Best photos of 2011

I tried to pick my top 10 of my photos of 2011 but ended up with a few more than 10!

Back in January and February I spent many mornings in a Lidl car park hoping the sun would come out and the waxwings would pose before I had to get to work before 9. One morning they came down to a low hedge and someone walked with a couple of feet of them before they flew up to a nearby tree. So I positioned myself 3m or so from where they had fed. Soon after I had waxwings flying either side of my head and this chap posed nicely.

I went to Southend pier in February to look for purple sandpipers and Mediterranean gulls and photograph the turnstones with my wide angle lens. I got some shots of the turnstones but this gull, which I thought at he time was a juvenile black headed gull, kept posing in front of my lens. It turned out to be a 1st winter mediterranean gull, which was a nice bonus!

Hares were a creature I had never seen properly until last year, so a good photo of one seemed unlikely to happen anytime soon. But driving along the Elmley Marshes road in March I came across this brown hare just a few metres away and when it turned to face me I got a shot I really liked.

Also in March, a trip to Wake Valley Pond in Epping Forest turned up this tame robin, taken with my 100mm macro.

In April I went up to visit some friends who have a caravan near Leighton Moss reserve. But we ended up spending little time in the reserve, because their bird feeders at the caravan supplied close ups of marsh tits and bullfinches, 2 species I had on glimpsed before.

Also in April I finally found my first definite water spiders and got some nice photos in my photographic aquarium.

In May I was at Norsey Wood when I found some wood ants that were not moving too much and finally got a nice shot of one.

Also in May I managed some nice shots of a smooth newt tadpole using my photographic aquarium.

In June I was using my aquarium again as some hawker dragonfly nymphs started turning up, one of which I managed to capture nicely.

And I got a nice photo of one of the surface dwelling pirate spiders.

At the end of June I was lucky enough to go to Pitsea Landfill site By Phil Shaw, who was kind enough to not just show me round but also to let me use his camera set ups and hides while photographing foxes and badgers.

June also brought a trip to Wales. This included a trip to Skomer but the best photos I took were the green hairstreak at Dinas Head.

And this red kite at Llanddeusant feeding station.

For the last 2 years I’ve tried to get photos of downy emerald dragonflies and at Thursley Common in June I finally managed it.

In July I finally nailed a hoverfly in flight.

In August I went to a few local sites. At Cornhill Meadows in Lee Valley I got a nice close up of a female nursery web spider.

In Bedfords Park I got this common toad, a species I don’t have many photos of.

And at Rainham Marshes I pushed my new Pentax K-5 and took a migrant hawker in flight in cloudy conditions using ISO1600 and I rather liked the results.

In September a holiday to Lanzarote brought some nice wildlife experiences and photos. Seeing a shrike close up was great but seeing it eating a gecko while on its larder was fantastic.

I had a number of good opportunities to photograph whimbrels.

I saw my first red veined darters.

And best of all I finally saw hoopoes, one of which was rather co-operative.

In October I finally got a nice adder photo.

And at Wat Tyler CP a tame wheatear turned up.

In November I finally got to Gigrin Farm. The light on the first day was abysmal but the K-5 and F4 300mm (I shot at ISO3200 + F4.5) let me capture my favourite red kite photo when some with other setups just gave up. I particularly like the background and the view of the feathers on the back of the bird, which I reckon is their best angle.

December was fairly quiet but I had a trip to Donna Nook seal colony where this shot of a curious seal pup was my shot of the day

A couple of nice shots of common birds rounded off my year, having finally got some half decent shots of them.

Carrion crow

Goldfinch