This week

Well its been quite a slow week, The weather has been mainly BLAH so i have been stuck behind the PC processing images from the NJ trip for a submission to my agency, You really need to be in the right frame of mind to do a lot of processing and i must admit i really wasnt, I made a couple of trips to my local lake hoping for Beaver in the snow but that didnt happen and now the snow has gone, I did get some more shots of deer in the snow next to my house and this weeks cold spell has bought as many as 6 white tails out and feeding next to my garden, Its a hard time for wildlife so the birds and deer have been getting some extra rations, So not much of a week to report but these things need to be done

Dave

Strange weather in Raleigh

Its been a strange week weather wise, The start of the week was cold followed by a warm and very wet period mid week and strong winds, Now at the end of the week the temperatures have plummeted and today i popped down to the local lake to find the shallows iced over, The Kingfisher was still around but kept distant and although he tried a few times i never saw him catch anything, He tried various perches as well but maybe the water is still abit murky for him, I spent a very nice hour shooting a Killdeer which looks like a European Plover on stilts, They are normally very shy and difficult to get near but today he approached me and at some points was within a few feet from me, he took no notice of the flash which helped in the dull conditions so i filled a 4 gb card, He was too interested in getting some food and spent most of the time doing there soft shoe shuffle in the shallows, Animals and birds change their habits in the colder months and food seems more important than self preservation and shy animals can be very approachable, One thing i did realise this morning is that i need some better cold weather boots, Its amazing how chilly your extremities can get when hanging around for long periods of time, So i will get a pair of Sorrel boots before things get too bad,The mallards were still at it as before and i watched a nuthatch going in and out of a tree hole which has been noted for the future, The lake has a population of Muscovy ducks as well as various hybrids so there is normally something having a clean and flap of the wings to keep you busy, The Muscovy ducks are very dark on the body and very light around the head and under the wings making exposure difficult and easy to get wrong, I took a test shot before the bird reared up and flapped its wings, I was shooting at ISO 800 at the time and didn't want to under expose too much as this give me a grainy image when processing





Dave

Local Patch - Warwickshire

It is cold, grey and the wind is biting as I type this on Sunday morning, although the Sparrowhawk that has gone flashing across the back of the garden seemed quite oblivious to it. A couple of new visitors of note in the last two weeks have been a pair of Great Spotted Woodpeckers coming in, ignoring the many options of feed and pecking away on the dead branch on the apple tree.

I spent a couple of hours out in the garden yesterday putting in hedging. This is the time of year to put in bare root hedge stock while the growth is dormant. I have put in a total of 80 plants, all of mixed native UK species with berry, flower and fruit variety for wildlife from nine different species. It will be exciting to watch them grow this year and put some cover against a very boring wooden fence that one of our neighbours has put up.

Since I last wrote, we have generally had more of the same species in, with the blackbirds and sparrows being the dominant species in terms of numbers. Our Grey Wagtail didn't show for a few days, so we always get a little nervous in case it has been 'catted', but it put in an appearrance again on Friday and Saturday. I still need to get some better images yet.

Still hoping for Blackcap and Bramblings to come back as we had last year, but nothing yet. But I thought I would show you what we are missing this year

In the local area, we have had massive flocks of Fieldfare and Redwing, both of which avoided me when I went out trying to photograph them yesterday. I found a great location earlier in the week and was hoping to be able to get them yesterday - but they had all moved to a different location that was too far away to photograph. Sods Law!! There is plenty of buzzard activity and I saw a great sight two Monday's ago on my drive to work after we had some very early heavy rain. In one field there were eleven buzzards on the ground in a ploughed field, and a further seven in the adjacent field. the heavy rain had obviously bought all the worms to the surface for a buzzard breakfast. I have only seen this sort of behaviour once before, which was last year when I was in Switzerland with Dave, and it was again similar weather conditions that caused it.

Slightly further off patch, there have been reports of good numbers of Waxwings. I have tried the nearest location a couple of times, but have not had a sighting.

I also keep an eye on the wildlife where I work, in particular the Great Crested Grebes on the lake we have there. Last year one pair decided to nest on a small patch of reeds immediately underneath an area where there was a footpath. Unfortunately, due to disturbance, their first attempt failed, but the second try was successful, although with only a single chick fledging. As part of major bank maintenance, in which there home needs to be completely rebuilt at the wrong time of the year as far as they are concerned. So they have been given a brand new floating island, pre-planted with phragmites reeds that has been placed in the middle of the area they occupy. So hopefully they will have a good chance of undisturbed nesting this year.

If you have any unusual sightings from your local patch, we would love to hear from you. Just drop a note in the comments.

Update: After I had finished writing this blog up, Sparrowhawk put another appearance in chasing a blackbird across the garden, about 30feet up, and then a hour or two later, I was just having a break from printing, looking out at the mass of birds in the garden, and everything just disappeared at great speed into the air raid shelters and the Sparrowhawk came stooping into the garden and put down into the Apple tree, which at least gave he a good view of him through the binos. He left again after a couple of minutes, still looking for his lunch.

Martin

Trip Report-Moody skies

A couple of weeks ago when i was at the coast, Things were tough,The conditions were extremly hard to shoot in, Bitter cold and High winds were some of the toughest i have shot in for a long time, I dont remember having colder winds in either Switzerland or even when i shot polar bears in Canada,
The birds werent playing ball and many had moved further south or inland to get away from the unseasonal weather, So what to do,Well i had plenty of time to have a think,Do i move or do i stay, I decided to give it another go and one morning before the sun came up i headed out ,Driving down the coast i noticed some nice moody cloud formations out at sea-East where the sun will rise, I thought it would be nice to try and incorporate the cloud formations in the images i wanted of the Snow Geese making the clouds just as much of the image as the birds, Luck was with me, I watched the Geese as i arrived and the did something i had not seen there before,They left the partly frozen lake and did a short flight up and over the road and landed in the grass next to the sand dunes,I parked next to the road and grabbed my D3 and 200-400 combo,This would allow me to better compose the images as the birds flew in,Not only from across the road but from further down the road where another group were sleeping on the ice, This would either work or it wouldnt,The images would look good or fit for the bin,I had nothing to loose and spent a cold but enjoyable 2 hrs shooting small groups of Snow geese in flight.All the time the light was changing so i kept in AV mode and compensated as needed to stop the bright areas in the clouds from blowing out, A different style for me i guess but one i like and will try again,more a bird in landscape shot than straight portrait type images-what do you think?