All’s Quiet

After a bit more of an interesting recent month, it’s back down to ‘normal’.  I decided rather than plan anything inparticular recently, I would just go out and enjoy the day though I did hope on the two of the ocassions I did go out, that I might photograph some Roe Deer.  Unlike my sucess with the Foxes, I spent some three hours searching for a sight of a Roe but nothing, just a few tracks.  Large parts of the woodland were covered with a thick undergrowth, particularly ferns but still, I would have expected more.

As I was giving up I walked passed what I thought was a ray of sunshine shinning off a tree stump but after a few steps further, thought it might be a deer so walked back a  little.  There in the distance was a Roe staring right at me.  Their eyesight isn’t great, better at picking up on movement so I just stood still and waited, and waited, and waited and still it stared without flinching.  It was a case of who was going to move first which luckily it did first.  As it move off I thought I might be able to set up my camera at a location I thought it might pass by – a small clearing which, if I was correct, it would have to cross.  So this is what I did and waited.  After around 30 minutes I figured it must have gone in a different direction so got up and started to move away when I saw to my left barely five metres away, the Roe Deer followed by a little fawn.  How I didn’t see it before or it me while I was just standing there, I don’t know, but all I could do was watch it pass.  Any movement and it surely would see me and I didn’t want to scare it.  Strike on photo opportunity.

My second visit to the same woods proved equally futile and again I made my way back stopping at a clearing to enjoy the morning sun and the view.  After about a minute I noticed a male Roe, again about five metres in front of me just starting at me.  How did I not see it before and why did it not run off before?  Had it been there all that time or had it walked into view before noticing me?  It was another case of who could outstare the longest which again, I managed and it quietly walked into the undergrowth.

It’s amazing how an animal the size of a Roe Deer can just blend into the surrondings.  Admittedly, on both these occassions I had ‘turned off’ and lost concentration, having given up on seeing anything, but still!

Above – Roe Deer (left) and Fox (right) tracks together

Below – The type of countryside visited in recent weeks from woodland to grassy fields

Another visit to the spot I photographed Foxes in early July, though the grass was even longer than before so when I did eventually see a Fox if was barely visable.  I could hear alot of alarm calls from a Blackbird so I know it was around in the area, I just couldn’t see it.

A few shots from woodland areas of Grey Squirrels, Pheasants and a Jay.

Within the wetland areas I tried a fancy slow shutter speed shot of a Tern hovering.  Unfortunately, it wouldn’t face towards me which would have help make the shot.

The final image was a macro attempt.  Strictly not macro though as it was taken with a 300mm lens and cropped.  I do have a 105mm true macro lens but I find this type of photography a completely different challange from what I normally do.  There’s no way I could have got close enough to this Dragonfly with a 105 lens.  Even at over 2 metres distance with the 300mm, I had to patiently ‘stalk’ it and this was taken at close to the lenses minumum focusing distance.  I think maybe why I’ve never really taken up this type of photography is because, to get the best results you need sunshine and low or zero winds, not at plentiful supply in this part of the world. On this occassion I didn’t have the latter and only some of the former.

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Sights & Sounds of Spring

Finally, at the weekend, there seemed a break in the weather.  The long grip winter has had on the country, seems to at last been released as we experienced some long overdue sunshine.  Temperature lows were still down to freezing early morning but it warmed up to a dizzy 9 degrees.  Walking around the woods it didn’t seem like Spring.  Although I removed one layer of clothing, it was still cold enough to feel the need to wear gloves, at least early on, but it was the surroundings that contradicted the time of season.  The trees were still bare and little signs of growth you would normally expect to be showing by now but the woods were alive with the sounds of birds.  They at least felt Spring had really arrived. An early encounter with five Roe Deer was my first major sighting of any wildlife.  They were clearly alerted to my presence, stopping and staring in my direction for what seemed an age before continuing.  The female seemed particularly cautious, sniffing the air, but with little wind all I had to do was freeze where I stood until they continued to move on.  The male buck was less bothered by my presence and, as he put his head down to feed, I was able to move closer to get a better shot.  Eventually they drifted off and I didn’t want to follow and risk alarming them, so moved off in the opposite direction.

