Autumn Colours

There has certainly been a change in the weather, For the last few days we have had quite a heavy frost in the mornings and glorious sunny days, Tuesday evening i grabbed all my gear and headed off to Falls lake, The colours are at their best and will only be that way for a few days to a week unless we have heavy rain or wind and then it will be all over, The Lake is very low after a long and hot summer and where i shot you would normally be waist deep in water, There were a lot of deer and raccoon prints in the mud, I guess the deer were there for a drink and the raccoon were collecting the mussels that were now exposed, I had about 30 clear minutes before the sun would be too low and cast a heavy shadow across the trees on the far bank, I had lenses from 14mm to 600 as i didn't know really what to expect as i had only driven past before, Its good to have a range and the long lenses can give you detail shots rather than the standard wide scenic type, The wide shots were not that great as the sky was clear of any cloud to give some drama, When i got there the lake was flat and calm but as soon as i set up the breeze arrived and shot with and without the 10 stop filter to flatten the water, As always tripod mounted and cable release

Standard shot without filters


10 Stop ND filter added to smooth water

I shot using various lenses until the shadow appeared across the trees, I had a quick walk around and then as i turned towards my car i noticed the back lit trees under the bridge in the distance, I set up with the 600 on the D3s and just managed to get it in, The bridge gave a natural frame so i could see what i was going to get and its probably my favorite shot of the night

I had noticed that there was mist rising from the lake in the colder conditions so i was up and out before the sun rose and went back to the same place, What a difference, Thick fog so i turned around and went back to the small 3 acre lake that is on the community where i live, The conditions there were perfect and as predicted the mist was rising off of the pond, I set up and too a standard shot

It was clear that i would need to use a ND Grad filter to allow the bottom of the image to be brighter without blowing the sky


I used a 2 stop grad but think that a 3 stop may have been better as the sky was blue and not the off white here, The sun was rising and the rays were catching the coloured trees on the far bank nicely



A flock of Canada Geese landed as did a heron which didnt seem to put off by my presence which was good, Every night since moving in i have continued to put out some deer corn and dog food and every night it has been eaten, The dog food mainly by an opossum and there are 2 does with young, I have seen a Grey fox twice but its very skittish no doubt due to the 2 spot lights that i have over the baited area, It will take time but within a few months they will become more relaxed in a lighted area, The opossum has no problems with it and comes and goes all evening, One evening i watched it 5 times, The opossums here are very dark compared to where i lived before so that will make a nice change

Dave

Deer Rut Season Part 2 - Red Deer

In Part 1, I mentioned I went to Bradgate Park in Leicestershire to get some images of the rut.

Well getting there in the early dawn about 15 minutes before the car park was meant to open, I noticed a good few cars already there and took myself into the park. As I got near to the entrance, the calls of the Red Deer stags was loud and coming from a number of directions.

Within 25 metres of being in the park, I was aware of young stags to my left, right and ahead of me. All of them calling, and eyeing me nervously and suspiciously, while checking on their numerous hinds.

As I walked gently through the middle of them, I felt quite vulnerable, particularly as one of the more inquisitive ones started to come towards me. Extending one of the tripod legs gave me a little bit of false confidence if needed, but it was a nervous couple of minutes for me until I was clear of them.

Moving up the road towards Lady Jane Grey's ruined house, I was aware of a number of Fallow deer to my left and right, but at this stage, it was still quite dark.

As I walked further into the park, and the light improved, I came across my first Stag with a group of hinds that was busy seeing off a younger suitor.

These images below were of the senior Stag.

The first four images were taken in a burst of four showing him going through his roar. These were taken with the 5Dmk2 and 500 on the tripod. The second two were with the animal further away, so I just switched bodies and used the 7D for these.

Instead of using the tele-converter, I wanted to keep the full f4 speed of the 500 available to me, and switch between the Full frame and 1.6 crop bodies to act as my distance adjustment. It worked quite well and was surprising quick and easy to do. This is the big advantage of setting up both cameras in identical modes using the C1 to C3 custom pre-set dials.

In the last image, I wanted to show more than just a specimen stag and depict the hinds as well looking on as their brave stag roared at the retreating suitor stag.

It was a wonderful experience. The light didn't work as well as I wanted - no wonderful backlit shots, no steam as they bellowed in the cold crisp air. It was too warm, and at 8am towards the end of October I was still in short shirtsleeves. And of course, no wonderful Scottish mountains to be seen either.

Nevertheless, it was a wonderful experience.

Back next time with Fallow deer and a few bonus birds from the trip as well.

Martin

wet wet wet

The weather has been against me for a couple of days although yesterday evening was not too bad but i was out late and it was too late to grab the cameras when i got back, Today we woke to rain and its been wet all day so just unpacking and getting the electrician back out for another fault, The good news is that last night we had 4 female deer in the garden along with a fox and an opossum which was really great to watch through the window, I had a flood light out and they did not seem to mind at all, The birds have found the feeders and we have had a lot of chickadee, Tufted titmouse and cardinals on the feeders, I am not surprised as a cold spell will always make them look for food, We also had one of Martins favorites on the feeder-a grey squirrel so all in all the wildlife situation is looking good even though it will mean mainly night time shooting for the mammals, We have a nice area underneath the screened porch that i will turn into a blind and it will be a nice all year shooting place as it was be completely dry for the wet and wintery days and cool for the summer, We have had a couple of long days unpacking and i would think by the end of the week it will be all over and the cameras will be out on a daily basis-cant wait

Dave

WWT Slimbridge Day Trip Part 3 - last bit

My days out to Slimbridge are usually spent photographing the wildfowl from the wild hides capturing the sorts of birds in my last post. But when I went a couple of weeks back, the water levels were low and there were very few close in birds to photograph.

