Wildlife Photography across the Water: WWT London Day Trip Report

Monday 3 October 2011

WWT London Day Trip Report - Part 1

As promised, a week after I went to WWT London, here are a couple of images tat were taken about midday, in horrible flat grey light.

I arrived at the centre at about 11 am, having dropped Jac off en route for her visit to London. As I walked in from the car park, I heard an unusual call which made me immediately think 'Parrot'., but I didn't see anything at this stage.

As I walked down the first part of the reserve, I heard the sound again and looked up to see the distinctive shape of a couple of Ring Necked Parakeets. Now these birds are quite abundant in this part of London, with many thousands that have now taken hold. I did see some back in about 1997 when I worked in south west London, but have not seen any since that time, and certainly not while I have been taken photos of birds.

As I walked down to the bottom of the reserve towards the observation tower, I could see a number of them on the roof or just under the eaves.

Somebody in the tower told me that they were stripping out the house martin nesting material, which it certainly looked like.

These two images were taken with the 7D, 500f4 and the 1.4 EFTC for maximum reach, and even then are quite heavily cropped.

Pretty birds and noisy birds they certainly are, but quite a lot of character when watching the behaviours.

While up in the tower, I could have down with much shorter reach of lens as they flew by very close to as they came in to land.

I will be back with some other birds, and a bit more of a review of the centre in subsequent blogs

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.