I’ve been visiting these woods now for quite a few years now, in all the different seasons and I new that despite the late arrival of spring, it would be only a few months before the bare, woodland floor would be completely transformed.  Hard to believe that standing in the same spots in the images above and below, they will soon look like the image left which was taken during May. The ferns will be almost head high and with the foliage on the trees as well, will mean finding wildlife, at least in these parts of the woods, will be very difficult – unless you count the thousands of mosquitoes!  If you walk very quietly in the summer, you have a good chance of literally stumbling across a Roe Deer within metres. This then is a good time to watch wildlife here in these wood as activity increases, sunrise isn’t too early in the morning and the light for photography isn’t too harsh yet.  All is needed is some decent breaks in the weather.

As I walked around that day, it felt very noticeable the varying sounds mostly made by the birds, so it was nice to stop every now and then and just soak in the atmosphere especially by mid morning where the temperature and mostly sunshine, made it feel very pleasant.  All in all I went from dense woodland to open ground and water, each having their own unique sounds.

Below are some recordings of the sounds – all birds and although there are other bird sounds in the background the predominant ones are those titled.  I’m not completely sure about the Buzzard as this is not their typical call but I’m pretty sure this is correct.

          

Blackbird & Woodpecker

Common Buzzard

Robin & Wren

By the end of the walk I had seen plenty of life, mostly as expected bird although at first glance it wasn’t obvious, sitting still for a while, it was soon noticeable.  Other physical signs included Roe and Fox prints and a couple of Sparrowhawk kills (or what was left).

Jay tempted by some peanuts

Male Mallard calling

Grey Squirrel

Remains of a Sparrowhawk kill

One of the few physical signs that spring has arrived

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A weekend of mixed fortunes

Saturday With my Mk IIn now being replaced by the Mk III, I was eager to take it out for a trial.  One of the reasons for getting this was due to its famed high ISO performance and with the day being dull and dizzily it was a perfect time to put it to the test.  For the first part of the morning, I comfortably shot at 3200 and even 6400 with amazingly little noise and no banding – roll on dark, dingy winters (though not just yet).  With some encouragement of some nuts, the Grey Squirrels where very obliging and even a Jay got in on the act.

Jay – 1/400 f4.5 ISO 3200

Having walked around for a while and finding nothing much else about, I decided to have a go at some of the ‘smaller wildlife’ that was flying and crawling round me.  I’m not a macro photographer, but it’s surprising just what there is around our feet and it’s not until you get down and have a really good look that you realise this.  I think on another day, I will go out equipped especially for macro as I really needed a tripod.  At 1-1 distance, the depth of field was millimetres.  I found myself focusing at the minimum distance and then firing the shutter at the right moment as I breathed in and out!  To get any kind of balance between depth of field and shutter speed, I had to up the ISO to 1600 – not ideal for macro.

Sunday A much brighter, warmer day (I think this is what they call summer!) so, a trip to the coast.  Lots of fledglings still being fed by their parents mainly Sparrows, Starlings and Buntings, as a result of which they were much more approachable.  For the first time this year, I was able to get the ISO down to 400 or less and still get a fast shutter speed and stop down a bit for extra depth of field.

An opportunity to test my cameras autofocus and my own skills with some gulls in flight, came later.  This is a technique that definitely takes a lot of practice and experience.  Just keeping the bird in frame long enough for the cameras focusing system to lock on is hard enough but then you have to keep it in frame so it can keep it in focus!  I found the focusing limitations were down to my own ability (or lack of) to do this and need a lot more practice - and then there’s the various combinations of in camera settings to choose from.

The reason why this blog is a little later than I had planned is that I had a bit of bad luck – my computers hard drive died on me, as did my backup hard drive, all within a twelve hour period of each other!  I’m sure I am not simply cursed with some kind of hideous bad luck, rather than the mini heat wave we’ve been having recently causing the drives to conk out.  The good new was that all my original photographs taken in RAW during the last six years, were backed up on a backup, backup.  The bad new was that everything else I had was on the other two drives, including my ‘processed’ files for my website and blog – that’s a lot of years of work.  I’m sure the true nature of the disaster won’t be completely felt until later as I start to miss other things that have been lost.

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