Feb

29

Beaver with ice on its nose and other shots from wildwood

Kent / wildwood
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A few weekends ago I popped into Wildwood Trust near Canterbury, which is a wildlife park of UK animals. They are a big part of the beaver reintroduction scheme here in the UK, and have a few on site as part of their breeding programme. While I was there, ice had formed on their pond but they had no trouble smashing through it! One of them ended up with ice on its nose.
beaver with ice on its nose 2

One of the European Bison was quite close to the fence, so I got this wide angle. I had to clone out a couple of wires in the corner but I like the shot.
european bison wide angle 2 edited

The new aviary had a posy spoonbill.
spoonbill 4

The common cranes were wandering about in the snow too.
common crane in the snow

I got some nice red fox photos too.
red fox close up 4

red fox close up

red fox

And for the first time a wild boar posed briefly in the sun.
wild boar close up 3

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Feb

26

Bearded tits, stonechat reed buntings and dunnock

bird / Essex / finch / RSPB Rainham / thrush / tit / waterfowl
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When you take up wildlife photography there are certain bird species you want to photograph. Hoopoes are on most people’s lists, if hard to get in the UK. Bitterns are another and one, I’ve only photographed twice and not particularly well. Another is the bearded tit or reedling. I had seen them at Rainham before over 3 years ago and since then, other than a glimpse of some flying past and some captive ones at Pensthorpe, I hadn’t even seen, let alone photographed them. So when a few of my local wildlife photographer friends told me that Rainham had a cooperative pair (with nice photos to prove it!) I decided a visit was in order and with the good weather today I headed down there. It took until lunchtime for them to appear so I ordered lunch, ran down and saw them, but they were in the reeds. I then got a call to tell me lunch had arrived and I had to run back. I ate my lunch quickly and as I headed back they flew towards me along the ditch. And I got a few shots…..

The male.
bearded tit male 5

bearded tit male 3

bearded tit male_

bearded tit male 4

The female.
bearded tit female

bearded tit female 2

Not the best shots ever, but I certainly think they were worth the wait to get!

But bearded tits were not the only photography duck I broke today. I have seen stonechats at Rainham and other reserves many times, but they never came close enough. But today a combination of the good weather, the slightly longer reach given by my Pentax DA*300mm and Pentax 1.7x convertor and most importantly, a cooperative stonchat, I finally got some shots I’m happy with.
stonechat 3

stonechat 5

stonechat scratch

stonechat ruffle feathers

stonechat 9

I also got some nice reed bunting shots too.
reed bunting on ground

reed bunting near feeders 2

reed bunting near feeders

reed bunting 2

reed bunting female 3

reed bunting female

A linnet posed for me too….
linnet 3

And a dunnock….
dunnock

And chaffinch….
chaffinch

And a long tailed tit.
long tailed tit 2

Funny thing is over an hour into my visit having walked around most of the reserve I was starting to think these shots of displaying canada geese were all I was going to get.
displaying canada geese

displaying canada geese 2

Not a bad day out in the sunshine!

All shots taken with Pentax K5, Pentax DA*300mm and Pentax 1.7x convertor

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Feb

25

Cloen dipterum Mayfly nymph, Agraylea multipunctata Micro caddisfly larva and wandering snail

Caddisfly / Essex / insect / Pond creatures / wat tyler cp
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The last from the productive pond dip photography session. I got my best over of a few more species:

Cloen dipterum Mayfly nymph.
mayfly nymph head on edited

mayfly nymph side on edited

Agraylea multipunctata Micro caddisfly larva
Micro caddisfly larva Agraylea multipunctata 6 edited

Micro caddisfly larva Agraylea multipunctata 2 edited

Micro caddisfly larva Agraylea multipunctata edited

And wandering pond snail.
wandering snail edited

wadering snail edited

wandering snail 3 edited

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Feb

23

Hawker dragonfly nymph close up with water boatman and water louse

Essex / insect / odonata / Pond creatures / wat tyler cp / water boatman / water louse
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Carrying on from my last post, the pond photography session gave me my best ever hawker dragonfly nymph.
hawker nymph head on 2 edited

