Florida day 1

A big hello from sunny Florida, It took 11.5 hours to get here but its worth every second, The weather is perfect, Clear blue skies and around 70 degrees going up near 80 tomorrow, We went out on the crystal river very early today and instantly was surrounded by manatees, Lots of mothers with young and lots and lots of interaction between the manatees and us, The water was pretty cloudy and green and i knew it would be busy, The light was non existent when we arrived and even when the sun came up it was low shutter speeds all the way, I had set my ISO to 800 which is normally ok but i have set it to auto ISO as i would rather have a sharp grainy image than a blurry soft image, After the manatees and lunch we went to the beach and as we arrived we saw a good size flock of skimmers but before i had chance to get the gear out some kids chased them off and in the 2 hrs we were there they did not return just leaving us with gulls and grackles so i took a handful of images and left, We went back to the river as the sun was setting and found an Osprey on a power pole near the road and managed to get some nice shots, We are off straight after the manatees in the morning for a drive down to Saraosta so i can down load the images and have time to process a few then, Until then just the one manatee shot-more to come


Sorry about the quick processing, I am rushed for time so the vigentting etc will have to wait

Dave

More fave pics of the Year - Part 2

From February of this year, I took a couple of trips to Slimbridge and enjoyed getting images of the Mute and Bewicks Swans, and various Geese species that were in then.

This beautiful Buzzard posed nicely for and enabled me to switch around bodies between my 7D and newly acquired 5Dmk2. This image was from the 5Dmk2, which has without doubt been my 'Best Buy' this year

This was one from the garden - Fem Gt. Spotted Woodpecker

This last little 'boring Brown duck' from Slimbridge has been included, simply because it was a lifer for me. Female Lesser Scaup. Might be rare, but it is still boring in my book. As I blogged at the time 'Not much of a Birder'

I had planned to go out to a site that I know of that is not too far from me where there a few Short Eared Owls have been sighted, but the weather has been pretty crappy in the afternoons round here. Both days this weekend, it has been bright and sunny up until just after 1pm, which is about when I would leave, and then has closed in with rain, sleet, snow and hail at times. The web is alive with images, tweets, and messages about SEO's at the moment. I haven't gone to that particular honeypot site, about an hour from here, although it is not difficult to find due to the web traffic but I am not going to join the big crowds.

With a good few days off over Christmas, I will bide my time, wait for the weather and take my chances then.

Martin

On my way

As you read this i will be driving down to Florida, Its a fair trek from my house to Crystal River where the manatees are, It will take around 12 hours including a couple of stops, So an early start and then early to bed as we have to be at Birds Underwater for 6.15am to get ready and be the first out on the water, My friends from the UK have never been and i am sure that they will be as aprehensive as i was the first time i got into the water and one of these leviathans of the deep swam out of the mirk straight at me, Once you have done it once its addictive and i would love to be able to spend 3 or 4 weeks totally concentrating on these amazing creatures, The forecast looks pretty good so fingers crossed and i hope to be able to post some decent images next time

Dave

A look back at some of my favourite pics of the year

In the last couple of years, I have written a review of the year on a month by month basis, but this year I thought I would just put up a few of my favourite images that I have been lucky enough to get or had a great expereince while taking.

While regular readers will probably remember them, maybe some of our newer readers will not have seen them before

In January, I shared a few images from my Norfolk trip

Jac and I had a great three days in North Norfolk, with some great sightings. Sadly, the weather was misty and very murky, so it was always a photographic challenge. But we loved the encounters with the wildlife all the same. Often at times like this it is the taking part that counts, rather than the results.

Martin

Time for a clean and brush up

All the gear is ready for the Florida trip on Saturday, I have had both the EWA marine underwater housing and the Panasonic compact sitting in a bath full of water to test for leaks and so far all is good, The lenses have been cleaned with ROR cleaner that my friend Dave Newton put me onto and yesterday i had a delivery of sensor cleaners from BHPHOTOVIDEO so i can now clean my dirty D3s sensor, I use Visible Dust swabs along with Visible Dust solution which i find works very well at getting all the crud off, I have to say the FF sensors seem to get a lot dirtier than the cropped sensors and are a pain in the butt to get totally clean but when shooting underwater or in the sky with large areas of light clear background any spots show up so better to spend 30 mins cleaning now than hours in front of a PC later, Like anything get the preparations done now for a smooth ride ahead

Dave

Hen Harrier extinction in England?

