Springwatch 2014

I'm back home after 5 weeks filming for BBC Springwatch. It was my first visit to RSPB Minsmere - an awesome reserve managed by an equally awesome group of RSPB staff and volunteers. This was me filming a bee swarm on the root plate of a fallen tree, which was broadcast at the end of programme 5.

Read More

Kingfisher

A female Kingfisher surveying the river for fish, photographed a couple of months ago. The hungry brood of a Kingfisher can demand over 100 fish a day from their parents, which they dive for at the surprisingly low speed of about 10mph. This will likely be the last update to this blog for a month or so, until I'm back from working on Springwatch at RSPB Minsmere.

Read More

Wryneck

The Eurasian Wryneck is a member of the woodpecker family of birds. With their cryptic plumage they look quite different to the other three members of the woodpecker family seen in Britain. They are most often seen on the ground, scouring it for ants, their main food source. I photographed this particular bird last year in Gloucestershire. It's a rare migrant in the UK, which sees around 250 birds a year according to the BTO.

Read More

Adder

Another local shot from the Forest of Dean - a female Adder yesterday. I got some record shots of her basking partially obscured by bracken, but when I returned a bit later, she'd moved on and was out on the hunt, and I was able to get this shot.

Read More

Tawny Owl

A pair of Tawny Owl chicks in an old Buzzard's nest in the Forest of Dean yesterday. A real pair of characters.

Read More

Crested Tit

This is another photo from my most recent trip to the Cairngorms, Scotland. There are some well known and regularly used sites where photographers like to see Crested Tits. Unfortunately, they didn't prove very useful on this trip, as the birds there were very few and far between, and the light was really poor. This particular bird, along with its partner, simply dropped down from the tree tops during a trek through a scots pine forest at the northern edge of the Cairngorms. The light was great, the perch perfect. It's a rare thing for everything to fall in to place like that without even trying!

Read More

Willow Warbler

A Willow Warbler, photographed this week near home in the Forest of Dean.

Read More

Osprey

An Osprey returning with nesting materials in the Cairngorms, Scotland. This shot was taken at 600mm then very heavily cropped. The nest is on an island on a loch. It's a well known spot to watch Ospreys, and apparently when the young have fledged they will practice fishing amongst people canoeing on the loch.

Read More

Adder

A male Adder in the Forest of Dean earlier this week. The British Adder population has experienced a massive decline in recent years. Flooding, habitat loss and fragmentation amongst other things, have seen numbers drop in most areas, and disappear altogether in others.

Read More

Red Squirrel

A Red Squirrel in Curr Wood in the Cairngorms. There are thought to be around only 121,000 Red Squirrels left in mainland Britain. They are at threat from the invasive North American Grey Squirrel which out-competes the Reds for food, and by squirrelpox, which is also carried by the Greys.

Read More

Pied Flycatcher

A male Pied Flycatcher in the Forest of Dean yesterday afternoon.

Read More

Great Northern Diver

This Great Northern Diver photo was taken last year. The Great Northern Diver is the largest of the UK divers. It's a specialist fish eater, and can dive as deep as 60 metres. Whilst watching this bird it would sedately drift on the surface of the lake, but once it was underwater, it could appear literally anywhere on the lake in a very short space of time. Since this bird, all other Great Northern Divers I've seen have been distant and at sea - which is more typical for divers.

Read More

Bittern

One of my more unusual photos of a Bittern, taken last year. Usually solitary, the Great Bittern forages in reedbeds, which is where this one was photographed, walking stealthily or remaining still above a body of water where prey may occur. If it senses that it has been seen, it points its bill directly upwards and becomes motionless so that its cryptic plumage causes it to blend into the surrounding reeds: an action known as bitterning. It is most active at dawn and dusk.

Read More

Siskin

While searching for Crested Tits in the Cairngorms, a good number of Siskin were seen, including this male.

Read More

White-tailed Eagle

A rather closer view of a White-tailed Eagle compared to the previous post of this species, this one was photographed from Mull last summer. The White-tailed Eagle finally became extinct in Britain in 1918. On a third attempt, they were successfully reintroduced using birds from Norway. Since then, the population has slowly grown, but still these birds face persecution. Eggs have been stolen, birds shot or poisoned. Only two weeks ago, a satellite tagged eagle went missing over the North Glenbuchat Estate, an area the RSPB's Head of Investigations describes as 'a black hole for eagles'. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-north-east-orkney-shetland-27142843

Read More

Nightjar

Despite having seen countless Nightjar from dusk onwards locally in the Forest of Dean, this was the one and only time I'd ever discovered one in the daytime, at Ynys Hir in Wales, during last years Springwatch.

Read More

White-tailed Eagle pair

A pair of White-tailed Eagles on the isle of Mull, Scotland. This was taken from such a distance that I really needed the Hubble telescope for a decent shot. As it was, it was taken at 600mm using a tree trunk to lean the camera against, then cropped to death. They were barely just a speck to the naked eye, but their calls could be quite easily heard.

Read More

Meadow Pipit

This Meadow Pipit was photographed on a fence post in the fields above the cliffs of Martins Haven, Pembrokeshire.

Read More

Banded Damoiselle

Even when looking the other way, these seemed to know when a lens was being pointed at them. This one posed nicely though for a couple of seconds.

Read More

Arctic Tern

This Arctic Tern was photographed from a boat just off the Island of Coll in the Hebrides. I have to admit that the symmetry and composition was almost entirely down to luck, as the boat was bobbing about quite a lot, and we were surrounded by Basking Sharks, which is what I was really trying to photograph at the time!

Read More

Pine marten

A very brief video clip of a Pine marten, filmed last week in the Cairngorms, Scotland.

Read More

Capercaillie

On the fourth day in the Cairngorms, whilst walking the woodland at around 9.30am, a distant Capercaillie could be heard. It's a bird I'd never seen before, but the sound was unmistakeable. If you've never heard the amazing sounds of a Caper, watch this short clip. Then this bird came marching out of the woods towards the trail, and put on a short but stunning display, before settling down to feed on the heather on the forest floor.

Read More

Osprey

I'm back from another trip to the Cairngorm area of Scotland, but still working my way through the photographs. This one isn't one of the better pictures, and is a bit too distant, but I thought it was a bit different. The Osprey is approaching the nest carrying a Rainbow Trout. The weather was reasonably kind, and some rather special species were seen. Unfortunately my number 1 most wanted species remains just that - still wanted. A number of camera traps in well researched locations failed to turn up a Scottish Wildcat. It gives me another excuse to go back though...

Read More

European Otter

This Otter was photographed on the River Stour in Dorset, August last year. It's become one of my favourite places to see Otters. Although there are obviously Otters closer to home, those on the Stour seem to be much more active in the daytime than their nocturnal Gloucestershire counterparts. The river also has a healthy population of Kingfishers, and in the summer an amazing display of demoiselles along the river bank.

Read More

Hawfinch

I'm lucky in that I live in a place which is something of a stronghold for the Hawfinch, but that often doesn't seem to make it any easier to photograph them. They're definitely my favourite member of the finch family. This photo belies just how dark it was when I took it, which in my experience with Hawfinch is typical - they're always too high in the canopy, or in the shade, feeding underneath it. This one was under a large yew tree, which was doing a great job of letting no light penetrate through it!

Read More