Watermeadow Sunrise - 15th Feb

Having enjoyed the sunset so much the previous evening and having done a bit of weather research, a clear dawn beckoned so begrudgingly I set the alarm for 6am in the hope of getting a little closer to the feeding Mute Swans for some nice low level photography.

Opening the door as the first hint of light hit the dark sky, the cold fingers of Jack frost latched on to me pretty quick, I would need a coat! Walking through the water meadows I could already see a hint of colour against the dark sky. I managed to get myself over the rather narrow bridge in the dark on through into the water meadow.

I set myself up led down in the hope of some low level Swan images and waited, it wasn't long before the sky started to brighten, the pastel hues effecting the colour of the mist that hung above the frosty ground. I don't ever remember being out on such a stunning morning watching the atmospherics changing every second.

Early Morning Light across the Watermeadows

Unfortunately my plan didn't really come to fruition with the Wildlife all the Mute Swans from the night before fed on the floods but they were along way away from my lens, Plenty of Greylag & Canada Geese along with Mallard & Gadwall went about there business flying above my head, every wing beat audible on such a still morning.

A lone Brown Hare emerged out of the mist in front of me, but the light on the ground was still to dark for photography, a real shame as it looked very atmospheric shrouded in mist. As the light started to improve 2 Little Egrets appeared and dropped swiftly down on to the water, soon followed by a Grey Heron, I managed a shot of it landed through the mist although it didn't quite turn out as I'd hoped.

Descending Heron in the morning mist.

As the light got brighter I started to think about making tracks back towards the house and get ready for work. Not what you want on such a stunning morning. I did take a couple more landscape shots before I left the sky now pinker than the original orange colourings half and hour or so before. Quite a stunning hour and a half well worth braving the early alarm and cold for.

Pink sky in the morning - Beautiful

If you are a social media user, Feel free to follow me on Facebook, Twitter or Google+ for up to date sightings & photographs, any 'Comments & Criticisms' are welcomed.

Facebook  •  Twitter  •  Google+

Watermeadow Sunset - 14th Feb

St.Valentines Day, you may ask was I enjoying a romantic evening with my girlfriend? Well no as she lives 110 miles away, so I was rushing home from work at 5pm to make full use of the remaining light. It had been a cracking day weather wise and having spotted some wintering swans on a freshly flooded area of water meadows I headed off armed with both cameras, big & small lenses. Who needs romance?

Hoping for an exciting wintering Swan visitor I had to make do with our native Mute Swan, but 28 of them fed on the fresh clear shallow channels now covering the meadow. By far the largest number I've seen on the meadows and around the village. Several groups of Geese flew over occasionally coming into land. 12 Canada Geese and 6 Greylag feeding not far from the Swans.

Through the fading light I managed to pick out 3 Snipe on the furthest of the led water, and they were frequently joined by 15 or so Starling. A couple of White outlines against the pastel sky immediately caught my attention in the hope of Barn Owls, but proved to be the ever present Little Egrets.

I tried a couple of slow exposure photographs of the Swans as the light started to dim to no avail, swapping cameras over to make full use of the gorgeous purple, pink and orange hues of one of the best sunsets I have ever seen. Simply Stunning!

Swans at Sunset - What a scene!

Stunning Sky

Long exposure Swan fest

If you are a social media user, Feel free to follow me on Facebook, Twitter or Google+ for up to date sightings & photographs, any 'Comments & Criticisms' are welcomed.

Facebook  •  Twitter  •  Google+

Shropshire - 2nd Feb

A weekend visit to the beautiful county of Shropshire beckoned at the start of the month, and hopefully a visit to Gigrin Farm just over the border in Wales, that never came to fruition so I left Nat asleep and was off to find myself some of the local hotspots.

