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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.
Oradour-Sur Glene
Oradour-sur-Glane
On 10 June 1944, the village of Oradour-sur-Glane in Haute-Vienne in then Nazi-occupied France was destroyed,
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when 642 of its inhabitants, including women and children, were massacred by a Nazi Waffen-SS company.
A new village was built nearby after the war, but French president Charles de Gaulle ordered the original maintained as a permanent memorial and museum.
Little Owl
Little Owl
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Little Owls do well in the area and are easy to find.
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I found this dead Little Owl just down the road from my house by the side of the road, could have been hit by a car.
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Whiskered Tern
Whiskered Tern photographed in the Brenne
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Better light would have been good
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Cuckoo
Cuckoo’s were seen and heard on my morning walks around the hamlet although they were difficult to get close too, as they always are.
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Three shrikes and you're out
Red backed strikes wouldn’t play ball with me I struggled to get any good shots of them, they always kept their distance.
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Last year I didn’t notice any Red backed shrikes around the hamlet but this year they seem to be all over the place.
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I counted six different pairs all within walking distance from the house.
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Hoopoe
Hoopoe
On my morning walks I regularly heard the sound of Hoopoe but locating them in the heavy wooded woods is difficult.
I spent many hours trying to locate them. I asked my neighbours if they had seen any,
some had seen them several times and others had not. One evening as I was sat in the garden drinking a beer one flew past me.
It had been feeding at the bottom of my garden and I didn’t notice it.
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This one was photographed in my garden two years ago
In the end I decided to visit a friend’s house a few miles away to photograph them. He has them around his house most years.
When I arrived at his place I quickly spotted my first Hoopoe on the roof opposite an old barn.
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As I watched I realised they had a nest in the stone wall and were feeding chicks.
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Using my car as a hide I positioned it on the other side of the road and took some shots, I couldn’t photograph the Hoopoe in the positions I wanted it in, so I didn’t take many, just a few record shots.
Night Herons
Night Herons
I visited the Brenne again to try and get some better photographs of the Night Herons, they are better than last year but again the weather was against me. Still not the shots I wanted.
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Hunting Fox
Hunting Fox
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I can across this hunting Fox on my short walk around the hamlet and a few Roe deer.
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Frogs
At this time of year the Frogs in our garden pond are very vocal as they compete for females.
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