Regular readers will know that this is a subject that I have blogged on a number of times, but a new report out prepared by the RSPB and Natural England, commissioned by the Government has concluded that the Hen Harrier is likely to become extinct in England as a breeding bird in the near future.

Human persecution from guess where? - the Shooting community - those guardians of wildlife and carers for all things natural!!! A sick joke and pure hypocrisy.

Just four pairs on a single estate in the Forest of Bowland is all that remain.

It deeply saddens me that it has come to this and there is no excuse that it happens or that it is allowed to happen.

It remains good news that places like the Outer Hebrides still support a good community as readers will remember from my trip reports from North Uist last year.

Martin

Busy time

The Xmas decorations are up inside and outside the house, The pressy's are wrapped and we are pretty much ready, Our friends arrive from the UK on Friday afternoon and then we are off to Florida early Saturday morning, Its a long drive down to crystal river from here, about 11 hours so we wont get there until the late afternoon/early evening and then 2 early mornings swimming with the Manatees, There wont be much time to think before coming back Xmas eve and then leave for New York 2 days after Xmas, Somewhere between coming back from NY and going to California at the end of January i am trying to fit in a trip to New Jersey to shoot the harlequin ducks etc like i did 2 years ago, I have the use of a beach house there so its just petrol and food so its do able, It always seems that my early year and late year are busy and the middle is quite on the travel front, I dont see 2012 being any different, I hope to get down to Florida when i get back from California and then save hard for the end of 2012 when i will celebrate my 20 years of marriage and all things going well we will get back to Australia, Its 4 years since our last visit and i really want to get back, Its a fantastic place and the shots from there have sold well,
The weather here has changed and the Nights/mornings are cold and frosty, Its bought in some winter visitors to the garden in the way of dark eyed Junco and Robins, The feeders have been much more busy as the normal garden birds are busy feeding, The woodpecker branch is in constant use and yesterday we watched as 2 fed and chased each other around the garden, Dogs still come into the garden at night but the deer and opossum are sill coming, I just hope that next year we will see fox and cubs, This time of year is a great time to start searching for fox dens, The trees being bare means good light in the woodland and the after rain you can see and follow fox and deer foot marks in the mud, Deer and fox use the same paths, I find that fox like an area of woodland near to fields so thats where i tend to start looking, I normally like to find 3 or 4 dens and as spring arrives start to feed near them and then pick the best 1 or 2 that are not to dark, I was at a party last week and was asked out of all the animals that i have photographed over the years what is my favorite which is difficult, My answer was that although Tigers are my favorite animal i have to say that i love to photograph the fox, They are in pretty much every country in one form or another and are real survivors, They can range from the easiest animal to shoot if they are habituated or the most difficult if totally wild, I like the challenge of the truly wild fox, Most people have foxes living not far from the houses and this is an added attraction as it means that where ever you are you have a great project on your doorstep
Here is a Manatee shot from last Xmas, Its a very busy time there and not the best time to go but as we are there what the hell

Crystal River where the Manatees are is a bit of a 1 horse town but there is a very small beach area about 9 miles away which had a lot of birds on it last year so i will be spending the late afternoon there



Dave

Windy night

Looks like it is our turn to get the windy weather tonight that the north has recently been experiencing. With winds already at 50mph locally and the pressure dropping fast, we can only expect things to get rougher. So fingers crossed that not too much damage results

As I walked back across the bridge in Stratford tonight, I saw a Grey Heron immediately next to the road and pathway, quite unfazed by me, a number of other people and vehicles. Guess it is looking for an easier option in the choppy conditions as the water in that part of the basin was quite calm due to the shelter, although its night vision must be pretty good.

One frequent result from these extreme wind conditions that often arises is the further influx of unusual wind blown visitors, so will we see another lot of visitors from Daves side of the pond turning up? I will keep my eyes open to the various twitter feeds.

So for those experiencing excessive wind tonight, I will keep my fingers crossed that the consequences are minimal. And you can read that how you wish :-)

Martin