British Wildlife Calendar 2017

Looking at the time of year I thought it was about now that I should bring back the blog. It's been brought back quite a few times and will probably be brought back again in the future as finding time to write is always so hard.

So anyways some new content. Well looking under the bed in the spare room this morning I realized I still had a handful of my 2017 Calendars in stock. When I say a handful I mean under 10 so here is a short write up featuring this years shots.

If anyone has started their Christmas shopping already and needs a small stocking filler, these are great little gifts. And a bargain at £7.00. Local Delivery/Collection is Free. Or I can post for a £1.00

More information or to order you can visit my websites 'Online Shop' here: British Wildlife 2017 Calendar

As always my Calendar features shots of totally wild British birds and mammals photographed throughout the past year. I always try my best to include an even mix or birds and mammals if I can relate them to the month in which the photo was taken. Here is this years selection.

January 2017 - Great spotted Woodpecker - Taken from my pop up hide around my garden feeders.

February 2017 - Brown Hare - Frosty winter mornings were perfect for catching up with the local Brown Hares.

March 2017 - Great crested Grebes - An early spring trip to the Somerset levels brought a morning with a Great crested Grebe pair on a small lake.

April 2017 - Yellowhammer - My local population were looking stunning as they came into breeding plumage.

May 2017 - Eurasian Otter - A close encounter of the Otter kind whilst holidaying on Mull.

June 2017 - Atlantic Puffin - Some Puffin therapy from a couple of hours spent on the Isle of Lunga.

July 2017 - Roe Deer - With Summer underway, the freshly harvested fields became battlefields for the annual Roe Deer rut.

August 2017 - Kingfisher - 4 Years living by a river and finally I manage a Kingfisher shot.

September 2017 - Red Kite - You never know what species will turn up in the garden when the camera is out, this Kite landing in a tree was a little bit of a shock.

October 2017 - Reeves' Muntjac - Alert as ever, my closest encounter to date with the Muntjac.

November 2017 - Wigeon - I have never had the pleasure of photographing these magnificent ducks up close until a chance visit to RSPB Greylake.

December 2017 - Short-eared Owl - No year would be complete without a shot of these awesome Owls, taken around midday on a grey December day.

As mentioned above for more information or to order you can visit my websites 'Online Shop' here: British Wildlife 2017 Calendar

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Rutting Roe Deer - August 2015

At the start of the July I took the plunge and decided to move in with my girlfriend Donna, we found a nice little cottage just a mile away from where I lived previously with rolling fields at the bottom of the garden and a wide open expanse filled with wildlife just waiting to be photographed. Getting time to explore those fields however proved impossible. If I wasn’t spending all my free time sorting out the garden, moving and erecting furniture I was down at the cricket club keeping the wicket in shape for its each weekly fixture.

By late August I had nearly gone two months without taking a single picture, catastrophe I hear you cry, and I couldn’t have agreed more. Luckily one weekend we had guests, some of Donna’s friends had come down from Cheltenham for the weekend. And having spent the night asleep on the sofa I awoke to a bright warm summer morning. The back fields had been harvested in the week so acres of freshly chopped stubble beckoned. I made my excuses to Donna as everyone else was still asleep and headed off out with the camera. Having photographed Roe Deer near these hedgerows before I hoped I might get lucky again, especially as it was still early just after 7am.

It didn’t take long for my first sighting, I headed up along the footpath and spotted a couple of Roe sat underneath the hedgerow, already sheltering themselves from the warm morning sun. Hoping they might emerge out on to the stubble I positioned myself at the intersection of the hedgerow, where four other hedges met. It proved to be a good vantage point as it was the corner joining point for four different fields. Two still had standing crops so it offered plenty of habitat for cover and for feeding.

A quick scan with the binoculars found Deer everywhere, I couldn’t believe my luck. All were a few hundred meters away but each field had visible targets. I setup my camera ready for the nearest one. The gap in the crossed hedges seemed like a logical place for any of them to walk through so I waited patiently and within minutes I spotted a young Doe peering out at me through the dense wheat crop. She would stand motionless for minutes on end before slowly inching her way out into the open. Where she then really surprised me as she bounded on down towards the gap in the hedge at quite a speed. Pausing just feet away as she caught my scent. Before bolting off through the gap and back out into the Wheat crop the other side.

