Wildlife Photography across the Water: Local Patch

Wednesday 25 March 2009

Local Patch - Warwickshire

Well about as local as it gets, more precisely my back garden.

Many of the readers of the blog know that I spent a lot of time last year making over about 2/3 of my back garden to a wildlife garden.

This involved hand digging out years worth of weeds and brambles and reshaping the earth into raised banks and planting out with wild flower seeds. I put three areas of water in the garden and this has attracted quite a bit of wildlife in that I didn't previously see.

Well I spent a fair bit of time out there this weekend building the waterfall into the main pond and saw my first three butterfly species of the year in the warm spring sunshine. These were Brimstone, Comma and Small Tortoiseshell. I tried to sneak up on the Comma while it was sunning itself for an image, but it wasn't having any of it. I really could do with the Canon 180 macro lens which would allow me much more stand off distance - anybody got one going spare?

Anyway, to the main point of this thread which is to share some images of some of the flowers that are coming up now. Nothing particularly special, but important in setting the overall ecology of what I'm trying to set up.

From the top down, the species are as follows;

Red Dead Nettle

Common Speedwell

Sun Spurge

Shepherds Purse

Common Fumitory

And if I have got any of those wrong, please do let me know.

Update: - The tadpoles are free and swimming today - well the first few anyway

Martin

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Bio's

David Courtenay, a self taught wildlife and nature photographer, has been capturing images for over 30 years. He has had a passion for wildlife since early childhood and remembers being glued to the television whenever Survival, Wildlife on One and other natural history documentaries were shown. In the 2006 he swapped his established career for the life of a wildlife photographer, such a move demands a measure of uncompromising passion and commitment.

David has travelled extensively throughout Europe as well as spending more than 7 months in India working with local guides and trackers in search of Bengal Tiger, Asian One horned Rhino and Asian Elephant. He has also photographed Wildlife in Australia, Malaysia, Thailand, Sumatra, Africa, Canada and America. Working closely with Conservation companies he tries to raise funds to help Wildlife that has been put on the endangered list by poaching and habitation loss

Martin Dyer has had a passion for avian wildlife since childhood, particularly raptors. Photography was also another keen interest and it was with the specific availability and control of the whole process that digital offers that Martin was then able to combine the two in 2003. Based in the UK, Martin is a regular visitor to Scotland, specifically the Isle of Mull to watch the Eagles resident there. Other trips to Europe and around the UK are usually part of Martin’s agenda in a typical year.

However, as a firm believer on making the most of the local patch, Martin has spent a lot of time and hard work creating a wildlife garden which is reaping the rewards with many new species and varieties of wildlife. A keen member of a number of wildlife photographic groups, Martin is keen to expand his portfolio into other areas of wildlife, and has already established a wide portfolio of images of fungi.