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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.
Early bird gets the worm
Nesting blackbirds collecting worms in the garden.
Collard Dove another regular visitor to the garden
First Chiffchaff of the year in the garden
Singing Chiffchaff in the pear tree
Lesser Spotted Woodpecker at Moore
I had some free time before my holiday to Corfu so I called in at Moore for a few hours to look for the Lesser Spotted Woodpecker.
I managed to find the bird in its usual spot. I only took a few shots as the light wasn’t great.
Are we there yet
Toads usually move at dusk when conditions are favourable, preferring it to be damp or humid with a daytime temperature above 10c
and a night-time temperature above 5c.
This year movement at my local reserve has not see large numbers moving due to the cold night temperatures.
Some toads left it late in the season to move to their breeding ponds and moved during the day
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