I had been reading on the Shropshire Ornithological Societies bird reports about a fairly showy Green-winged Teal at Polemere a small reserve about 20miles away on the outskirts of Shrewsbury, having dipped on the Blashford one the weekend before this seemed a logical place to start. I must admit on arrival I expected something a little bigger, on first appearances Polemere NR is nothing more than an flooded farm pond, with a hide plonked on the horse paddock over looking the water.

And to be honest thats exactly what it was, but what a haven for wildlife. Positioned right in the middle of some arable farmland, just a few trees and a couple of hedgerows surrounding it. I could instantly see a fair few Teal, Greylag Geese, Wigeon, Coot, Moorhen, Mute Swan, Tufted Duck, Canada Goose & a lone domestic farm Goose all from the comfort of cushioned seats and a carpeted hide.

The sun was pitching in quite nicely on the water and certainly helped in searching for that special Teal. I guess in total around 250 Teal graced the farmland water a lot less than the 2000 or so the week before at Blashford. But after a good hour and a half of continual Drake Teal scanning, nothing more exciting than a common Teal Drake having a good stretch and wing flap presented itself.

Drake Teal

From Polemere I ventured north east towards Venus Pool, a reserve I have heard quite a lot about on various other blogs and websites. Run by the Shropshire Ornithological Society I was quite surprised by the amount of cars in the car park, as I headed the short way down the lovely clean gravel path to the first hide. 2 White-fronted Geese instantly presented themselves 60 yards or so from the hide in amongst the Greylags. My first new Year tick for the weekend. (and my last), unfortunately the amount of cars made sense now as the hide was bursting with Photographers, an unusual occurrence for me, usually there are a lot more twitchers.

So no room to squeeze in and get a photograph. The other hides where a lot quieter and I soon picked out a drake Pintail asleep on one of the islands. Plenty of Lapwing continuously flew off and circled before coming back in to land back on the spit they just left. They were soon joined by a large flock of Snipe, a good 65-70 strong mimicking the Lapwings behaviour.

The woodland bird feeding station was quite a site, with a ridiculously large number of common garden birds visiting the various feeding stations present. A shame the trees blocked out so much light to prevent some decent photography. Nice to see a good dozen or more Greenfinch making light work of the sunflower seeds.

After a bit of a do at home on Saturday night, Sunday morning required some fresh air, with Nat in tow this time we decided to have another crack at Polemere for the GW Teal. Fair to say not a lot was different than the day before other than the arrival of a pair of Goosander and 3 Snipe. Still no Green-winged Teal!

Having the topic of my photography brought up at Saturday nights party, I was told of a place we should visit for some easy access to Fallow Deer. And although I've said in the path I think this is cheating a little bit, I decided to go with the flow and do the same as everyone else. It's not like I am going to pretend they were wild animals!

Attingham Park is also on the outskirts of Shrewsbury and just 2 miles or so away from Venus Pool, home of a very large herd of Fallow Deer that are fed at weekends during the winter. Having arrived a good hour before the scheduled 'feeding' time, I said to Nat it would be good if we could get some shots before they all disappear off to be fed. How I rued those words. We followed the signs to the deer park seemingly walking miles and miles before eventually coming across the 300+ strong herd in the field not to far from the car park.

A good 3 mile looped walk if only we had gone the other way. With 10 mins or so to go until feeding time I quickly tried to pick out some single subjects, trying to capture one individual as a natural photo rather than the massive huddle that formed as a few visitors tried to get closer from all angles. It's fair to say I took exactly 7 photographs before a Pickup full up with sugar beat arrived and led all the deer away down the hill to near enough the car park and main house.

This seemed remarkably idiotic to me as a good 60 people stood waiting a top the hill, having walked through shitty muddy puddles and soggy waterlogged parkland to be told they would have to walk all the way back through it again straight away.

Then to make matters worse the deer were fed in a small gully, meaning only there heads could be seen as they enjoyed there daily food. It just made me think what a bunch of idiots the National Trust staff at Attingham Park are. It was a real shame the light was so dull as this location minus visitors and idiotic staff had a lot of potential for some nice shots.