I got it from various angles, including these two in which you can really see that mask or labium they use to catch prey, under slung below the head.
hawker dragonfly nymph underside edited

dragonfly nymph head side on edited

I also got a top down shot.
hawker dragonfly nymph head top down edited

I got a couple of nice lesser water boatmen shots.
lesser water boatman 2 edited

lesser water boatman

And among my best water louse shots too.
water louse 2 edited

water louse 3 edited

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Feb

22

Haliplus water beetle and Asellus water louse

Pond creatures / water louse
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Some more pond photos for last December. I got my best shots of a Haliplus sp. crawling water beetle.
Haliplus sp water beetle 4 edited

Haliplus sp water beetle edited

Including one swimming.
haliplus sp swimming edited

I also got among my best at least of water lice.
water louse 2 edited

water louse 3 edited

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Feb

21

Heron and waterfall at Levens, Cumbria

bird / heron
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Way back in November 2010 I went looking for leaping salmon at Levens in Cumbria. I glimpsed one but while there I photographed this heron standing near a waterfall.
heron in river_

With it standing so still I tried to slow shutter speed shots.
heron in river slow shutter

I also tried a slower shutter with the water fall.
water fall

And even slower
water slow shutter 2

water slow shutter

In the nearby trees were some curious moss balls.
moss ball

And the walk back brought a lovely rainbow.
rainbow

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Feb

19

Greenfinch eating sycamore seed, redwing and fieldfare

bird / Essex / finch / thrush / wat tyler cp
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Here are some photos from a morning walk around Wat Tyler Country park. The highlight was a greenfinch eating a sycamore seed.
greenfinch with sycamore seed 3

greenfinch with sycamore seed

The winter thrushes were as uncooperative as usual but I managed a couple of grab shots
.
Fieldfare
fieldfare

Redwing
redwing

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Feb

17

Grey heron close ups and grey squirrel wide angles in Regents Park

bird / gull / heron / mammal
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When I visit London I always try and get to Regents Park. One of the main reasons is for the herons, which are very approachable. This time of year the are in breeding colours.
grey heron close up 3

There are last years juveniles around too.
grey heron close up

I quite liked this ‘different’ angle.
grey heron close up head on

And I got a ‘normal’ shot too.
grey heron-2

I also tried some wide angles of the grey squirrels.
grey squirrel wide angle 4

grey squirrel wide angle 3

grey squirrel wide angle on ground

grey squirrel wide angle

They got too close at times.
grey squirrel wide angle 2

This is the nose of one covering the relatively small lens front element of my 35mm macro!
grey squirrel wide angle 2

I also got some on a tree.
grey squirrel wide angle on tree 2

grey squirrel wide angle on tree

Sadly my photographing on the tree was cut short by a Spanish tourist who decided put her hand and arm between me and the squirrels in a stupid effort to stroke it. Luckily for her it ran off rather than bite her!

I did spot this fellow a little later (though the idiot tourist tried to harass this one too!)
grey squirrel on fence

I got some shots of the other wildlife too. This black headed gull posed in the sun.
black headed gull

And a close up of one in flight.
black headed gull in flight close up

This pair of Egyptian geese perched on a tree.
eygptian goose pair on tree 2

This greylag tried to take off.
greylag take off

And a one of the whooper swans in the collection swam by.
whooper swan

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Feb

15

Golden plover and dunlin in the snow

bird / Kent / Reculver / wader
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On saturday I popped up to Reculver in North Kent. it was high tide so I didn’t make it to the beach, but in the grass around the castle and car park there were a number of waders.
golden plover on cliff sigam 150-500mm

Most of them turned out to be golden plovers.
golden plover better

golden plover near car park sigma 150-500mm 500mm

golden plovers

There was also a dunlin.
dunlin 2

Which poked its head out at one point.
dunlin

I got plenty of golden plover shots.
golden plover near car park sigma 150-500mm 440mm close 4

golden plover near car park sigma 150-500mm 440mm close

And finally a lapwing.
lapwing near car park sigma 150-500mm 400mm_

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Feb

13

Pond olive mayfly and case building chironomid midge

Essex / insect / Pond creatures / wat tyler cp
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Some more pond photos.  First up my best photo yet of a Pond olive mayfly nymph.
Pond olive mayfly nymph_
This one appears to have lost half of its middle tail filament.

I also photographed some chironomid midg larvae. this group is best known for its red coloured species, known as bloodworms. This species however was green and hid most the time in its case..
Chironomid midge larva in case 3 edited

It did eventually come out though.
Chironomid midge larva in case edited

Chironomid midge larva in case 2 edited

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