life is returning…
April 18, 2021
The blog has been quiet for a few months but its feeling a bit more like spring today so here is a nuthatch from today to enjoy. Taken in my local woodland. The bird was kind enough to strike a pose for me. (More likely, it was keeping a wary…
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Local Patch
January 5, 2021
2020 has shuffled its awkward way off stage to be replaced by a fresh, naive, and optimistic 2021 that, for us, has started by a reimposition of a ‘COVID Lockdown’. Oh well! Looking back, 2020 was a low point in photography for me but I didn’t entirely stop recording changes…
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Fungi and Lichen
November 7, 2020
A quick shot from the daily walk today. This spot is a regular spot for the honey fungus every autumn. Normally, you only see the lichen. But today it was an attractive combination in the autumn light
This mini landscape seems curiously alien in its miniature aspect.
I think it’s…
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Green Elfcap
October 31, 2020
This is just a a bit of a field curiosity. Some days ago my wife spotted a bit of broken branch on the ground that was a curious colour and snapped a picture in the field because it was a vivid green-blue. We eventually found it in a guide book*…
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Stags & Bracken
October 15, 2020
It’s now towards the end of the red deer rut in the UK and this morning looked like the weather might be fair. Consequently I dashed up to Richmond Park through the morning rush hour to get there for just after dawn. There is nothing quite like getting out of…
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Now, this is what I was after…
July 28, 2020
After what is now approaching six weeks of trial, error and adjustment and try again, I finally got the photo of a fox in infrared ‘light’ last night. The is the photo that I’d envisaged at the outset; the fox sliding gracefully under the fence with head slightly turned towards…
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In a quiet corner of a garden…
July 16, 2020
… a young fox squeezes through a scrape under a fence to forage.
It can be a long process to get the photo you ‘visualised’ from a camera trap. It’s partly about the animal behaving how you hoped and putting themselves in the right place and then being precisely in…
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A Shot in the Dark
July 11, 2020
For a while I’ve wanted to experiment with photographing wildlife in dark. Sure, you can use flashguns to light up your subject and I’ve done that. Many, actually the vast majority of animals are not bothered by the quick flash of a camera flashgun; even when it’s two or three…
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Great Spotted Woodpeckers ready to fledge
June 1, 2020
For nearly three, weeks we have been watching a great spotted wood pecker nest that is just a few metres off a main trail along which we walk the dog. It’s not the best nest to photograph as it’s a good 8m high and not as isolated as I’d normally…
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Spring Bunnies not Bears…
May 29, 2020
Right now, I should be on my way to Canada to photograph grizzly bears in the far north west of British Columbia. Obviously, due to a touch of the ‘pandemics’ I’m not and that’s going to have to wait for another year. Consequently, yesterday I found myself at my usual…