Spring Selection

Firstly apologies for not posting for a while, it has been a busy time for me. Having been made redundant from my job at the end of March, I decided to set up myself up in business offering lake design and rehabilitation consultancy services which has taken up a lot of time to get  up and running. Also at the end of April I managed to fall over, causing damage to both my camera and lens and so that was out of action for a while being repaired. Despite all these time constraints, I have still managed to  squeeze in quite a few short sessions although have not had much time to go through the images.

I do love Spring and how everything bursts into life after the long winter days and the air is once again filled with bird song. This year we had a fairly cold period during April with northerly winds blowing from the north keeping the temperatures unseasonally low.  This certainly seemed to put a temporary hiatus on bird migration northwards with many summer visiting migrant species being delayed in their arrival.

Anyway enough of my ramblings lets get on to some photographs......

I spent quite a bit of time this Spring photographing Black Grouse but I intend to dedicate a post to them so will just give you hint of what is to come with this photo of a male bird calling at sunrise.

I had a meeting up in Newcastle and as usual when I head in that direction, took the scenic route home to take in some moorland and red grouse.

Some time has been spent with the resident birds of the coastal strip that runs along the top of the Wirral Peninsula. The coastal gorse looked amazing this year in flower with swathes of bright yellow and it seemed a good opportunity to try and get some birds perched on it where possible. Skylark, Linnet, Wren and Stonechat were the main species  photographed.

While driving round one morning I suddenly remembered a report from a couple of years back of Mandarin Duck that used a small pond to pair up before breeding. The ducks are only present on the pond for a very short period so I was lucky to find them there when I went to check it out.

Of course one of the great parts of Spring is the passage and arrival of migrant birds. This spring I saw a report of a drake Garganey being present on a local lake and decided to go straight there. It was fortunate that I did as the bird had left and continued on its passage the next day. It is a while since I have put a Garganey in front of the camera so it was a pleasure to photograph one of these beautiful waterfowl, even though conditions and access at the lake present numerous challenges.

I am always amazed at the small migrants birds and think about the epic journey they have made from the south. For example the Wheatear coming up from Africa.

This is particularly the case for warblers and the long distances covered by these tiny birds weighing a few grams. Below are a selection of these travellers including Chiffchaff, Grasshopper Warbler, Willow Warbler and Whitethroat filling their air with their varied songs.

I also managed to find one of my favourite summer visiting warblers, the Wood Warbler that fills the woodlands with its amazing electric song.

I will finish off the photographs of this post with one last species which is the Whinchat. The males when they first arrive look amazing but the colour often quickly seems to fade so it is always best to try and catch them early. Photographs of the female and male birds are below.

In two days time, I am heading north on my annual overseas trip. This years sees me returning to Arctic Finland and Norway with the majority of the time being spent on the Varanger Peninsula. Exciting prospects ahead and it will be good to return after my previous visit 6 years ago. Hoping the unpredictable weather is kind and that there will be plenty of photographs to share with you on my return.

Spring Grouse

I want to wind the clock back now to the spring when I spent some time trying to photograph Black Grouse. At the start of each year and try to formulate some plans for some photography projects. This usually includes trying to get some photographs of a new species or two. For 2015 I decided I would try and photograph some Black Grouse, although not through the easy route of paying for a pre-set up hide.

Black Grouse, or 'Black cock' and 'Grey hens' as they are known in Scotland, are very enigmatic and beautiful moorlands birds. Each spring the birds gather at traditional display grounds known as leks at first light each day. On the leks the birds battle for dominance and to impress the females for mating. A Black Grouse lek is truly one of natures spectacles as the  males pumped up with hormones almost seem to vibrate as they square up to each other with fanned white and black lyre shaped tail feathers. Much of the action is display and posturing, such as frequent jumping up and down on the spot or strutting around with the head held low. However, quite frequently this will turn into a full on feet first battle.

The noise from the lek is also atmospheric, especially when combined with first light, with the low bubbling calls interspersed with hissing from the birds which sounds a bit like a tyre being deflated. Quite often there will be a moment of quiet and then some trigger suddenly bursts all the birds into life and a unison of sound rise up out of the lek.

Photographing Black Grouse does present a range of photography challenges. Firstly they will stand the sight of people which means typically you have to get up at some unearthly hour, particularly in mid-spring to arrive in the dark so they don't see you approach. It is fairly punishing getting up in the middle of the night and you really feel it later in the day. These birds are not big fans of staying on the lek long once the sun has risen and will usually all depart together soon after sunrise. I have noticed they do hang around longer on overcast days. Given their colouration of black, bright white and blue they do present some exposure challenges especially when in sun where they seem to quickly become  very contrast subject. My preferred conditions are actually bright overcast skies and it is under these conditions their rich dark colour combination really sings out.

I decided mainly to go for capturing some portrait photographs of the birds as the site does not lend itself particularly for battling shots. Action photos are a challenge given the birds preferences for low light conditions at dawn.

However, I did manage to get a few photos of the birds in flight.

Overall I was pleased how the few sessions went and have posted a small selection of images.

Having spent some time with the birds I now have a better understanding of the their behaviour and hope this puts me in a good position when I hopefully spend some more time on their 'battle grounds' next spring.

In Media

I thought it time to write a post on where myself and some of my images are currently appearing in various media. First up I was asked by BBC Countryfile to once again undertake the long-list judging for their annual photography competition. This took a slightly different format this year with 12 separate categories to be judged. It was a long day whittling the 55000 entries down to 3600 which was accompanied by continuous filming. This is being aired tomorrow evening (11th September) at 7:30pm on BBC1 and whether I appear on the show or end up on the cutting room floor remains to be seen :)

I have entered a couple of photography competitions this year and managed 12th place with a flying Jay in the British Birds Journal. Greater success was achieved in Bird Watching Magazine's Bird Photo of the Year competition where I won the Birds of Britain category. This image of a juvenile cuckoo is currently given a full page in the August 2011 issue.

I have also had some images recently published in a books on North Atlantic Seabirds and Puffins, an iphone bird i.d application and South Wales Wildlife Trust is using my infamous flying puffin image on the front of their new pamphlet.

Obviously I didn't want to write a post without showing a few photographs. On my wanderings across moorland areas earlier in the year I was fortunate to have a brief and first encounter with some Black Grouse. The thee birds were just coming to the end of their lekking period but were still half-heartedly going through the motions. This has certainly raised my interest in trying to get some more and better images of these fascinating birds. Hopefully this will be a little mission I can pursue next spring.