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Hello and welcome
I have always had a keen interest in wildlife and the great outdoors;
I was an Angler for over 30 years but gave it up a few years ago to
concentrate on photographing wildlife. I lived in Runcorn; Cheshire a
short distance from the M56 that gave me great access to the Wirral,
Northwales and Lancashire, with some great countryside on my doorstep
I didn't have to travel too far in search of wildlife and photographic
opportunities.
Some of my wildlife photographs range from as far afield as Cuba,
Antigua, Saint Martin, Saint Lucia, Dominican Republic, Tuscany ,
Corfu, Turkey, Spain, Portugal.
I now live in the Charente area of western France.
Little Ringed Plover
Leaving early in the morning to avoid the traffic I travelled up the M6 arriving at 8.00am.
I scanned the shoreline of the reservoir in search of Little Ringed Plovers.
With no sign of them I decided to sit and wait for them to pass me.
2 hours later and the Little Ringed Plovers were feeding in front of me.
The Little Ringed Plovers continued to search for insects for over an hour before continuing on their journey
More in the folder
Black Tailed Godwit
Black Tailed Godwit at WWT Martin Mere Wetlands Trust
Black Tailed Godwit in breeding plumage
More from the trip out later
Sparrowhawk
With it being Easter week I have not been out with my camera electing to stay at home and get some jobs done. The garden has seen lots of visitors the local Raven being one and to my surprise a Buzzard which flew through the garden almost clipping the pear tree.
I managed to catch the rat that has been fattening itself up on the bird seed after weeks of trying. It is now being put to use as food for the Buzzard should it return.
The Sparrowhawk arrived today and took up its usual position sat in the pear tree.
Not bad shots considering they were taken through glass
Fill Flash
Siskins and Redpoll are still making regular visits to the feeding station due to the cold weather, but with the lighting condition being difficult it’s time to use some fill flash.
Shots taken with a canon 430ex 11 in conjunction with speedlite transmitter ST.E2
You can see the difference with no flash to even out the light.
Coypu
Back from France after a cold and wet week, the weather was not good for photography.
The Coypu: Myocaster coypus also known as the river rat, a large, herbivorous semiaquatic rodent.
The Coypu swam up and down the lake collected bedding material for its burrow.
Early in the morning a Great Egret arrived to hunt in the margins
Not the best of shots
Great Crested Grebes defending their territory.
First Chiffchaff of the season
What a Wag
Grey Wagtail shots from yesterday’s session on the river.
More in the folder
Dipper
Dipper proved difficult to photograph in the haze
Keeping well away and downstream from the nest site we photographed the dippers collected dead leaves
and flicking them to dry them off.
More in the folder
Off to photograph the Lesser Spotted Woodpecker
The forecast for today is cold but sunny so it's off to photograph the Lesser Spotted Woodpecker.
On arriving I saw both male and female
However they didn't come close enough for me to get any good shots.
Cold Day
It was a cold day today with snow at times; I had being trying to photograph Siskins through the window with a remote flash,
it was too cold to open the window or try to get some shots from the shed. So I stayed indoors. Considering they were
taken through glass they turned out ok.
A visit from the Sparrowhawk
The Sparrowhawk visits the feeding station every day in pursuit of the Siskins.
Siskins feed nervously as they scan the sky
Barn Owl
I only managed one shot of the Barn Owl before it disappeared over the hedge.
Snipe at Leigton Moss
I decided on a trip to Leighton Moss RSPB site on Tuesday as the forecast was for some sunshine (at last).
In front of one of the hides I found a group of Snipe feeding. The lighting is not great as I was on the wrong side of the bird.
More shots from the day later