Back to Basics

A quick venture out on a cold Autumn day helped produce a bit of success to my lagging photographic ‘loss of mojo’ that I’ve been suffering from over recent months.  Sometimes it’s best just to get back to some basics just to have some kind of success.  Recent hopes of the subjects I’d hoped to see and photograph haven’t come to fruition which has dented my confidence and motivation, on this occasion I decided to have no expectation and just enjoy the sights and sound and capture whatever strayed in front of my lens even if not what I’d hoped for. Three hours in the morning enabled me to see ‘run of the mill’ subjects with at least one image I was particularly happy to get – the Moorhen – because it was a bit unusual perched on a stick and the sun was just at the right direction to give the colourful background.  The second image of the Moorhen was taken later when the sun went in and shows the difference that can make to the colour and the three dimensional impact of the image. This time of year and over the coming months is a good time to take pictures of many animals, especially small song birds as they can be seen more easily without foliage and are more tolerant of human presence due to there being less food around. I think a few more ‘basic’ outings is what is required for the rest of this year, which will hopefully get me back on track.

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A Week in Spring

With holidays taken to fill in the period between the extra long bank holidays, I’ve had an extra period of time off and with the weather also being settled, I’ve managed to get out quiet a bit and enjoy spring.  This is a selection of the photographs taken around the Tyneside area.

A misty start to the morning along the banks of the Tyne

Sandmartins checking out possible nest sites

Mallard chicks

A visit to the woods and the new undergrowth of ferns is everywhere.  Another month from now and these will be thick,  high barrier hiding much of the local wildlife such as Roe Deer.  The biting insects are also starting to make their appearance though not as prolific yet.

Bluebells

Peacock Butterfly

A Blackbird out in the early morning dew

Young Rabbits enjoying the sunshine

Warbler in full song

Male and female Roe Deer making the most of Spring food supply

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Wet, wet, wet…

 

…and I’m not talking 1980’s pop group.  They say that the British weather is three months of winter and nine months of bad weather, well, today was no exception.  When I got up, it was a down-poor of biblical proportions – not quite the ‘light’ rain forecasted, so I decided to still go out but take shelter in one of the local hides for the morning, though when I arrived I was starting to think even the local wildlife wasn’t stupid enough to be out in this weather. After ten minutes or so a few signs of life appeared, a Moorhen, a Pheasant and a Grey Squirrel.  This particular hide at Clara Vale, is also well known for Kingfisher appearances, though I tend to be unlucky when it comes to see them here and today, this seemed likely to continue as no sign has been seen of them since the beginning of the year.  I did think I may have got lucky as the heavy rain would have caused the nearby River Tyne to be too difficult for the Kingfisher to feed at, which is where they might otherwise be.

After a cold 30 minutes, I was starting to doubt the wisdom of my decision to get up at the early hours on my precious Saturday off.  One of the reasons I do such a crazy thing is that more and more I feel the need to get out and away from it all after a week in a stressful job full of conflict. I find the peace and solitude of being out in the countryside or at least somewhere reasonably wild, therapeutic, not to mention the exercise gained from spending the day wandering around with half a ton of camera equipment on my back!  It’s also a chance to use your senses that you tend to forget during a normal week – hearing, smell and sight.  I suppose it’s some primeval tuning into nature.  There’s also something very honest about nature – what you see is what you get.

Pheasant scurrying between shelter

After about an hour the deluge turned into the ‘light’ rain originally forecast and life started to appear.   A number of Pheasants, a few more Squirrels and some songbirds.

The tail makes a good umbrella

Having a wash and prune

Male Pheasant

Female Pheasant

One of my favourite songbirds, the Robin,this one went from one location to the next, singing, presumably staking its territory.  Robins seem the more ‘friendly’ and least timid of the songbirds, especially during winter where I have managed to have them feeding out of my hand, also as a child helping out in the garden, they would often be right up around you as you dug the ground up. Because of the very poor light, I was unable to get very good photographs of the other smaller birds which wouldn’t stand still for very long.  As it was I was working mostly at 1600 ISO. After three hours, I had hoped for sightings of the other wildlife known to appear here such as Heron, Rabbits, Stoats, Sparrowhawk and Fox such as the one below which completely took me by surprised when it turned up a couple of years ago and was one of the rare times I wish I had a zoom lens as I was too close to it. Soon the rain became heavy again and wildlife started to disappear so decided to call it a day.  Hopefully, next weekend will finally bring some decent weather…yea, right!

One for the road

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