Norfolk Birds in January

I have always wanted to go to Norfolk in winter for a number of reasons. Firstly, it is home to several fantastic nature reserves which attract some pretty spectacular birdlife in the winter months and secondly, it is one of the best places to see Barn Owls hunting in the freezing conditions in daylight.  I headed up to the North Norfolk coast to join a tour run by Natures Images and led by professional wildlife photographer Danny Green.

I have never really been keen on these sort of group tours before but having heard about Danny and other tours he leads I felt sure it would be worthwhile.  Normally I like to plonk myself in a ditch somewhere as far away from any body else as possible!

The weekend would focus on a variety of species including waders, owls and other winter specialities that call this freezing and windswept neck of the woods home.  The weather was quite honestly crap! It was bitterly cold and most places were under a reasonable amount of snow, which made certain birds easier to find as they were more active in search of food.  We soon found some gulls and turnstones near Cley marshes and I managed some nice shots by getting low to the ground and using the snowy foreground to frame the birds nicely.  I really like the way snow reflects light onto the birds, giving a different level of detail than conventional lighting conditions.

A Black-Headed Gull in Winter plumage

One of the many Turnstones, not the easiest to capture without its friends!

A not so common Common Gull!

Strangely even though I live near Dawlish Warren and the Exe Estuary I have never really spent much time photographing waders, so I was delighted to have the opportunity to lie in the shingle getting cold and wet photographing a variety of species on a beach.  Again, by getting low to the ground I was able to isolate individual birds and get some pleasing portraits in the overcast conditions.

Unfortunately we only had a single brief encounter with a Barn Owl, they have struggled terribly this year with all the rain and I fear that their numbers will be affected further by the recent arctic conditions.

I have picked out a couple of my personal favourites and the rest of the images are in a slideshow under them.  I should point out the trip was fantastically guided by Danny and I would recommend anyone to certainly consider Natures Images when planning any wildlife related trips.

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Snowy Birds in a Winter Wonderland

Living down in the warmest part of the UK meant that whilst the rest of Britain received a seasonal dusting of snow, in south Devon only the southern parts of Dartmoor were covered to any great extent.  Whilst making the most of the brief arctic conditions we stopped for a bite to eat at one of the many car parks on the fringe of the moor near Newbridge.  No sooner had we pulled up that I noticed that there was a huge number of small birds in the surrounding bushes all waiting to take advantage of any leftovers from visitors lunches!  That sparked an immediate rush that just maybe I may be able to get some photos of Robins in the snow, something so simple yet something that I have never had the opportunity to do.

So after having a recce of the site and working out where would make a good background I immediately constructed a ‘snow table’ on one the large granite boulders.  This meant that I could place food in a hole on the snow and get some half decent shots from the warmth of the car! Perfect!

The highly sophisticated ‘Snow Table’ from the hide!!!

It wast long before the birds were making exploratory trips out to the table to see what was on offer.  I was really chuffed that I managed to get some quite pleasing images and already had a few people asking about xmas cards for next year!! Anyway, it just shows what you can get with a bit of improvisation and a wife who was happy to sit for hours watching chaffinches, tits and robins! 🙂

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Winter Barn Owls in Devon

The sight of a Barn Owl in the soft winter light is one of the most stunning sights in the British isles.  Silently quartering the rough grassland in search of prey, the Barn Owl uses its amazingly sensitive hearing to pinpoint the location of its prey.

During prolonged spells of poor weather Barn Owls are often forced to hunt during daylight hours, something that ordinarily they would seldom do.  Locally I have been working with a landowner to create a fantastic habitat for Barn Owls which fundamentally means creating a vole rich environment by allowing a litter layer to form in the fields.  This provides the voles with a superb habitat which in turn attracts the Barn Owls.

There are a couple of old hay barns on the land, with no signs of use.  During the summer I helped the land owner prepare the barns so that any Barn Owls that did choose to visit would hopefully stay.  We erected nesting boxes in both barns which are important for Barn Owls not only for breeding but also for winter roosting.  The barns were also filled with a few feet of hay and dry grass which can be a lifeline to Barn Owls in winter as many small rodents will use the barns, so the Barn Owls can hunt without having to brave the elements.  Also, the decaying hay and grass generates heat which can keep the barn milder than the outside in times of severe cold snaps.