Fallow Buck

Fallow Buck

If you are a social media user, Feel free to follow me on Facebook, Twitter or Google+ for up to date sightings & photographs, any 'Comments & Criticisms' are welcomed.

Facebook  •  Twitter  •  Google+

Rooksbury Lunchtime - 11th Jan

Finally a lunch time wander in the sunshine, and my first visit to the lakes in the new year. Not a lot about really other than the usual wintering Tufted Duck on the Small lake about half a dozen pairs mixed in with 4 Little Grebe, Moorhen & 2 pairs of Gadwall.

It's funny how wildlife can still make you laugh, the below picture for instance tells the story a little bit but being there made me chuckle. Most of the Tufties headed away from me as I crouched down at the edge of the lakes to take some pics, all except this female. She remained posing for me in some gorgeous low winter sunshine. She suddenly turned around and realised the others had beggared off, and soon was hightailing it off after them, I must admit it still makes me smile now.

The Left Behind Tuftie

The remainder of my walk was pretty fruitless, I did get relatively close to a Little Egret perched up on one of the path side branches, something I have failed to do with the large population we have on the River at home. In the matter of 5 minutes the cloud had descended too. The only other sighting of note was 5 Canada Geese on the big lake.

Little Egret

If you are a social media user, Feel free to follow me on Facebook, Twitter or Google+ for up to date sightings & photographs, any 'Comments & Criticisms' are welcomed.

Facebook  •  Twitter  •  Google+

A Dorset Bird Saturday - Sep 12

After promising myself to be more frequent in my blogs again I find myself a month behind|! Apologies to all.

Other than the Short-Billed Dowitcher Dorset didn't overly have alot to offer in the exciting bird stakes. Radipole Lakes, House Sparrow population thrives on the discarded bread that the kids chuck off the bridge for the Ducks, however getting on the right side of the light to capture a picture of the extremely close Sparrows proved a little bit of a problem, the walkways in late september as well as being adorned by the buzzing of Dragonflies were aloud with the call of Cetti's Warblers, all the way along the reed beds they could be heard although I didn't see one of the illusive little Brown Jobs.

Large skeins of Canada Geese kept coming in to land on the water around the reserve and the sounds of honks in the sky would get me looking skyward to see another skein incoming above the surrounding chimney pots.

With the path to the hide closed due to flooding we made a slow walk back to the car, pausing to watch a Mute Swan swiftly hurtle up the water to intercept an interloper.

Cormorants 

House Sparrow 

Mute Swan on Patrol

After a grabbing a quick bite to eat and a paying for an extortionate car parking ticket we headed around RSPB Lodmoor, the Car Park already delivering a couple of birds, Black-Headed Gulls swooped low looking for discarded lunch, unsuccessfully returning to the nearby telegraph poles looking for the next target. More surprisingly a couple of Carrion Crows hobbled around on the ground, youngsters I presumed, but not a bird you see up close that often as there countryside cousins are rather crafty and cautious.

All the way around the Marshy ground and scrapes of the Lodmoor reserve, Grey Herons along with the odd Little Egret poised motionless waiting for fish, a couple fairly close to the pathways and seemingly not a bit bothered by the passer byes. The main scrapes seemed empty of many wading birds except quite a few Lapwing, either in summer plumage or juveniles they stalked slowly around in the shallow water, enabling quite a few nice reflections. 

The only other bird seemingly enjoying the shallow water was Teal, lots of odd pairs popped up all the way around the reserve. We did get a brief glimpse of a Marsh Harrier as it lifted up from the middle of the reed bed, doing a quick circuit and disrupting the majority of the gulls before returning back out of sight.

