Wildlife Photography across the Water: Couple of Stories for you today

Saturday, 20 August 2011

Couple of Stories for you today

Firstly, I was hoping to bring you a couple of images of some moth species that I have not shared or shown before. Sadly, it helps if your subject stays put. Clearly there is something about yellow moths that mean that they want to get into hiding as quick as possible. I guess if you are yellow though, you do tend to stand out a bit to the hungry birds.

The two species were Brimstone, which I have captured in the trap many times, but never got an image. The second was a Yellow Shell, which is a new species to the Dyer garden.

The good news was that I got six new species to the garden - these being the Yellow Shell as mentioned, along with the Marbled Beauty, Garden Pebble (nice to i/d a micro moth for a change) Rustic, Lychnis and Mouse Moth. Sadly, none are these are particular stunning photographically so no images to share.

Last nights session also confirmed the theory that full moon conditions don't help trapping.

The last time I put the trap out I got hardly any subjects in, whereas last night I got 79 separate macro moths from 18 different species, plus numerous micros when the moon was much less bright.

I had some further sightings of Swifts last night as I was setting the trap out - guess they were passage birds passing through. Delightful though to see them, albeit briefly.

The second story links in to my earlier posts this week about raptors and persecution. The story is mostly bad news.

A local man to Stratford (Shipston on Stour) was caught on camera shooting a Sparrowhawk.. It seems that he shot the bird and left it die. The attack was witnessed by a photographer who was photographing the bird at the time. The bird was taken to the local wildlife centre but the bird was too badly damaged and had to euthanized. A prosecution was made and the perpetrator was fined £615 and ordered to pay £986 costs and forfeit his gun for destruction. It is understood that the perpetrator was a keeper of racing pigeons and was culling the sparrowhawk as he was alleged to have lost some of his birds.

Sad news for yet another raptor - good news the guy was caught and found guilty.

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.