Over the past few months we have noted the occasional sighting of Barn Owls and since November have had regular sightings of a Barn Owl hunting over the fields in the twilight hours.  To allow the Barn Owl the best chance of survival I have purposefully not visited the area too frequently, in my opinion disturbing a Barn Owl from a winter roost when the weather is bad is worse than disturbing it during the breeding season due to the potentially fatal consequences.  Today however I was installing Kestrel and Little Owl nest boxes in some old oak trees and saw the Barn Owl leave the barn just before dusk and start hunting in the far field.  I jumped in the hide I have made for the kestrels and waited as slowly the Barn Owl floated towards the field I was in.  Even in the poor light (almost dark!) the D800 and 200-400 F4 allowed me to get a couple of nice shots of the Barn Owl, which appears to have a ring on its left leg.  Hopefully it will find the area to its liking and stay on the territory…. time will tell.

Otters on Mull

Otters are simply irresistible!

I visited the Isle of Mull at the beginning of November to photograph the Eurasian Otter, Lutra Lutra.  Otters on Mull and in other parts of Scotland are active dependant on the tides rather than the time of day.  This makes them somewhat easier to photograph providing you know where to look and have the suitable fieldcraft to observe them unnoticed.

The Otter has an amazingly acute sense of smell which makes it challenging to get close to them, getting downwind of them is essential if you are to get good views.

I soon located a dog otter working the shoreline of one of the sea lochs so I carefully approached after checking the wind direction.  Moving only when the otter dived, I soon found a nice rock to get close to and allowed the otter some space on the shoreline to carry on fishing.  Soon enough he caught a flatfish and headed back to the closest landfall which was directly in front of me.  Amazingly, once he came ashore I noticed he appeared to be blind in one eye, yet this clearly had no ill effect on his ability to hunt.

Later in the week I managed to locate a family of otters in a different sea loch.  The mother was patch fishing whilst her two adolescent cubs followed her progress from the shoreline.  After getting myself into a good position I was privileged to watch the family interact as the mother brought food in to the cubs then headed back out to forage in the food laden shallows.

On some occasions she would return with a fish and be hounded by the hungry cubs as she neared the shoreline, on one occasion she landed less than 10 feet from me… a real test of fieldcraft which I was delighted with as she did not see or smell me and carried on behaving naturally.

Then all of a sudden disaster… one of the cubs turned back towards me and came over the top of a rock towards my position.  I froze, any movement would have certainly alarmed the cub and ruined both the encounter and more importantly scared the cubs away with the mother out in the bay fishing.  I can honestly say my heart was pounding as the cub strolled over the rock and nosed the lens hood on my nikon 200-400.

Miraculously it just stood there, looked straight through me, turned and went back over the rock, curled up and went to sleep with its sibling.

After a few minutes I decided that they were clearly unaware of my presence and slowly moved out of the yoga position I had contorted into to disappear!!  I was so elated that my fieldcraft had paid off, rolling in seaweed and getting covered in “sea smells” before starting the stalk had certainly paid off!!!

As the tide turned an hour or so later the mother came back to the cubs and took them to the safety of a nearby holt.  As the began to move a car drove past on the road behind the loch.  This immediately alerted the mother and she made a very short whistle to her cubs before freezing until the car had passed.

It was nearly dark and even the D800’s amazing low light performance was struggling in the gloom as the mother left the shoreline, capping off the best day of wildlife watching / photography I have ever experienced.

Being so close to such a charismatic and elusive animal was a truly amazing experience and one that I shall never forget.  I hope to return to Mull in the new year to catch up with the family as the cubs start to become more independent.

Common Kingfisher

Asides from birds of prey, Kingfishers are may favourite bird.  Seeing their beautiful colours as the whizz up and down the river is one of the finest sights in British wildlife.

Sadly this year my local pair failed to rear any young for the first time in 7 years due to the unseasonably wet summer which caused the river dart to constantly flood their nesting tunnels.  Fortunately the adult birds were able to survive with the river in spate for much of the summer and have been seen in the territory in recent weeks.  Many kingfishers move downstream in winter to coastal areas where food can be easier to find, this pair however seem to be content using the many tributaries of the dart. I have been fortunate to have access to a superb piece of land that backs onto the river, with a large pond and a wildflower meadow.  This is where I have been creating a kingfisher set up to photograph them away from the nest, which is also on this land.  Unfortunately the set uhas been washed away three times this year when the river was in spate so I have been unable to photograph them very much this year.