Several pictures in the bag I was pretty happy, and was soon joined by a chap walking his dog along the footpath. I had spoken to this guy before on several occasions and he gave me an update of what bird species he had seen over the spring in this area. As we stood there talking normally, at times even quite loudly I caught some movement out the corner of my eye, a couple of Roe Deer charging along the track towards us. As they got closer we could see a nice sized Buck chasing a Doe, probably the same one I had just photographed. He was close on her tail and moving at some speed, seemingly oblivious as they both came charging towards us. The Doe eventually dove through a hole in the hedgerow. The Buck was still pretty close behind her, catching sight of us just meters away as he followed her through the hedge.

We were both in a little shock, stood out in the open these deer were not at all that bothered by us, the lengths they’d go to when the bloods up I suppose, like any man! The dog walker chap left me wishing me well for some more shots. Alone again I popped my head around the hedge to see the Doe spring off through the standing wheat the other side. No Buck though, he had doubled back and was well camouflaged among the standing grass verge on the edge of the stubble fields stood alertly among the grass and wildflowers.

I’ve never encountered Roe Deer during the rut before but was pretty sure he had seen me as a potential challenger, no more than twenty feet away from me over the course of the next ten minutes or so he slowly circled me, pausing to sniff the air every now and then and take in the scent along the ground. I happily snapped away trying my best not to make any sudden movements, still shocked this wild beast was just feet away and not spooked by the noise of the camera or my smell. He even licked his lips a couple of times, perhaps I smelt like a female, not something I’ve ever been accused of before.

My wild moment was shattered a couple of seconds later when a loose dog came barreling towards us both, its jogger owner close behind. The Buck sped off across the field to the safety of a nearby plantation.  And the jogger passed by without a care in the world as I gave her a very dirty look! Memory card red hot with shots, and a little more than an hour out of the door I headed home for breakfast with a massive smile on my face. I am still a little shocked by just how close the encounter was and can’t wait to till the annual Roe rut comes again next summer. Hopefully this time I will have far more time to spend with the Deer and maybe get a glimpse at the Bucks going at it. Fighting I mean, going at it in the other sense might have happened to me if the jogger hadn’t of interrupted!

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Spring Round Up - May 2013

I made several other trips out and about in May, again to look for the Brown Hares locally but without much success. A unusual random Holiday day from work found me down at Pennington & Keyhaven Marshes on the South Coast on the look out for some Spring Migrants, which proved very successful in the form of my first ever Little Tern.

The trip back across the New Forest to Blashford Lakes was well worth it as a Greenshank fed right in front of the hide, another hide show off was one of many newly arrived Reed Warblers. To top the day and month off a Nightjar survey on Greenham Common in Newbury gave me my first Nightjar 'Churring' experience.

Brown Hare 

Little Tern

Greenshank

Reed Warbler

Roe Buck

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The Last of February - 2013

Apologies, apologies to my regular blog readers, who are now not really so regular as I haven't posted for such a long time and seem to be so far behind with every post. So hopefully over the next week or so I can briefly summarise the past couple of months and get back up together with things.

The end of February was pretty slow, with extra hours at work starting to pick up, and weather at weekends pretty poor, opportunities to get out around the patch with the camera seemed to come at a minimum. Reports of the Bittern on the river by Dad and the ex-river keeper Jeff where still coming in at least once a fortnight, and several fruitless evenings and sunday afternoons were spent wading up and down the flooded banks to no avail.

Whilst waiting for the Bittern I did manage to stalk pretty close to a young Roe Doe as the light started to fade, getting within 20ft before she spotted me, insisting on a stare off for a good 2 or 3 minutes before she decided she didn't like the look of me and disappeared off into the water meadows.

Roe Doe

Plenty of Mute Swan activity on the river with the Cobs starting to look a little more enthusiastic about the forthcoming breeding season. Some interesting preening poses and plenty of wing flapping and postulating gave some nice photo opportunities.

The Conductor

As seems to be the norm now, the sound of Goldcrest song seems to follow me where ever I go, at least 3 pairs still present in the garden, and one even popped out onto a low branch to belt out another sweet chiming tune. There definatly seems  to be more Goldcrest about this Winter/Spring than I have ever seen before, which must be a good thing right?

