Following on from my last post, I got the pond creature photography bug back at the end of last month and had an hour lunchbreak to kill, so decided to photograph the 2 species I had captured for a display I was showing The first was a Black bellied (great) diving beetle Dytiscus semisulcatus. The…
After a few weeks break from pond creature photography, I got stuck right back in at the end of last month. I decided to do a bit of pond dipping to try and get some common species and improve my shots when, to my surprise, I pulled out an adult smooth newt! It is not…
Over the last few weeks I have been keeping the feeders stocked up as the temperature starts to drop and the great tits, blue tits and sparrows have begun to return, along with a chaffinch or 2. Hopefully some more interesting birds will appear as the winter progresses. Last Friday I created a set up…
This year I was lucky enough to be highly commended in the British Wildlife Photography Awards with my stacked image of a broad bodied chaser dragonfly nymph. I was pleased not just that I had an image featured, but that it was one of my pond creature shots and my first really successful stacked image.…
The water vole is a species that has evaded me for quite a while. I have had a few sightings over the years, but no good photo opportunities. So when a friend offered to show me the a water vole platform on a small stream local to me, I didn’t hesitate. While there a small water…
Last weekend I was playing with my camera in my father-in-law’s garden. We were comparing the results to my sister in law’s high-end compact camera by photographing a small flock of starlings on a neighbours roof. The 300mm with 1.4x tele was far superior as expected, but then it is multiple times the price! I…
Yesterday I had an afternoon to myself, so headed down to Roding Valley Recreation ground where there has been a red-necked grebe staying for a week or so. It would be a new bird species for me and there would be a chance of a decent photo based on reports from other birders/photographers. I headed…
Had a quick family visit to Rainham Marshes this morning and it was an enjoyable couple of hours. I didn’t have the time to put my usual effort in, but had some good sightings that are worth posting about. I started off saying hello to Howard who was set up on the sea wall and…
Going back to a couple of weekends ago, while on my birthday wildlife weekend, I spent an afternoon at a seal colony. Descending the steep cliff path down towards the colony, we could see a number of seals out on the rocks. The weather was warm and this small seal was sitting on a rock,…
A few years ago I dug a pond and this year it had it’s first frogspawn. I had loads of tadpoles for much of the spring and summer as a result and they began emerging as frogs a couple of months ago. There are still some around my pond and on a dull day last…