2013 Revisited

I do not usually produce a retrospective end of year blog post but thought I would do one for a change. So I have picked a photograph or two from each month, each of which stirs particularly strong memories for me in terms of wildlife encounters.

January - saw me sat of a freezing North Wales beach photographing a flock of around a dozen Snow Bunting.

February - I headed up to the Highlands to try and photograph a Capercaillie. Such a magnificent bird which has left life long memories.

March - A prolonged cold spring and instead of photographing hares amongst the daffodils, they were boxing in deep snow.

April - Calling in to the Forest of Dean to break up a long long drive home from a work meeting found me with a long awaited Garganey in front of the camera for the first time.

May - I tried to restict myself to photograph from each month but failed in May which is always one of the busiest months for a wildlife photographer. A first light start saw a reeling Grasshopper Warbler in front of me. I have many photographs of these birds now but find myself drawn back to them each spring.

A chance encounter with a beautiful vixen.

June - I headed off on my annual overseas trip in June to Romania and the Danube Delta. A beautiful place filled with many wonderful birds. Here is one of the images from the trip of a Squacco heron feeding on a frog.

July - On my return from Romania I had a concerted effort with trying to photograph the extremely wary Green Woodpecker with a moderate degree of success. In this photograph the young bird on the left is watching the adult male excavate yet another ants' nest.

August- I returned to Scotland once again but this time to photograph the Ospreys at Rothiemurchus. An amazing experience just to watch, let alone photograph.

September - Throughout the summer I had been undertaking various sessions with water voles on a Cheshire canal. This was part of a long term project and some very enjoyable and relaxing morning were had by the waterside.

October - A fairly quiet month although I did head out to North Wales to try and photograph a Grey Phalarope. After several hours waiting the bird came close only to be scared away by the sudden appearance of a large dog, resulting in only a couple of photographs being taken.

November - An unexpected encounter with some Redwing feeding on rowan trees against a back cloth of autumn hues

December - Another chance encounter, this time with a beautiful male bullfinch whilst trying to photograph Fieldfare.

Of course December is not over yet and tomorrow will see me heading out to try and capture my first images of Mountain Hare. Hopefully this will produce some more special memories to add to what has been another interesting year in my journey in wildlife photography.

This will be my  last blog post for this year so I will take the moment to wish you all a Happy, Healthy and wildlife filled 2014.

Visiting Phalarope

A couple of weeks back on a Friday night I notice reports of a Grey Phalarope that had taken up temporary residence on a local lake. This is a species I have not seen or photographed before and in fact was the first one that had appeared locally for several years. So I made the decision that night, given the weather was not to grim, to head out the next day to try and photograph it. I woke the next morning to some very grim and grey conditions and debated for a while if it was actually worth bothering. However, one factor which swung the decision to head forth in to the gloom was wanting to get some Phalarope experience as this is one of my target birds I have for a trip planned in 2010. Three facts that I know about Phalaropes are that they are very confiding, small, hyperactive and will spin in tight circles sometimes when feeding.

On arrival at the lake the bird was easily located by a few other photographers and bird watchers that were present.

These bird seem incredibly buoyant

I have never come across a bird that is so completely oblivious to the presence of people and it would happily swim past at a distance of 2ft.

I had taken quite a few photos in the poor light and noticed a slither of blue sky appear above and so decided to sit it out to see if conditions would improve. The skies quickly cleared and some good winter sun beamed down.

The calm conditions gave opportunity to catch some reflective photos. The bird was showing some remenant hints of its amazing red summer plumage.

No collection of photos of the bird would be complete with some of that hyperactive feeding action.

A enjoyable session with an enchanting little bird and it makes me look forward even more to my future encounter with Phalaropes next summer, although that will be in a very different setting and with the red necked variety.