While photographing the purple sandpipers at Filey Brigg, we were joined by this lovely grey seal who just sat on a rock, occasionally bothering to look our way! As the tide went down she did move around and went for a swim at one point. But it mostly just sat their grooming or stretching every…
On a trip up to Yorkshire I visited Filey Brigg with my friend Dave, I spent a day at Filey Brigg. We had heard that purple sandpipers could be found there, something neither of us had seen. And we managed to see a few: The light was either poor (cloudy, needing 1600 to have any…
The Ruddy Shelduck originates from Southern Europe, North Africa and South and Central Asia (with some populations wintering in South East Asia). It is a large rusty orangey brown duck, 64cm in length and with a wingspan of 133cm. The male is slightly larger the female and weighs 1.4kg to her 1.2kg (Robinson, 2005). The…
When visiting Lanzarote last year I was fortunate enough to see a Hoopoe, Upupa epops, on the grass lawn of a hotel in Costa Teguise. I took some photos and crept closer, then took so more and crept a bit close and so on. And it just stayed where it was feeding away. As I…
On visit to RSPB Rainham Marshes in April I saw 2 stoats, one of which was right in front of me, but I couldn’t get a clear shot of it in the reeds and grass. There was a silver lining however, as it scared one of the common lizards up into the reeds, where it…
As well as a capercaillie, I managed to see ptarmigan a couple of times (see link below). I came across a pair on Cairngorm.
Back in March I was lucky enough to see a capercaillie that posed for photos. I got some photos of the capercaillie in the woods too.
Back in June, I came across this Giant Horsefly (Tabanus sp.) They lay their eggs on pond margins where their larvae live. I photographed a larva last year. I got a head on shot too. They thankfully (for us) tend to leave humans alone and tend bite horses and cows.
Back at the start of September I was walking around KWT Oare Marshes Nature Reserve in North Kent with a couple of friends when one spotted this creature running across the path. I recognised it imediately as one of the velvet ants, the female of a type of solitary wingless wasp. I had always wanted…
It was a cold winter December day today in Essex. Most the insect life is dormant for winter, but under the ice in the ponds there is still plenty of activity. A sweep with the net and a caught a number of creatures: damselfly larvae, water lice, water beetles and 2 species of backswimmer, the…