Friday 23rd April - Poynton Pool

Straight from work, forget tea, more important things to do. Like photographing rabbits for instance. Only there were none. That's wildlife for you. I lay in the grass, with my camera poised at the area where they usually come out and feed on the grass,getting funny looks off people as they walked by with their dogs, which insisted by the way, of coming over and sticking their noses where the sun don't shine, just like dogs do.why is this? Anyway, lying there, waiting for Roger to show up, I noticed a Squirrel on a very large tree coming out of a hole about a quarter of the way up.I instantly aimed my camera at this location, but my cracking joints must of scared it as it went back in. Whilst it was back inside I moved to a better vantage point and waited, yet again. Again it stuck it's head out and then quickly ran and sat on a branch. A short while later a second Squirrel stuck it's head out, it quickly ran and sat on the branch next to the first one. Then knock me down with a feather, a third Squirrel stuck it's head out. This stayed in the doorway for quite a while as the other two ran off up the tree.

Below is a series of Squirrel shots as they appeared out of their nest, one by one.I thought you might like to see these record shots of the event.

There was one



Then there were two



Then there were still two



Then there were three



Still three



I couldn't leave my Mute Friends out.





Until next time.

Saturday 17th April 2010 - Rutland Water

I finally decided to go to Rutland Water to try and photograph the nesting Osprey. The drive, yet another 4hour, 240 mile round trip was achieved without me falling asleep at the wheel.On my arrival at 8.00am, the weather was clear blue sky and warming up nicely.I looked on the visitor centre chart of recent sightings and the map of Rutland Water to try and find where the best place to photograph the Osprey's was.I then ambled over to the right location and was told in the hide that the Osprey had not been seen for a day or two, and that I might not see them today either.Great, just what I wanted to hear, NOT.After a few hours in the hide with no show, I decided to go to other hides and see what was about. I spent most of the day there, but the Osprey never did show up, at least while I was there looking. On my walk around Rutland, between hides, I managed to get some shots.

Below is a series of shots taken on my visit

Treecreeper



Treecreeper



Treecreeper



Chiffchaff



Chiffchaff



Chiffchaff



Female Chaffinch



Female Chaffinch



Male Chaffinch



Male Chaffinch



Male Chaffinch



Male & Female Mute Swans having a moment



Greenfinch



Hare Running



Male & Female Tufted Duck

Saturday 10th March - Gigrin Farm in mid Wales

These are just a few out of the 600 I took at Gigrin Farm last Saturday. Though it was a sunny day, there were too many shadows under the wings of the birds. You had to wait for the bird to be at the right angle to get a decent shot with no shadows.
The Leucistic White Kite showed up as well, I also removed the wing tags from the photographs of this bird.

A series of Red Kite Shots

Saturday 3rd April - Poynton Pool

The weather was awful on Saturday, so I decided to go local and see if the weather would improve, it did slightly, ever so slightly.I arrived at Poynton Pool in Cheshire at approx 11.13am and 42 seconds, give or take a few seconds. It was very windy and the wind seemed to know which way my lens was facing and blew right down it making it very unsteady. There wasn't that much at the Pool to write home about. There were six juvenile Mute Swans, 10 Canada Geese, Moorhens, Coot, Great Crested Grebe, Male and female Mallard, Cormorant, x2 Tufted Duck, Heron and the usual Black Headed Gulls. I seemed to concentrate on the Mute Swans for some reason, perhaps they were the only ones that didn't fly or swim off when I aimed my camera at them. The Mallard and Canada Geese stayed quite close as well actually.

Later that afternoon, about 1.30pm, I set off to Burton on the Wirral again, just to see if the Barn or Short eared owl would show up. I stayed there for 5 hours waiting near the field I saw them in last time, but they didn't show this time, may be next time.

Back home for a curry now.

A Pheasant in flight, scared off by a dog running loose in the field at Burton



Below are a series of images that I took at Poynton Pool, they are not the most technical of shots , but it shows you a record of what was there in the 2 hours that I was there.