Thursday 31 December 2015

Highlights of the year

 Before I start, a big thank you to everyone who has commented, shared, liked and enjoyed my photographs this year - all much appreciated.  There will be plenty more in the next 12 months I'm sure. So here we go with my Wild Life photo highlights of the year, in roughly chronological order....

Started the year with a strange garden tick.


One of the first photos of the year, and my first decent one of this species, this Marsh Tit from Devon has also been very popular on Flickr



There was a Med Gull in Thorpe, which even enticed a rare selfie out of me.  Just to show how confiding it was.  I like Med Gulls.



This Short-eared Owl at Halvergate was an early morning treat.




And this Stonechat was a nice patch bird, normally much more distant than this one.




Many people enjoyed the murmuration in Norwich at the end of the winter and I made a couple of trips to see them.  Very nice it was too. 




This Partridge was particularly noisy, but did sit still for a couple of minutes to allow a nice abstract image.




This is a pigeon in a flange.  Not many people can say that have that shot in their library...





In the spring I came across a Fox sleeping on a rock.  Many people came across it during their breakfast when it was published in the EDP.





This Gull portrait is a particular favourite of mine for the year.






My favourite Little Owls had a successful breeding season this year.  




In the early summer I worked out how to get close to some Fox cubs. I hadn't been this close to Fox cubs in the past and they were quite fearless for a few days while they played intermittently . They  were absolutely fantastic.  More images of them to come and hopefully another litter in the spring.  Many  more Fox photos on this link...








This Barn Owl wouldn't face me, which was annoying.




At long last I managed to see a Bluethroat!




This Wheatear was supposed to sit on a stick that I put out.  It didn't.




Kestrels generally elude me, but this one made an exception.



This image from 2014 was on the telly.  Unfortunately the wrong name  was used in the caption.  This produced copious apologies from the BBC and a handwritten apology from Chris Packham.  He liked the photograph.  I have accepted the apology.



I managed to make time for some Seals at the end of the year too.




However, despite all of the above (which is only the photographic highlights) without a doubt my personal highlight was the Merlin that seemed to have followed the influx of Goldcrests across the North Sea in the Autumn.  It arrived with them, it fed on them (voraciously) and it left when they did.  Over the course of a week it just kept giving...









 ...in the end one of the images was used to promote Autumnwatch and another was the Amateur Photographer Magazine photo of the week. Social media very much liked the photo showing the crown of the Goldcrest during it's demise.  I've still got plenty of pictures yet to publish and some video of it scoffing a Goldcrest but that is for another day.  From the feedback I received there are plenty of people who also enjoyed the shots of this cracking little hunter.


Keep up to date with my latest images via my website, Flickr or even by following on Twitter or Facebook.



Happy new year!











Sunday 20 December 2015

Norfolk Seals

A little while ago I thought that I really should take some photographs of Seals.  So I did.  Here are some of them.




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According to The BBC The common seal has a relatively smaller head and concave forehead, and its nostrils form a V-shape. The grey seal has an elongated ‘Roman nose’ and its nostrils are parallel (they don’t meet at the bottom).

I intend to visit these Seals next week, when I shall watch them do very little indeed.  

Tuesday 1 December 2015

Late Sandwich Tern

I was surprised to find a Tern on the patch today.  Here is a photo of that Tern.  It is a Sandwich Tern.



I can, without going through my vast and highly detailed library of bird records, state that I have never seen a Sandwich Tern in December.  Amazingly I had the 2014 Norfolk Bird Report to hand this evening so I checked the latest date for a Sandwich Tern last year which was December 2nd.  So the bird is potentially significant but not massively.  However, I did skim randomly through some of the old reports and although  there was a record for mid-December in 2008 that year and one on the 3rd in 1982, it is nonetheless unusual for a Sandwich Tern to be flying around East Norfolk in December.

However, what I can almost guarantee is that if I have seen a bird that has potential ornithological signficance it will be part of a major influx rather than an isolated bird.

Back to taking photos of the resident Crows tomorrow then.


Wednesday 25 November 2015

Norfolk Bird and Mammal Report 2014

Pleased to see that this juvenile Little Owl has been given a full page in the latest Norfolk Bird and Mammal Report - always a great publication and always a boon to have a picture published in it.


More owl pics on this link...

Friday 6 November 2015

As seen on Unsprung

Taken last year in north Norfolk this photo shows Brent Geese flying 'through' a rainbow.  

This is one of two images that were chosen for Chris Packham to critique during the final Unsprung show of Autumnwatch 2015.  Other than a minor quibble regarding a stray bird (which is a gull, natch) he described it as both 'good' and 'pretty good' which for him is quite a smooth ride!


Wednesday 28 October 2015

Amateur Photographer Online Picture Of The Week

This week the good people at the longest running and the best weekly photography magazine in the world have decided that their favourite photograph is my shot of a Merlin.  And who can blame them?

You'll find it on page three on the current issue dated 31 October.

I get a nice print for the privilege too.




Tuesday 22 September 2015

Leucistic Carrion Crows

It is not unknown for Crows to demonstrate the effects of Leucism.  Perhaps, like Blackbirds, it shows up more because they is black.

This year my patch has had some Carrion Crows raise a brood.  Don't know where exactly and they may have done this before but I hadn't noticed to be honest.  My 'patch' is a disparate area that isn't always accessible and I tend to focus my attention on a particular species that the regular reader of this blog will know all about.  This year however, the Crows have produced a brood of three, and two of them are showing Leucism that is almost identical and pretty distinctive.


They've been displaying this from when they were much browner but I haven't been able to get a lens close to them.


Who needs a fancy Flycatcher when this kind of quality is going on?

Monday 14 September 2015

Winterton Bluethroat

After 30+ years of waiting, and several unsuccessful attempts, I have finally clapped eyes on a Bluethroat.  Admittedly, it doesn't have much of a blue throat and it loved the late evening shade so the ISO is a bit toppy for photos, but its performance was described as 'immaculate' by a 'Birder'. Not a photographer, who described it as 'too close' and told it to go away.  As I have said before, twitchers are nuts.






However, if you want to see the best photo of this bird you need to click on the word here - here

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