Summer in Suffolk

With not much planned in the first couple of weeks of August I thought I'd spend a bit of time in Suffolk. There were a couple of particular things I wanted to photograph, as well as generally wanting to get back there as I like it so much!

On my first afternoon, while sitting in one of the hides overlooking the scrape at Minsmere, I spent a couple of hours photographing a pair of Oystercatchers with their two almost fully grown young. The parents were still feeding the chicks, and this was when one of them was returning to a youngster with food.

I also spent a few evenings in the scrape hides, albeit with not much success. Luckily towards the end of my stay a flock of Spoonbills flew down and landed for 5 minutes, before taking off again and heading north.

Another image taken in the evening, this Greenshank was roosting on one of the marsh pools on the levels. There were several of these at Minsmere while I was there. They will have been migrating from their breeding grounds in Scotland and Scandinavia to wintering grounds around the south and west coasts of the UK. Other greenshank populations winter as far south as sub-Saharan Africa, southern Asia and Australia.

One of the particular things I had wanted to photograph up there, and my reason for visiting in mid-August, was birds in flowering heather. I had hope for Dartford Warbler and Stonechat, but the former were very elusive. Fortunately I had some success with Stonechats perching in purple heather plants.

One morning while walking along the beach at Minsmere I spotted a Sanderling, another migrant wader making its way south, scuttling up and down the shingle, feeding on invertebrates in between the pebbles. Watching which way it was going, I walked ahead of it before lying down and waiting, and sure enough in a couple of minutes it was close enough to get some photos of it. It was so unconcerned about me being there that it just ran straight past me so close that I could almost touch it!

Another passage wader, that was present at Minsmere in much larger numbers, was the Black-tailed Godwit. I managed to get this image as a small flock of them flew past the hide.

I also spent quite a bit of time there photographing Beewolves, a species of parasitoidal wasp, but those image will have to wait until next time.

Summer Photography

Over the Summer I spent some time photographing wildlife local to me in London, and the first of these subjects was Badgers, an animal I have wanted to photograph for some time. Somewhat fortuitously I stumbled across some a short drive from my house so spent every evening for a couple of weeks out there with them. Below are a selection of images from that time.

I also had the idea to try for some wide angle images so every night for over a week had a camera and a couple of flashes out, to be triggered by some pocket wizards lent to me very kindly by a friend. Despite placing the camera under some plum trees, where the badgers would spend several hours every night, they would go nowhere near the camera. I was stood away from the camera watching them through binoculars and would see them go almost-but-not-quite near enough to mean I could trigger the camera. After that I was away for nearly 6 weeks so haven't managed to get back there yet, but it's something I'll definitely by trying again with next year!

The other species I spent a lot of time photographing was Little Owls in Richmond Park. Unfortunately for me this meant 4am wake ups were required so I could get to the park in time for sunrise, and after a couple of those in a row I would be absolutely exhausted! It was all worth it when I'd arrive to see the owlets, with no-one else around.

Next time I'll have some stuff from later in the Summer, when I spent some time in Suffolk, and then Yellowstone!

Thanks for looking.

Suffolk in Springtime

It's been a while since my last post, and I've managed to fit in quite a bit of photography since my exams finished at the end of May. First I was in Suffolk for 3 weeks again, doing some photography for the RSPB at Minsmere while Springwatch were filming there. As with last year I had a great time and even managed to wangle my way onto Springwatch extra again to talk about my photography! (Link was on iPlayer but this blog post has taken me so long to write that it's no longer there...) Unlike last year I came back with barely any Bittern images, but instead was able to spend time photographer other species I hadn't had a chance to before.

As ever there will be lots more images appearing on my Facebook page here and Twitter page here so head over and check them out!

A Cormorant, Great White Egret and Grey Heron perched on this wooden structure together. The egret was present for the whole of my stay, but this was the best view I had of it.

A Bittern flies up from the reeds to see off a hunting male Marsh Harrier. Both these species use the reed beds for feeding and nesting, and are unusual in that they would probably both take each others chicks if given the chance. I saw this happen a few times last year but never managed to get it on camera, and this time I didn't have much time to capture it before the Bittern dropped back down, so was pretty pleased with the result!

One morning whilst walking between two of the scrape hides, I came across a particularly aggressive Little Egret which was chasing off any other egrets that came onto this pool.  This was taken as it landed having chased the last one off.

The Bearded Tits were very active this year and gave superb views to visitors. As well as capturing frame-filling images of them, I was keen to capture some photos of them in their environment.

 While waiting for Barn Owls one evening at the back of the local pub this male Marsh Harrier suddenly took off from the field in front of me, allowing me to get about 3 images before it had banked too far around. I've never really got close enough to photograph them, so this was a nice bonus before the owls appeared.

Taken on the same evening as the previous image, this owl spent nearly an hour hunting over this field, which was conveniently located at the park of the Eels Foot Inn car park!

I had photographed Avocets before, but had never had the chance to get close to their chicks. This year they had a very productive year on the scrape and while I was there there were over 50 chicks out. One family would often come very close to one of the hides so I spent several mornings there photographing them.

This Ringed Plover and its mate had nested on the beach and had two chicks with them. I spent a brief period (so as not to disturb them) one morning photographing them.

I've also spent the last couple of weeks photographing wildlife more local to me, and some of those images will appear in the next blog post.

Spring Photography

I was back at home for my month-long Easter holiday a couple of weeks ago, and having not picked up a camera since January, was keen to get out and do some photography. I spent a couple of days up in Suffolk which, although not the most productive, did yield some images.

I noticed a pair of Stonechats along a line of gorse in theses dunes so set up next to one of the gorse bushes so I could also get some of the yellow flowers in the background. Fortunately I didn't have to wait long before both the male and female landed.

I was hoping to photograph Bitterns, but they remained elusive while I was there. Luckily this Little Egret came down to fish in the water instead, seemingly not at all concerned about me lying on the ground only a few metres away.

Over the Easter weekend I spent a few days with family up in Yorkshire. They have feeders in their garden, and a good selection of birds visiting them. I was particularly keen to be able to photograph a pair of Bullfinches which I'd seen from the window, but although they didn't appear again I did get some photos of some of the more common species.

Just before I had to get back to university, I also spent a few evenings at my local nature reserve in London, photographing some wildfowl and a pair of Mistle Thrushes which had a nest nearby.

That's all for this time. I've still got images from last year that haven't appeared online yet, so will do my best to get those up at some point.