Bit of a Rant

A visit in recent weeks to one of the local ‘Nature Reserves’ was, not unexpectantly, disappointing.  When I first went there around seven years ago, it was a gold mine for wildlife as, along with wide range of bird and insect life, there was an abundance of mammals too – Deer, Foxes and Rabbits – all regularly seen.

It wasn’t long that I noticed a big increase in dog walkers and in particular irresponsible ones.  I would see dogs chasing after the many Rabbits, the birds breading on the small lake and even on one occasion, a Fox.  Coincidently with this rise came the decrease in these animals.  The visit recently was more out of hope than anything, but where there was once an abundance of Rabbits around the many warrens, they have all now been abandoned and filled in.  Probably linked to this was the lack of sightings or signs of any Foxes.  At a time when birds are gearing up for breading, the only birds on the lake I could see where two Swans and a Coot.  Deer probably were around but now strictly nocturnal and since they seemed to live off the reserve on surrounding private land have been largely unaffected.

Deserted Rabbit Warrens

Below.  Taken at the exact same warren, but years earlier when it was thriving

A dog chasing after a breeding bird (Coot) that had just taken off

There was still lots of songbirds to be seen and heard, but these can much easily hide and escape this kind of disturbance but for me a place like this is about the whole ecosystem and particularly the larger animals which not only helps make the place but is a good indicator how healthy environmentally it is.

There was one glimmer of hope or possible another side of the gloom and that was spotting a Red Squirrel.  Since the introduction of the Grey Squirrel, the Red has rapidly been disappearing from south to north.  Where I would once regularly see these extremely endearing creatures, they are now an extremely rare sight in these parts.

It was a surprise to see one on this occasion and reminded me of a time I would sit in a quiet part of any one of the local woods and watch them chasing each other up and down the trees - they would even come up close to you.  I stumbled across this one which was feeding on the woodland floor and, characteristically darted partially up the nearest tree only to stop and look at me, showing curiosity.  After disappearing from my sight I thought I had lost it only to find it had worked its way behind me and was watching me.  A Grey Squirrel would simply vanish.  There was one problem however as can be seen by the quick picture I managed to get and that it obviously has a problem.  Probably some kind of mange as it had lost some of its fur.

There was no sight of any others so this may have been a stray and looking around there wasn’t the usual signs of residential squirrels, however I haven’t seen any Greys in this woodland either so it’s possible they are hanging on here.

 

It takes more to make a Nature Reserve than simply slapping a sign at the entrance and to say keep dogs under control.  It’s unfortunate that we live in a time where people are becoming more and more selfish to others and indifferent to the environment and nature.  It’s also unfortunate that no council that oversees these locations would ever have the bottle or even inclination to have dog free area reserves which would allow wildlife to thrive.  I know from regularly visiting a privately owned reserve which doesn’t allow dogs, the difference is like day and night.  People still visit but people don’t tend to go running after the wildlife and the local wildlife can adjust to seeing people walking by.

This isn’t a dig at the dogs but squarely at the owners who, over the years I’ve found the vast majority couldn’t care in the slightest to others and who seem to believe that when they go out, wherever they are is purely for their benefit.

 

This is the sight I would love to see again at this and other reserves but sadly is unlikely

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High and Low

My success in capturing wildlife on camera has been as unpredictable as the weather so far this year!  Hopefully things will start to improve – on both accounts.  In the meantime, here’s a few from recent months.

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At this time of year… past and present

I find it interesting to look back at previous years at the same time, to see what was about and what I was photographing at any one particular time.  It’s not only a record of what is about at any particular time of year, but how much as time goes by, nature changes as does my own ability to photograph it.  Every now and then I like to go back through my photographs and delete older ones as I improve, though I still like to keep some of the older ones just as a record of the past.  This collection goes back to 2006 when I moved into digital photography and I’ve tried to put together a couple of images from each of those past years at the same time of the year. At the beginning of June should be a busy time – life is in full swing with animals bringing up offspring and plants in full growth – but I was surprised to find it hasn’t always the most productive time for me.   Present Most activity, as expected, seems to involve parents bringing up their young, birds sing loudly proclaiming their territory and insects are everywhere. Some of the images I achieved last year couldn’t be replicated.  It wasn’t as simple as going to the same place around the same time and see the same bird or animal performing the same behaviour and just goes to show nature is constantly changing.

2013 Much the same as this year and, although my 500mm lens was being repaired, I don’t think it meant any missed opportunities as it seemed quite quiet considered the expected activity around.  The Reed Bunting encounter was perfect for me as I was able to get close without it being to bothered by my presence.  Mallards and Geese were a plenty with their young and again very approachable with just a 400mm lens.

2012 I could find very little in the way of photographs taken this year, probably more down to my ability to get out as anything.  Warblers were the theme of the day.

2011 Skylarks were in their numbers in the same place where today, they’ve been replaced by Reed Buntings.  Same activity though, busy feeding their young.  New camera this year – the Canon Mark III

2010 The locations where I saw the birds in 2010, no longer have them in the same numbers or in the case of the Coots, they have gone completely due to dog owner irresponsibility at the small lake.  The Sand Martins are there but in much smaller numbers, more down to the naturally changing landscapes of their nesting sites where the sand banks have eroded making a less than ideal nesting location.  New lens this year, the Sigma 500mm taking over most of my wildlife photography though the Canon 400mm was still getting used as shown by the Sand Martin image below.