As with the Goldcrests, numbers of Chiffchaff seemed to start to multiply towards the end of the month with at least a dozen seen and heard along one full length walk of the River, whether wintering birds starting to show off in hope of a mate or a steady but early influx of summer visitors.

Chiffchaff

A slight random call was received one monday evening as I made my way home from football, Joe Stockwell a good twitcher friend of mine had spotted some Shelduck on a flooded corn field just outside the village. In such a bizarre place the next morning I was up bright and early and out to investigate. And sure enough as the mist rose off the frosty ground, 6 Shelduck swam and fed on a rather large puddle in the middle of this crop field. Not to bad a patch tick!

Patch tick Shelduck

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Great Bustard - 17th Feb

So if you read my previous post from Saturday the 16th Feb you would know that I was hot on the heels of a wintering Great Bustard on a nearby estate. And that although I saw the bird the previous day it was miles away and I couldn't really photograph conclusive proof. So with some nicer weather on Sunday and a call from the local Keeper to say he had seen the bird heading back to its favoured spot, I headed off again just after lunch determined to get a photograph.

I found my way into position a lot stealthier than the day before, and instantly I could pick out the bird huddled down on the far side of the Stone Curlew Plot. Bingo some rather distant grainy pics at 500 yards or so, but definitely a Great Bustard. A couple of times over the next hour or so the Bustard stood up went for a short wander grazing a couple of times before heading back to the one large tuft of grass on the open ground.

It was clear to see no wing tags, Having seen the bird earlier in the week the estate called the Great Bustard group out from Salisbury Plain to see if they could shed some light on its being here. The guy came out pretty quickly and having located the bird with the landowner seemed to think it was one of their released birds and around 2 years old, having lost both wing tags. Although this seemed most definitely the most plausible explanation as Salisbury Plain birds have showed up in Somerset from time to time, North Hampshire being the same kind of distance away. It seemed strange to me that a bird this big that is tagged with some pretty large wing tags would just so happen to loose both. (Maybe I just hoped it was a wild one and I had the discovery of a lifetime)

The one thing that was clear to me however was, I wasn't going to get any closer to the bird. It appeared so skittish, every time it did venture out from behind its tuft, a slight noise, movement from the nearby Roe Deer and even on one occasion a Woodpigeon sent it strutting back to its tuft. Whilst savouring the Bustard a falcon shaped bird darted quickly over my head and landed out on the ploughing, having my lens focused on the Bustard it took me quite a while to find the bird in flight and missed out on a good angle. It landed on a furrow and sat and sat and sat. It was still perched there by the time I left, and I concluded that it was juvenile Peregrine, slightly browner in colour than any I had seen before. Another awesome patch tick to go with the weekends Bustard.

Eventually the Roe Deer rose up from the furrows they had been led down in, making their way towards the fresh foliage atop the curlew plot. The Bustard didn't appear to be too tolerant and was soon up on its giant drumsticks and wandering across the top of the field to a nearby plantation. This allowed me my only decent-ish ID shot I was happy with as the bird kept to the skyline. The below pic is quite a heavy crop but beggars cant be choosers right?

Satisfied I headed back to my car parked out on the road, leaving the Bustard heading for new cover, and the Peregrine perched motionless on the furrow. I got some great views of fleeing Skylark, Reed Bunting and Linnet in the warm afternoon sun as I head back down a game cover crop topping off a cracking afternoon.

You just never know what might turn up on your doorstep! Wild, released or totally unexpected.

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Roe Deer - 16th Feb

It was just over a month ago now, but I got a phone call from my dad early on a Tuesday morning as I headed to work that a Great Bustard had been seen quite a few times on a nearby estate. I had to get him to repeat it a GREAT BUSTARD!!!!! 

The bird apparently had been present for a couple of weeks and favouring a Stone Curlew plot in the middle of one of the ploughed fields. Being a Tuesday and with a full week of work, the weekend couldn't come soon enough. So armed with instructions and having promised the Gamekeeper and the Estates owners not to reveal its location to anyone I headed off in search of this giant bird.

