Viewing entries tagged
Red Squirrel

Ivy Bee's

Finally caught up with an autumn and found my own Ivy Bee’s, unintentionally of course. Just met up with a friend at Pontypool Park Gates and thought I’d check the Ivy along the bridge right next to the Esso Garage. Took a while to spot them at first in amongst the wasps and hundreds of Harlequin Ladybirds but there were about 7 Bee’s regularly feeding at the same time nearest the Esso garage. Not easy subjects to get a good photo of really but I did my best. I may return this week for a second crack at it.

Ivy Bee

I’ve been organising photographs this weekend, getting on-top of backups before installing a new operation system on my Mac. Mac 0s Majave is proving to be a must-have upgrade for photographers. The new finger ‘showcase’ viewing mode is particularly useful for previewing a days work of photographs. Mac was always good for photography as you only needed to press spacebar to preview files and photo’s without even opening them. Well, in this new showcase mode you don’t even need to do that, you can simple zoom into the photo there and then, without opening anything. This allows you to find out which images are sharpest much quicker and delete those which aren’t needed, very quickly. In doing this, I came across an image from the Spring. A Garden Warbler, peeking out of the shadows of a dark gorse bush.

Garden Warbler

Whats a Garden without a Garden Spider? Been keeping an eye on this female for a couple weeks. She’s laid quite a few eggs so next year should be good for them if they can survive the winter.

For those that watched Autumnwatch this year, what did you think? Squirrels were a big feature, and I was shocked to see that American Grey’s were actually below their native Red Squirrels in dominancy. Being much bigger animals, I would have thought the Greys would have dominated over the Reds at the bird feeders. I wonder if our native Red Squirrels would be as dominant over the Greys? I guess we’ll never know if the Greys continue to spread disease to them. A trip up North is needed soon, I do miss seeing our Reds.

Grey Squirrel

Road Trip

A hunt for Red Squirrels saw an early start of 3am this morning to get to North Wales for sun rise. The day didn't quite go to plan with a number of challenges, number 1 of which was Dog Walkers. I returned to the same woodland that brought me success last year but this time, on a weekend instead of a week day, which turned out to be a big mistake. Either way, the scenery in North Wales was spectacular and well worth the travel. In our time there we were entertained by the bubbling sounds of Curlew overhead, the whistling echoes of Wigeon and the scratching bark of  Nuthatches frantically stealing all the nuts we brought with us. 

Redwing Flocks & Red Squirrels

Short trip to the Table Top mountain up the Tranch to see if there were any Lizards in the sun but failing to find one lead me to stumble upon a huge flock of Redwing moving through while stripping the tree's of all its berries! Over 200+ birds moving through in varying sized flocks. I've actually missed Redwings! they are very pretty birds. 

Included below are some more pictures of yesterdays Red Squirrel Trip.

Red Squirrel success :D

I had such an amazing day with Mike Warbuton, Andrew Symonds and Lee Parsons today, well worth the long journey up to North Wales and despite a shadow following me around, we had a great time with a successful photography session.. JUST! It all happened within the last 30 minutes of our trip and the Dog walkers provided an extra challenge. 

Here are just a few of my faves from the trip

Red Squirrel Trip

All ready for the trip tomorrow to North Wales to see my first Red Squirrel! I'm really looking forward to it! So much so that I have to get up at 2 in the morning to get there for 7am. Luckily I worked extra last week so I can have Monday off work. This time tomorrow you should see some of my photographs. I can only hope that the weather is on our side. 

Keep an eye on this space! :D

Autumn/Winter Projects

This Autumn/winter I have a few target species that I'd like to get photographs of and also record the sound of. Other than the typical winter Robin singing, there are a few spectacles that bring incredible sound opportunities: 1 of which is the Starling Murmuration. That spectacle isn't just incredible to watch but it's incredible to listen to! You can hear the movement of the flock as they swoop together as one unit and when they land, thousands of Starlings gather in a very small area and that is well worth listening to as they communicate with each other in complete darkness!. 

My photography list is reasonably short this winter but that means I can be more productive with my time. 1 species on that list isn't actually a bird, but a Red Squirrel!. I've never seen one before so just seeing them will make my winter better but I have already arranged a trip out with a few other professional photographers NEXT WEEK! (Weather permitting) so hopefully you'll see some half decent shots of Red Squirrels here in a couple weeks time.