Saturday, July 19, 2008

Return to the South

I am still suffering some computer problems at this end but slowly getting them resolved. I have just taken a last minute trip down south this week to Somerset and Wiltshire. A short trip away for a couple of days before I return to work on Monday, after my 3 month career break. The weather was not great and so time behind the camera was very limited. I managed to get a couple of shots though on one of the days during a visit to Longleat. Photographic opportunities while travelling around the safari park there were not great, and as usual my eyes where constantly hunting around for any wild birds. A bird I seem to always photograph of my trips away, a jackdaw. I also came across this grey heron.
which was concentrating on a spot of fishingThe highlight of the trip was locating a young green woodpecker. This is a species that is very difficult to approach and after a bit of patience I was rewarded with my first decent photographs of this very wary bird.Showing typical behaviour, the bird was constantly looking around while digging for ants in a grass bank.
A passing buzzard upset it and it quickly adopted the 'I'm not really here' pose by flattening itself on the ground.A great encounter and one I have waited a long time for. Just need to try and get a photograph of an adult bird although that may be some way off in the future.

4 comments:

kjpweb said...

A green Woodpecker! Didn't even know they exist. Beautiful bird. And (of course) excellently captured!
Cheers, Klaus

Snowbabies said...

Great shots of the Green Woodpecker!

Paul.

Rich Steel said...

Thank you for the replies Klaus and Paul. The green woodpecker are beautiful birds, especially the adults but also incredibly frustrating to try and photograph.

Cheers

Rich

Anonymous said...

very cool green Woodpecker. We do not have those in Colorado. The colors are amazing.

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