Badgers

At the end of June I spent three days in Oxfordshire with my friend Rich photographing Badgers. I have never properly attempted flash photography before and was a little apprehensive, not knowing what the results would turn out like. The first night was a real test with pouring rain. In actual fact this was probably a good thing as the Badgers were very active, probably due to the worms that had come to the surface. Other advantages were that the noise of the rain drowned out any sounds that we were likely to make in our pop-up tent hides as they were at times within 6ft of us. Presumably the rain was also keeping our scent down. I was pleased with the first nights results and liked the fact that the Badgers were so wet.

The second night went fairly well, they all came out at the same time. Some of the larger ones fur was covered in mud from going in and out of the wet sett entrances, it was a nice contrast to the first night. The third night was a bit of a disaster for me. Rich and I had swapped places that we had been in for the first two nights and I was lower down in a bit of a bowl. There was absolutely no wind at all and I think they could smell my scent. They wouldn't come close at all and after 7 hours I had managed only 14 shots. Frustratingly I could see Rich's flashes going off as I sat in my hide, there must have been a little bit of air flow in the right direction where he was situated. None the less it was a great few days and I was very pleased with the results.

Butterflies

After such a wet spring and summer, It's good to see some butterflies around at last. A lot of  Small Tortoiseshells around the north Wirral coast, all in really good condition. They have been a declining species over the last few years, hard to believe yesterday as they were everywhere.

Meadow Brown

Meadow Brown

Small Copper

Small Tortoiseshell

Small Tortoiseshell

 

Garden Spider

A Garden Spider had made a web near to the back door and was a good opportunity to try for some creative shots. Exposure adjustments and use of flash gave me a nice black background, made even better with a rain shower that produced the water droplets.

More Foxes

I have really done well with the foxes this year. It was a planned project that actually went to plan, for a change. I now have several hundred images of them to sort out. Here are a couple from this week of the cubs mother, she is the most confiding of them.

Garden Birds

A few images of garden birds taken in the spring.

Blue Tit

Blue Tit

Coal Tit

Great-spotted Woodpecker

Great Tit

Robin

A Swarm of Honey Bees

Yesterday morning I looked out of the window to see clouds of bees at the front of the house. After a while some of them started to settle on a pine tree, by the driveway. Throughout the day they all eventually congregated in the same spot, there were literally thousands of them.

Apparently what was happening was that the queen leaves the hive to create a new colony, she takes with her approximately 60% of the worker bees, these can number tens of thousands. She then settles in a temporary location and all the workers surround her for her protection. They can stay there for several days, while the scout bees find a new hive location, which they then move to.

It was an amazing sight and fortunately they settled low down, this gave me the opportunity to get some close-up shots.

Sandwich Terns

A few Sandwich Tern images from Cemlyn Bay, Anglesey.