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

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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

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Misty River Sunrise - 8th Feb

Waking up earlier than normal on this particular Friday morning had its advantages, pulling back the curtains I was greeted to a stunning frosty vista across the water meadows. The sun had just started to move from behind the horizon so I quickly dressed, grabbed my camera gear and tripod and literally legged it out across the river bridges to the middle of the water meadows.

It appeared I timed it just right as the pinky orange pastel haze started to give way to the deep fiery glow of the rising Sun. The mist that covered the water meadows and nearby river only adding to the atmospherics.

Having rushed out of the house I literally only had my camera and tripod, so quickly positioned it on the river bank and started snapping away. It was nice to just use the camera settings and take some natural images, no Polarising or ND Grad filters at hand.

As I headed home back to get ready for work, I had to try for a picture of a Mute Swan pair swimming through the river mist. A truly awesome sunrise, well worth braving the cold frosty morning for and well worth missing out on an extra 45 minutes kip.

Looking Eastward

One of the Carriers

River reflections

Misty Mute Swans

PS. When processing these images all I have done is slightly boost the contrast. So you can see how vivid the scene before me was. :-)

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Wintery River Test - 18th Jan

Finally some Snow after much threatening by the weather forecasters it arrived in a swift flurry, I managed to get out on to the main road but attempting to cross the bridge on to the A303 was a step too far for the little Stilo so I quickly admitted defeat and headed home for a snow day!

Turns out work was shut anyways so I didn't need to risk getting stuck. So a whole day to play with an endless Snowy opportunities to take advantage of. Well no not really. By 8.30am I had my hide strategically place out in the garden a wooden fork placed and baited waiting for the resident Robins to land on. 9.45am cold and my lens cover with about 3 inches of snow led atop it I admitted defeat. Not one Robin coming anywhere near my fork.

The snow continued to fall well into the afternoon, and a walk up the river & village to Grandads to clear is path resulted in very little, the usual Little Egret and Little Grebes the only birds to face the blizzard. All of the feeding stations remain empty, I guess the resident Blue Tits where hid out of the cold wind.

By around 3pm the snow abated and I was straight out with the camera, the light starting to fade fast so I left the big lens in doors and hoped for some crisp white landscape shots. I did a full circuit of the River and its branches, the flooded water meadows giving some wildlife relief for the day. 3 Snipe & 3 Lapwing brought first patch ticks for the year, and an abundance of Grey Wagtail seemed to appear every 100 yards or so. I counted 9 in total during my walk.

So walk done and temperature starting to plummet I returned to the warmth of the open fire, and battened down the hatches for the night. Not the snow day I had dreamed of with Christmas Card image opportunities coming out of every corner, but a Snow day none the less.

Beat No.3 

Swans on the Home Beat

Halfwater Hut

Halfwater

End of Beat No.3

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Egret Invasion

As mentioned in previous posts there appears to be a massive influx of wintering Little Egret in and around the village. Including a pair that rise from the River at the bottom of the garden most mornings. Seeing the Egrets really isn't a problem, photographing them however appears to be so.

They seem to favour the small channels and streams that run off of the main river, or can be seen on the various watercress beds and flooded areas around the village, all lacking the cover of trees or hedges. Regularly no matter how stealthy I attempt to be I end up flushing the bird before I am anywhere near ready to photograph.

So last week I thought I would have a change of tactic. After doing the circuit of the village on foot and encountering 7 different individuals I came to the conclusion when walking past the stream that runs level with the road through Longparish, that passers by on foot cause the bird to flush every time where as in car no matter how slow you could be going the Egret isn't bothered at all.

So back in the car I got and parked myself up off the road next to the stream, lens out of the window, and so be it in the doom and gloom of the afternoon the Egret came stalking up the stream, Almost level with me when a Car coming in the opposite direction spotted the Egret, pulled up and reversed back, wound down the windows and pointed. Its fair to say I was pretty pissed off as the Egret took flight and was gone.

I did manage a few dingy shots as it stalked up the stream towards me.

Longparish Little Egret

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Sunny River Late As Usual

Finding time to go out with the camera at the moment seems pretty much impossible, its dark before I go to work, dark when I get home, there is always something on, on a Saturday and Sundays down to the weather. So when I got a few free hours late one Saturday afternoon I was straight out with the camera and up the river, hoping to catch the sun going down.

As you can see I was about 10 minutes late as usual, and missed the whole scene being bathed in a beautiful orange glow.

Home Beat - River Test

Beat 4 - River Test

Flooded Watermeadows

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