Black Headed Gull

Carrion Crow

Grey Heron

Lapwing

Drake Teal

By the time we had left Lodmoor and taken the scenic route around to RSPB Arne the light was starting to fade and the weather changing for the worse, not a lot showing close up, but Advocet, 
Bar-Tailed Godwit, Curlew, Oystercatcher, Teal & Mallard all showing out on the Middlebere Chanel.

I did manage a new tick on the species list for 2012, when we made it round to the hide overlooking the salt marsh and distant Poole Harbour beyond, a juvenile Spoonbill could be spotted stood amongst a group of 13 Little Egrets.

http://www.facebook.com/MartinClayPhotography Up to date pictures and sightings, prior to me getting around to writing these blog posts, Look out for a free give away soon as well.

I would be more than grateful for any 'Likes' or Comments on my FB Photography Page too so feel free to comment or criticise about anything.

Langford (Grebe) Lakes

With the day off work on monday and the weekends floods subsiding long enough to contemplate going out for the day, Nat and I headed off down the A303 to Langford Lakes to see what was about. The answer to that question was pretty evident straight away - Not alot!

Tufted Ducks and Canada Geese seemed the only birds to grace the water throughout the reserve, with even the usual Coots and Mallard fairly scarce.

Tufted Drake

Angel Wings? Canada Goose

2 Bird species however didn't appear to be lacking in numbers, I counted 17 Chiffchaffs in the time we spent at Langford, and I did manage to get a fairly decent photography of a singing Chiffchaff from the window of one of the hides.

Singing Chiffchaff

The other was Great-crested Grebe - on the 3 lakes they're were 12 birds, 9 Adults and 3 youngsters - definitely 4 pairs. 1 Pair still sat on a nest and another with 3 hungry youngsters. I don't remember ever seeing so many. Whilst watching the singleton Grebe from the camouflage of the hide, a Kingfisher landed on the branches a mere 10 ft from the windows, a blessing usually, but in this instance a nightmare as no matter how many times he returned to many branches obstructed a picture.

The Grebe chick (Out of Shot) proceeded to wolf down this fish whole!

Still on the nest.

Grebe family.

The singleton.

Not the most thrilling of days but shouldn't complain to much - I thought I'd share this pic I took on friday morning, before the rain returned down at Rooksbury.

"There is nothing, absolutely nothing so much worth doing as messing
around in boats." - Ratty (Wind in the Willows) this little chap might
need a boat if it keeps on raining.

http://www.facebook.com/MartinClayPhotography

Totally Otterless

As I mentioned in my last post, I went off early on Wednesday morning last week in the hope of seeing one of the Rooksbury Otters, when I arrived on the edge of the lake at about 7 am I joined Grant on one of the fishing Jetties, having seen & photographed the Otters on the previous 2 evenings Grant had the same idea as me in getting there early in the morning. I must admit I haven't visited any large bodies of water at that time of the morning before and as the sun started to appear above the trees mixed with the mist rising from the waters surface, it created a very atmospheric scene. Just had the wrong lens on the camera to capture it.

We didn't see any Otters, but below is a link to Grant's webpage and the few Otter pics, you can also see is regularly updated work on Facebook - GrantAutonPhotography
http://www.gautonphotography.com/Nature-1/Fauna/Otter/22420448_mf68QG#!i=1792410987&k=LmLLd34


So totally Otterless, we had to make do with watching a very statuesque Grey Heron on the opposing side of the lake, which as the time ticked away became bathed in more and more sunshine, the ripples on the water reflecting nicely too.

Grey Heron

I was just saying to Grant that I didn't think the Heron was the usual Rooksbury suspect, when within about 5 minutes the resident Heron swooped in low squawking straight for the interloper. Causing the intruder to take flight being chased all of the way. Proving my theory right.

The Intruder

There are always plenty of Coots on the lake, and if you sit and watch them long enough they are pretty good value, especially when walking on water, possibly the most ungraceful exponents of this behavior. Im still fascinated by the size of their feet, I guess they're quite a hinderance when it comes to being graceful.

Walking on Water