Marsh Tits

The Marsh Tit is a difficult bird to find and photograph in the north west of England. A few weeks ago I spent a day at a location I have been to a few times over the years, trying to photograph them. There only seemed to be one pair, but that is all I needed to get some decent shots. Now I need to get the same results with Willow Tits.

Mountain Hares

A few weeks ago my friend Richard and I made an early start to try and photograph Mountain Hares. As the name suggests they live at high altitudes so the weather plays a big part in the success of a trip. We wanted shots of them in their white, winter coats. So trying to find a day when the conditions would be good enough wasn't as easy as you would think. The main problem being low cloud, then the strong winds and snow. Richard had been several times before but this was my first visit.

After a good walk to the hills through patches of snow and having to cross a waterfall, we split up and slowly combed the area. You would expect that they would be easy to spot with their white coats against the heather and grass, but they tend to hide in hollows and behind rocks. I flushed several that I hadn't even seen as I walked up the hillside. I quickly realised I needed to change my plan of attack, I had to try and spot them from a greater distance. After a while I did find one sitting out in the open, It was too far away to get a decent photograph so I would have to stalk it. I started to crawl towards it, getting a few shots as I got closer. Eventually after crawling what must have been 50 metres I was at a range for full frame shots. Over the next few hours I used the same technique to photograph a few more and came home pleased with the results. Hopefully I will be able to get back to them soon.

Short-eared Owls

Back in November I had a good session with some Short-eared Owls. I did think that it would be an ongoing project through the winter, although the weather has put paid to that so far. Hopefully there will be some more opportunities before they move off to their breeding grounds.

 

Great Northern Diver at West Kirby

With the first full day of sunshine for what must be months, I had to get out with the camera. I headed to West Kirby marine lake here on the Wirral, where a juvenile Great Northern Diver has been in residence for over a month. It's a large lake and from experience I know that a lot of walking and waiting for the bird to come close would be on the cards. It worked out well, with the bird coming into good range.

 

Foxes in the Garden

This post is a collection of some of the Fox images I took throughout early Summer. The cubs first appeared in the garden whilst I was in Iceland. By the time I was back they had grown quite a bit, so I missed the really "cute and cuddly" shots. Hopefully next year I will be able to photograph them at this stage. There were 5 cubs this year, from 2 broods and gave me lots of opportunities for photographs. I have added 40 new images of them to my main web site.

Sunbathing

Competing for the food by trying to push each other away.

Goosanders

Back in January I spent a few days photographing Goosanders in North Wales. I have plenty of shots of them but they are a great subject, especially in some good Winter light. It's always nice to try and get something a little different, this time I managed to get some close-up preening shots of the males. I have just added 44 of them to my main website making a total of 106. I'm sure I will be back this Winter to take some more though.

Iceland Trip - Great Northern Divers

Another post from the Iceland trip, a few more still to come.
The Great Northern Diver tends to prefer larger lakes, making it more difficult to photograph. Plenty of waiting for the bird to come close enough for a decent shot. We were lucky with one pair that were at the end of a very large lake. They were confined to the only part of the lake that wasn't frozen over. This made things easier, as they were at a good distance for shots. I never managed to get many photographs of this species in really good light on this trip. A black and white bird on white water isn't great, an exposure and processing nightmare, but I'm quite pleased with the results.... much better than I had expected before I processed them.