At last, they have started cutting and harvesting the grain. This means I can now have another go at the brown hares around the area. They have been impossible to see due to the long crops.
I notice this one by accident as they were still harvesting in the field at Fogo which is a small hamlet in the borders. The bare was quite close to the field margin and I managed to get these pictures.
Brown Hare Portrait
Brown Hare
Brown Hare
The last in the series from Leighton Moss RSPB in Lancashire. These pictures are of the black-tailed godwit. It was a lone bird sitting and preening with a flock of common redshanks.
The pictures show the black tail of this species quite well as it preens
The next in the series from my visit to Leighton Moss RSPB in Lancashire. These are the greenshanks that were at the Allan Pool viewed from the Eric Morecambe Hide. They came quite close to the hide giving good opportunities to get pictures. The light wasn’t the best but it was OK.
Another species of bird photographed in Lancashire last week was the little egret, they seem to be doing very well over much of the country these days. Twenty years ago these birds were very rare indeed but now they seem to be in most areas.
The egrets were on the Allan Pool and we counted about forty five in the area during the day, and these are some of the pictures taken………
I stopped off at Leighton Moss RSPB for a short time on my journey back home from Lancashire. There was a Spotted Redshank just in front on the hide for short time, one of the distinguishing features on this bird is the long slender bill and the paler breast of the common redshank.
The light was good so I got these pictures.
Spotted Redshank
Spotted Redshank
Spotted Redshank
Spotted Redshank with a Greenshank
Spotted Redshank
Common Redshank
Spotted Redshank
Spotted Redshank
I visited a site with a photographer friend (Andrew) in Lancashire managed by the Lancashire Badger Group. Its a site I have visited before many years ago, probably fifteen years ago. The site was once used by the BBC for filming badgers even further back than my last visit.We booked the site primarily for photography, just the two of us. Andrew had been previously a few weeks ago, and didn’t take any picture for fear of spooking then with the shutter noise and therefor depriving the other eight visitors in the hide that night.
We met two members of the Badger Group at the farm were the sett is situated at 7:30pm and made our way along the path to the woodland about four hundred metres away. The hide overlooked a small wooded clough and the sett was very close affording good vues of the activity area. We were settled in our seats by 7:50pm and started to wait for some action.
The first badger showed itself at 8:30 and was quickly followed by two more. the light was quite poor but had good views of the badgers. They performed quite well for a couple of hours before eating their fill of the peanuts used for bait. The conditions for photography weren’t very good the light was poor, but with the modern camera, not impossible to get pictures. An ISO speed of 6400 and a lens with and aperture of f2.8 allowed pictures to be taken. This could be done a few years ago as the technology of the day wouldn’t allow it.
The images are not prize winning images but I think as record shots, these are very passable.
I would like to thank the Lancashire Badger Group for their help and guidance on what was very very good and interesting night.
Check out their website at http://www.lancashirebadgergroup.org.uk
What do you think?………..
I was going through some of Farne Island puffin pictures. I found a few of them flying, some bringing in sandeels and others just flying past
I think they have done quite well this year, there seams to have been plenty of food for the resident puffins
Here are the pictures…..
Puffin in flight
Puffin with Sandeel
Puffin
Puffin
I will be attending the very popular Glendale Show this year, on August Bank Holiday Monday 30th August in the craft marquee. The show is usually well attended and if you are coming along, please come and say hello.
It will be a great day out
I am on the Isle of Mull from the Monday 18th until Friday 22nd October, this is prime time for the red deer rut. I am holding small workshops (max three) to photograph the red deer and other Mull wildlife
Wednesday is now fully booked but I do have availability for the other days at present. The costs are £85 per person, this does not include accommodation.
Accommodation is available at Arle Lodge which is situated between Salan and Tobermory at a very reasonable cost check out the website at http://www.arlelodge.co.uk
If you need any further information please contact me via the comments page below
I went to the Black Isle in the Scottish Highlands for a few days. That’s why my blog hasn’t been updated for a few days. I specifically went to visit Chanory Point near Fortrose in the Moray Firth to photograph the bottlenose dolphins.
I spent three days there photographing the Bottlenose Dolphins. I have been in the past but never done very well. These have got to be one of the hardest mammals to get images of. They come out of the water very fast and in random places. If the camera isn’t at you eye as the dolphin leaves the water then you just get the body of a dolphin, which is OK, but if you want pictures a bottlenose dolphin you need to show the bottle nose on the animal.
This is where the problems begin. It takes time and patience combined with a severe learning curve and lots of tolerance of all the unruly kids and adults who keep pushing in in front you and bumping into you as you are shooting the pictures
If you feel like having a go yourself, you need to visit two hours after low tide and be prepared to wait for a good few hours for any sort of action, sometimes they perform, and sometimes they don’t, so if you are going, good luck.
The main aim of the trip was to get a dolphin breaching. They are incredibly unpredictable and so it is very difficult to get what you want. Firstly, they may not breach, secondly if they do you need to be very quick to get on them with the camera and them all the normal rules of photography kick in. Is the picture sharp, is it exposed correctly.
One of the problems with shooting at Chanory Point is the light. The sun rises straight across the Moray Firth and if it is strong light, it back-lights the dolphin making it very difficult to get any detail in the face of the mammal as it will be in the shade. Probably the best time of day is mid to late afternoon, 4:00pm onwards. This gives the light a better angle on the dolphins but then you need to combine this with the two hours after low tide factor, so it needs to be given a little thought when planning the trip to make sure you get the best out of the day.
Lens size is crucial, I used my canon 300mm f2.8, which I think worked very well. Others where using 70 – 200 zoom lens 100 -400 zoom lens. Both would work very well. My 500mm lens is a little on the big side as the dolphins do come quite close, often within 20 metres
You will see from the pictures here that they were taken at different times of the day and indeed on different days.
I was lucky enough to get one of the dolphins playing with a dead salmon, it was pitching the fish up in the air and catching the fish in its mouth. It was reminiscent of the famous pice of fils Simon King took of the killer whales playing with the baby sea lions in the Blue Planet series
I hope you enjoy them. I had three really good days there and met some good like minded people which is always a bonus.
More pictures on the mammals section on my website www.wildlife-photography.uk.com
Enjoy
Ron
Breaching Dolphin
Breaching Dolphin
The first shot
Four in a row
A group of four
Bottlenose Dolphin
Dolphin Calf
Comming straight towards me
Eating a salmon
Bottlenose Dolphins
This is the sequence were the dolphin is playing with a dead salmon
Dolphin with Salmon
Dolphin with Salmon
Dolphin with Salmon
Dolphin with Salmon
Dolphin with Salmon
Dolphin with Salmon
Dolphin with Salmon
Thanks for looking