Walking alongside some thick hedge rows plenty of Yellowhammer & Corn Bunting chirped away in front of me along with a few small groups of Goldfinch flushing up from the seed heads next to the hedge. I managed to get into a sheltered hidden position to view the area the Bustard had been said to have favoured. Not a thing, I was sure with the size of the bird I would be able to see it, but no, no sign anywhere!

A small covey of Red-legged Partridge flew into the belt to which I sat, and several Pheasants flew out as a female Sparrowhawk emerged from the fir trees but still no Bustard. So I sat and waited for a good hour or more, enjoying distant views of 5 Roe Deer mooching about on the ploughing. Then something caught my eye, a good 600-700 metres away a large bird rising high above the hedgerow.

My first thoughts were Short-eared Owl a bird that had roosted on this ground in previous winters, but no a look through the binoculars confirmed Great Bustard. It circled a couple of times in the distance dropping in height with every turn, eventually coming in to land on a game cover crop 3 fields over quite near the road.

Barely able to contain my excitement I legged it as quickly back to the car as I could not taking my eye of the spot I last saw it. 15 minutes later and I was searching the cover crop. Fruitlessly, whether the bird had wandered on down, or simply glided low over top of the road and to the fields the other side.

Gutted, I dejectedly wandered through a gap in the hedge and instantly come across 2 Roe Deer sat on the track 100 or so yards further down. Sticking tight to the hedge and getting as low as I could tripod and all I stalked as close as I could get to the young Doe & Buck, and was really pleased to get a lot of shots, some of which I think are my best yet of Roe.

So I left happy with my Roe Deer shots but not that I had some incredibly distant unrecognisable Bustard flight shots. But never fear, it was only Saturday and having guaranteed the bird was still in residence I headed back the next day, but I shall save that all for the next blog post.

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Morning Sunshine

Most mornings on my route to work, several Roe Deer can be seen out on one of the road side fields, the field as a fairly steep bank rising up towards Harewood Forest and is surrounded by quite a thick tall Beech hedge. Fleeting glimpses through the odd gap in the hedge usually reveal between 5-9 Roe, mainly young Bucks along with a couple of Doe's and some youngsters.

On this particularly bright morning with the sun shining, I thought I'd pop the camera in the car for a quick pit stop on the way to work. Parking on the side of the road I crept along the fence line hoping that I wouldn't spook the deer when I appeared in the gap. Due to the limited view of the hedgerow gap, I could only get a few shots of one particular Buck. The light was really harsh so I've had to give them a black & white conversion. 

A real shame as I got quite close. Below is a view of the River as the autumn change is beginning, I posted the same view back in April so its nice to see how its changed.

The Halfwater

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Roving Redstart

As the nights start to close in with increasing speed, time spent out after work with the camera is starting to be a bit of a juggling act, an hour and a half of good light seems to be about all that was on offer the first week in September. Finally some Wildlife showing up again now though, I caught up with a Roe Doe and her two Fawns one evening as the sun had just gone down, the first deer I've seen on the water meadows in about 2 months. A welcomed sight.

Roe Doe

Roe Doe & Fawn

The next night I did have a pleasant surprise, forced to walk through the cows out in the water meadows due to Fishermen on the river, I came across a new patch tick, and a complete new species for me, one that I had been hoping to catch up with for a little while. A Redstart, a juvenile male, but a Redstart none the less. I picked it up on the thistles around the cattle troughs and was quite startled as this gorgeous red plumaged bird disappeared off across the field in front of me. luckily it stopped on the gate posts to one of the Fishing huts, and proceeded to feed and flit about giving me great views at about 40 yards. What a bird, I must admit nothing could wipe the smile off my face for the rest of the evening.

Redstart

Redstart

Redstart

Redstart

Redstart

Still high on my first new species for a longtime, I had a wander around the Half Water the stretch of river on the other side of the water meadows, a tributary of the River Test and fisherman free for the day. Plenty of birds here, with Great Tit, Blue Tit & lots of Long Tailed Tits frequenting the branches above the water. Little Grebe could be heard further downstream and still escape my lens on every trip, there awareness is by far the best I've ever encountered in a bird. I did see 2 Kingfishers and hear another but both moved so fast a picture was near on impossible. Leaving me to look back across the meadows as the suns got lower and lower, backlighting the below shot of a Cow quite nicely.

Backlit Cow

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.

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