2009 Not sure what happened this year, but I couldn’t find any images at all for June so just a Kingfisher from the following month.  This year also saw my taking the plunge into getting a ‘professional’ camera, the Canon Mk IIn.  This felt so much better to use than the 30D I was using and image quality also seemed an improvement.

2008 Another slow time of year for 2008 and very few images to show for it, in fact this is the only wildlife one I could find.

2007 To big steps in my photography this year.  The purchase of the 30D but mostly by getting the Canon 500mm f5.6.  What a difference that made both quality of images but also being able to get much closer to the wildlife, though the somewhat fierce looking Fox below was an exception in achieving that!  I also replaced the kit lens with the Canon 17-40 mm lens also making a big difference to my landscapes.

2006 My reintroduction into photography and in this case, digital was through a Canon 350D, a Tamron 70-300mm lens and the standard ‘kit lens’.  The Tamron lens was awful – very slow and soft, the kit lens was ok but you had to use it in the right way, but I loved the 350D.  It gave me a love of photography all over again.  Prior to this my camera kit consisted of a couple of Olympus cameras and a statement of lenses, the longest being a 300mm mirror lens -  not recommended for wildlife unless you live in a very sunny place!

I like to think during these years, my photography has improved as certainly my knowledge of wildlife and nature has.  I feel my photography has had an impact too through various introductions – a professional body camera, the 400mm then 500mm lens. Also interesting to see the Damselflies differences.  The one taken in 2006 using the Tamron zoom and very soft in quality and the most recently taken one using the Sigma 105mm lens, technically much better.

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A Walk in the Park

On a very blustery day laden with showers, I decided not to venture too far but instead pay a visit to one of the local parks – Leazes Park in the heart of Newcastle, over looked by Newcastle United's football ground. I hadn’t been to this particular park for some time and wouldn’t normally take take ‘wildlife’ photographs at such a location – it somehow seems too easy as the birds are tame, besides, walking around with a telephoto lens in a public area in this paranoid day-and-age is asking for trouble.  So it was with some self consciousness that I spent about an hour taking some photos.  I was surprised at the various number of birds there were there, obviously breeding and on one occasion, saw a large fish jump out of the water, so despite the some of the rubbish in the water, there must have been a decent ecosystem going on helped by passer-by's  with bread crumbs.

St. James Park football stadium in the background

A Magpie making off with some bread

Despite the rubbish, this Coot seemed at home here

No shortage of Pigeons

Canada Goose chicks keeping warm

A Parent keeping a watchful eye

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A Day of two Halves

For anyone who’s ever tried photographing Roe Deer they will know it can be difficult, not only because they are usually shy and nervous, but because they spend most of the daylight hours in the woods, cloaked by trees, underbrush and other vegetation.  As if the poor light giving slow exposures wasn’t bad enough then, when you do see and train your lens on them there’s a branch or a tree in the way of a decent shot.  Sometimes this can add to the atmosphere of the image but usually it will just ruin it. Today was a good example.  I arrived quite early – around 7.00 am – and almost immediately spotted a single female Roe moving away whilst feeding.  I positioned myself and trained my lens at a relatively empty spot in which I thought she would walk into.  This time it worked.  Once she was in the right spot, I fired a shutter to get her attention and stop, then took two more shots whilst she viewed me with curiosity.  She slowly moved on and I wasn’t able to get another clear shot.

My next opportunity had the deer in a clearing but only one shot was any good, with the others either blurred or had the head obscured by out of focus branches. The differences between the image right and the one below is just a bit of good luck.  On the right hand picture the deer is lifting its head higher as it’s more alert but has the head behind an out of focus branch.  I couldn’t move to a better location without being spotted.  In another photograph she is feeding at the bottom of the tree but the head is again covered by a blurred branch. I later waited in another location for this and another deer it was with at another clear spot I hoped they would cross but with no luck.

I came across a further four deer sightings, each time obscured by the woods and each time a pointed my lens at an opening I hoped they would cross they would change direction.  The three images below are of one of these deer  who, had they moved a few metres closer my way, I would have got a good clear shot, as it turned out, the third one is the best I managed from the sequence.

Finally, just as I thought that was probably it for the day, I came across a single female Roe, slowly feeding and moving my way.  I draped over a camouflaged netting I use to hide my shape and once again waited until it hopefully walked into the open spot I had hoped for.  I was much closer than any of the previous occasions so was reluctant to make any noise. When she stopped at the base of this tree she kept her head down whilst feeding and new she would soon move on out of the clearing, so took the gamble of shooting of a single frame (left) to get her to lift her head, which she did (below). After this, it was a case of waiting as she stared at what seemed an age, in my direction before eventually getting back to feeding and then moving on.  Whenever I photograph wild animals, especially deer, I like to leave them in the same way I found them – relaxed and going about their routine.

By midday it was getting reasonably warm, which means much of the wildlife is taking it easy.  Out on the nearby lake was little activity apart from a few pruning and feeding Coots, the diet which included some insects which strayed too close.  It would have been great if I had managed to get shot of the Coots with its mouth open but had my camera set to a low sequence of 5 frames per second and so missed it.

Out in the middle of the lake I noticed some splashing and through my lens could see that a Cormorant had caught what looked like a Perch and was struggling to devour  it.  The shots were taken with a 500mm lens plus converter but even so it was still some way off and I’ve only included some of the frames, but they give an idea of the on-going struggle.  No prizes for guessing who won!

Pick of the bunch

My last image was an attempt at macro photography.  Something I’ve never really tried but want too, through it’s a whole new way of thinking and learning.  Maybe as it gets warmer and there are some more insects about, I might give it a more serious go.

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