Earlier this year I visited Mark Hancox’s fantastic kingfisher set up in worcestershire, where he has built a large comfortable hide on a small stream.  Kingfishers visit the site frequently and during my time in the hide the resident male bird spent most of the day on the set up preening and occasionally fishing, although this was spaced out by hours of just being sat on a branch!

Being able to change the perches throughout the day enabled added some variety to the images, this is something I have been doing for some time on my private site in Devon.  I am always amazed at how the kingfisher will happily perch on a huge variety of items with no hesitation or fuss, for example barbed wire…

Every now and then he would spot a minnow in the stream and immediately start head bobbing and shuffling along the perch to get into prime position from which to launch his dive. In the seconds before the dive he plus his feathers in tight to his body before falling from the perch into the icy waters.

Sparrowhawks

I have always had a soft spot for birds of prey, of which sparrow hawks are simply awe inspiring!!

These agile raptors have adapted well to the new opportunities that have developed over recent years, in particular the concept of feeding garden birds.  This is like providing a fast food outlet for these stunning birds, which ambush their prey in a fast and high intensity attack.  Getting good photographs of these birds can be very difficult as they often pass through a garden before you even realise what they are.

Fortunately for these birds they have recovered well from widespread persecution and now flourish across the UK.  Sadly in some quarters these birds are still targeted by people who believe their hobbies are more important that the natural world.  Hopefully most intelligent people will appreciate the vital role that predators play in keeping the ecosystem healthy and we will never revert to the ridiculous situation where we kill birds of prey because they are an inconvenience.

This is a male sparrowhawk photographed at Alan Macfadyen’s fantastic set up in Dumfries.  Alan has but an amazing amount of effort into creating this unique opportunity to photograph this bird.  In addition to the male sparrowhawk there are good numbers of smaller birds and squirrels visiting the feeding station, which is located in a woodland with a purpose built hide.

Unfortunately the light was poor when the bird first appeared but the D800’s high iso performance came into its own and produced some nice images.  Immediately after the bird landed with its food on the perch it mantled over it to hide it from any other predators that may have been nearby.  As it looked to its left the colours in the eye and his immaculate plumage made a really nice image showing for me what makes this bird so appealing.

After a while the bird left the area and many of the smaller birds returned, when all of a sudden an alarm call sent the small birds fleeing into the dense foliage as the sparrowhawk came whizzing through the feeding station.  He landed on an area of thick vegetation where a great tit had taken refuge, trying desperately to steer clear of the talons that were tearing into the bush in an attempt to snare the small bird.

Fortunately for the great tit the sparrowhawk was unable to find a way in and gave up the chase.  Shortly after this he melted back into the woodland, no doubt lurking just out of site waiting to launch another attack on the zillions of small birds.  It was incredible to watch the small birds behaviour as every time the sparrowhawk returned at least one of them sounded the alarm in enough time for the majority of birds to get away.  Unfortunately not all get away, but this is nature, and it is awesome!

More Owl Nestboxes in Devon!

Ive been working closely with a couple of landowners in south Devon to get some habitat friendly practices going and to install some nest boxes for any future Owls!!  All of what I have done so far has been off my own back, however if you are keen to get some advice and / or help then check out the Barn Owl Trust’s website for further info.

Over the weekend myself and my assistant (my brother!) erected a further two Barn Owl boxes and a Little Owl nest box on some land near Torbay in South Devon.  Here’s some photos of Dom up a tree and some of the boxes!

One of the barns in which we have placed some nest boxes.

Nest boxes for any occasion!!!

Using high tech gear (ladder and a rope!) to erect a Barn Owl nest box in a tree.

I had a call this evening from the landowner saying that he had seen a Barn Owl hunting over the fields this evening and it had been in and out of the barn and had spent some time perched in the window…. fingers crossed it will feel that the accommodation is suitable for breeding in the future!!

Lundy Peregrines

I am pleased to promote the launch of a dedicated website for the work being done on the population of Peregrine falcons on the island of Lundy off the North Devon coast.  Lead by Luke Sutton, Lundy Peregrines is focusing on the specific ecology of this island sub population, further details can be found at http://www.lundyperegrines.worpress.com

New Blog for 2013

After being unable to sort out the gremlins on my previous blog I have migrated to this shiny new one!! I hope to get many of old content transferred over and will also be adding news of my new projects…