So taking a walk to the western end of the reserve to the Kingfisher hide (no Kingfishers ) I set about getting some images of common garden birds. Yes, the sort of thing I get regularly in my back garden.

I haven't put much time into these common little birds over the recent past, so I set about to rectify that.

Lots of sightings of various Tits, Finches and a delightful Reed Bunting, which sadly didn't pose in a suitable place for me.

But here are a few common birds, that always give me great pleasure to watch.

Back next time with Red and Fallow Deer from Bradgate Park for you

Martin

Welcome guests

Although we are in the new house it seems that the work has just started, Both my wife and myself are absolutely knackered and there still seems hundreds of boxes to unpack and desks etc to put together, The fall colours around Falls lake are gorgeous, I will try and pop down there this evening is the weather holds out, It has rained hard for the last couple of days and today i awoke to the first frosts of the year which will add to the colour, Last night i watched a fox feeding in the garden which is great, They have found the food quickly and i will keep it up now until the are confident and coming at a regular time, I wish i could say about the bird feeders which have sat there unloved for the last few days, It will only take one bird to trigger it off and i remember waiting for 3 weeks for the first birds to feed in my garden in France but when it started it went mad, I hope they start soon and the cold weather should keep them looking for more.
I have to say that its great being in our new home, Its beautifully built and the setting is lovely, We had a nice welcome pack from the neighbours with wine and chocolates and a gift for our dog, So far so good,

Dave

WWT Slimbridge Day Trip Part 2

Following on from my part 1 report here, here are a few more images from that day.

Nothing particularly special; but a few more images to share with you.

Incoming Tufted Drake

A couple of Great Crested Grebe,

Cheeky Grey Squirrel after the nuts at the feeding station

I have a few more common bird shots from this part of the reserve to come next time. Again, nothing special or rare, just some quite nice shots of common garden birds, a subject I have overlooked for much of this year.

I also had a cracking day at Wesonbirt Arboretum (home of the BBC Autumnwatch for the first four episodes this season, before they head off to Slimbridge next week) yesterday morning, with some really wonderful misty light, so I shall look forward to sharing some special shots from that visit on future blogs.

Martin

We are in

Finally and seems like forever we are in our new home, It seems that nothing is easy here when purchasing in a house and the signing was held up for hours as under writers held back and back and then back some more, I was told that every closing has been this way for a long time and some have been held back for days forcing people to get hotels, Its ridiculous, Its a shame that they did not do this a few years ago instead of allowing anybody to have huge mortgages even if they did not have a job-anyways its job done and now time to unpack and get settled
Last night my wife and i sat in the screened porch after a very long couple of days and popped open a bottle of bubbly, The dog gave a growl and we could see a large female white tailed deer in the garden going for the corn that i had put out, Its great to have that kind of wildlife so close,
The bird feeders have now gone out so time to sit back and await our first arrivals

Dave

A few random thoughts

Just a few disconnected thoughts from me to share with you today.

Firstly, the weather here in the UK. Just what the heck has been going on in our part of the world. Once again, unbelievably dry until today, when I have a day off work!! But a consequence of that has been the total lack of fungi this year in my favourite haunts. I was really hoping a few weeks ago that this would be a good year, but with the the very occasional show on one of two non descript fungi, it has been the poorest year that I can remember since I have had a photographic interest in them.

Maybe it the rain of today, and the cooler temperatures things might change.

I guess many of our UK readers will have seen the new BBC natural history series, Frozen Planet, that was on last night. Wow what a stunning HD spectacle it is. Reading through my twitter feed last night afterwards, it seems many were live tweeting the events, judging by the comments about the 'poor seal' that got dragged off the ice by Orca. The pack hunting of these creatures was stunning, and if you haven't seen it, then get it iPlayer. Some tough scenes and the tweets reflected that. I guess if Killer whales were called something a little less dramatic, they would get a better press. I certainly admired the resolute filming by the guys less than a metre away as they came through the ice hole.

While I am on about twitter, please let us know how many of you have a twitter id as it would be good to see your daily thoughts through that media. I know many people don't use it, but I find it invaluable for a lot of wildlife sightings and information. There are too many to id on hear, but check out who I follow here, and there are some good wildlife people and photographers on there. Our last guest photographer blog was by that route. My id is @martind01 . Leave us your id via the comments.

With the next few days off, I am hoping to get out with the camera a bit more so looking forward to sharing some of the recent material I have got plus some I am hoping for.

One final good news story I picked up yesterday was here with a wind farm planning application not being permitted due to Hen Harriers. Good to see these scars on the landscape being refused.

Best of luck to Dave today with his move. It can be a stressful time.

Back next time with some pictures.

Martin