BBC Springwatch film

Here's the short film I made with the BBC for Springwatch 2013.

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Roe Deer

This Roe buck was photographed about three weeks ago in the Forest of Dean. The native Roe's numbers are locally small in comparison to the non-native Fallow and probably the Muntjac too. When this photo was taken
the bluebells were unfortunately well past their best.

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Atlantic Puffin

Despite the colossal number of Puffins on Skomer, actually capturing a decent shot of one in flight was trickier than I anticipated. These birds can reach over 50mph. It spends the winter at sea but returns to cliff-top breeding colonies in the spring, where it nests in a
burrow, laying a single egg and bringing large quantities of small fish to its growing chick.

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Home again

It's been a busy few days, and I'm back from a great time in Pembrokeshire, finishing with a trip to Skomer earlier today. The weather was amazing, and most of my target species put in an appearance. I've got a pile of photos to sort through, some of which will be new additions to the
species list, but hopefully there'll be a few 'keepers' amongst them too!

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Green-Winged Teal

Another new addition to the Species List for me today - the Green-Winged Teal. They are scarce but regular visitors to the UK from North America. It is distinguished from drake Common Teals (the Eurasian relative of this bird) by a vertical white stripe on side of breast, the lack of both a horizontal white scapular stripe and the
lack of thin buff lines on its head.

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Dipper chicks

I've had little time to update the blog over the last couple of days. Today I had the opportunity to photograph these tiny Dippers in their nest here in the Forest of Dean. I was with a licensed BTO ringer, and wouldn't go near the nest otherwise. There were six chicks in here, all of which were ringed very quickly
and safely returned to the nest.

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Barred umber moth

A new addition to the list last night was this Barred umber moth. I can't say it took much work to find this one... I let the dog out in the garden and it flew right in. Wildlife photography doesn't get much easier than that. I had to wait about 10 minutes for it to settle down though before taking a quick snap with the phone.

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Cuckoo

So far this year, I've managed to see five Cuckoos, and of course, heard plenty more. If you haven't seen the BBC documentary, 'Cuckoo - Evolutionary Cheat', I strongly recommend it.

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Site commenting

I've removed the need for visitors to have a Google+ account in order to be able to leave comments on the blog. It's now possible to comment using one of a variety of different profiles, or even anonymously.

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Nightjar

The Springwatch team invited me up to Ynys Hir for a couple of days to have a look around behind the scenes, meet the crew, etc. I had a great time there. I went for a wander around the reserve on the first afternoon, but didn't get very far at all before finding this perched in a tree. I believe it's the first time the RSPB warden had heard of one there, although it's thought it was just taking a rest
on its way to somewhere else. It is a target species for the reserve though, so hopefully more will be seen there in the future. I've seen Nightjar many times at night, but this was the first time I'd been lucky enough to find one in daylight, and been able to enjoy it without being marauded by midges!
I expect the iPlayer link to the episode I was on will expire eventually, but they've now added the film itself to the clips page too.

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Bearded Tit

Yesterday I photographed the 250th species to appear on the Species List - the Bearded Tit. It was at Newport Wetlands. I'd visited once before but it was a very windy day and sightings of anything at all were few and far between. It was much warmer and calmer yesterday. Plenty Reed Warblers, Common Whitethroat, the odd Cetti's Warbler, and this single Bearded Tit. It was a very brief sighting, and
way too distant for a decent picture, but great to see. I'm looking forward to the next 250 additions to the list :)
It's been a really successful weekend for wildlife - across the two days, sightings included:  Wild Boar, Badger, Fallow Deer, Common Lizard, Goshawk, Buzzard, Cetti's Warbler, Reed Warbler, Reed Bunting, Common Whitethroat, Bearded Tit, Grey Heron, Nightjar, Woodcock, Pied Flycatcher, Spotted Flycatcher, Wood Warbler, Dipper, Grey Wagtail, Great Crested Grebe, Kingfisher, various butterflies... unfortunately the resulting photos aren't quite as impressive as the list of sightings!

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Chinese Water Deer

There are six species of deer living wild in the UK. This is the one I had to travel furthest to see - the Chinese Water Deer. Almost prehistoric in its appearance, bearing tusks in place of antlers, this is the most primitive of our deer. Except it isn't really one of 'our' deer at all. Along with the Muntjac, Fallow and Sika, the Chinese Water Deer is not native to this country, and the fact that we now have
them living wild is due to escapes from Whipsnade zoo in 1929. The UK population now makes up more than 10% of the worlds number of Chinese Water Deer.

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Grey Heron with Tench

I got a new addition to the species list today. Not the Heron, but courtesy of the Heron. I watched it prowl around the bank of this pond in the Forest of Dean, until it reached in and pulled out this Tench. It took a couple of seconds to swallow then the Heron was
airborne, on the way to the next pond.

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Red Squirrels with blonde tails

The pictures are poor, but they show Red Squirrels that I photographed in Scotland, in woodland next to Loch Ness. I saw a number of Reds that day, but the one thing they all had in common was a striking blonde/white tail. I've seen Reds elsewhere in Scotland, as well as in the south on Brownsea
Island, but I've never seen this colouration elsewhere. I'd be interested to know if anyone has an explanation for this!

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Firecrest

I've spent a bit of time trying to photograph these here in the Forest of Dean over the last couple of days. It's a tiny little bird but I did manage some half-decent shots. This isn't necessarily one of the better ones, but it's one of the only ones where it briefly displayed the crest. It's amazing to me that all that folds in to such a small narrow stripe. In addition to the Firecrest, yesterday
I had a very brief Hawfinch sighting, and a nice Roe buck in the bluebells, and today was treated to close views of a Lesser Spotted Woodpecker, which was a first for me. Pictures to follow soon.

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Springwatch

A huge thank you to everyone who was kind enough to send me mails and messages about my film on Springwatch last night. It was great fun to work on and the Springwatch team were fantastic. It took a lot of persuasion to get me on the wrong side of the lens though!
If you missed it, you can see it
on BBC iPlayer at http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b0214fhh/Springwatch_2013_Episode_4/, about 18 minutes from the start of the programme.

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Mating Avocets

I managed to capture this pair of mating Avocets a few days ago. It was a pretty brief experience for them both, much to the relief of the female no doubt. The Avocet became extinct in Great Britain in 1840. Its successful recolonisation at Minsmere, Suffolk, in 1947 led to its adoption as the logo of the Royal
Society for the Protection of Birds.

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European Cave Spider

I found this spider on the ceiling of a cave, local to me in the Forest of Dean. Unable to identify it myself, I sought help from an expert who informed me that it was Meta menardi, the European Cave Spider, also known as the Orbweaving cave spider, the Cave
orbweaver and simply the Cave spider.

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Redstart Nest

On the decline in Europe, this Redstart was busily going in and out of the nest a couple of weeks ago. The second photograph here was taken shortly after spotting the bird. As much as it would have been nice to get a close up shot of it, once the nest became apparent, I took a quick
shot at 600mm from where I was already stood, then left the area.

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Red-necked Phalarope

This photo won't be winning any prizes, but it shows a very distant and very rare visitor to Gloucestershire - the Red-necked Phalarope. This was taken at Coombe Hill meadows, about 750 miles from its usual patch in the northern Shetland islands, which itself is on the outer limits of the range of this small bird.
More info at the Gloucestershire Wildlife Trust web site.

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Golden-ringed dragonfly

Probably my favourite dragonfly species, and almost certainly the most easily identifiable, even if it's not one of the easier ones to find. It's the longest dragonfly species in Britain. This Golden-ringed dragonfly was meandering around a Dorset heathland, before
conveniently settling on this bramble long enough for a photograph.

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Wood mouse

Sometimes you don't need to travel far to see the wildlife that's around us. Sometimes you don't even have to leave the house. This video of a tiny Wood mouse was filmed out of the lounge window! This one was helping himself to seed that the birds had dropped from the feeders in the garden. Almost entirely nocturnal, Wood mice
inhabit forests, grasslands and cultivated fields.

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Sea Bass

I spotted this from way up on a cliff-top on a hot day in Dorset whilst looking for birds. It drifted sedately around the shallow waters for a while before being joined by another fish and heading off. As for the birds, it was a successful day, and I'll be posting some of the results in forthcoming
blog entries.

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Common Lizard

This was photographed on the 2nd May, and was my first local sighting of a Common Lizard this year. This one has shed its tail - a self-defence mechanism known as autotomy - which can often serve to give it an 'extra life' when faced with
predation.

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Wild Boar

The Wild Boar is one of my favourite mammals in the UK, and I'm fortunate that I live in the place that currently has the greatest population. This is one of my more recent shots, taken moments after the boar had spent some quality time rolling around in a muddy wallow. I recently spent some time making a short film with the BBC Natural History Unit for inclusion in Springwatch 2013, which
is due to be aired this evening on BBC2.
*update* - the film has been re-scheduled for another show. Not sure of the date yet.

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