Spring?… Well, not quite!

Beginning of the Week A rare bout of wall to wall sunshine brought me out of the doldrums to see what wildlife was on offer.  An opportunity to photograph two birds in particular that have eluded my previous attempts – the Bullfinch and and the particularly pretty Long Tailed Tit – were too much to pass up.  The former seems to nowadays be rarer than I remember them to be during my childhood, where they seemed to be quite common.  The latter just seems to always stay hidden away.  The bright, almost spring like sunshine helped bring the best out of the images with a fast shutter speed enabling me to ‘freeze’ them as they didn’t stay in any one spot for more than a second and I resorted to pre focusing on one spot where they would stop briefly.

End of the Week Within a week, winter had returned with a fall of snow blanketing Tyneside. Still, I can’t resist the temptation in going out in this kind of weather.

A post of mine wouldn’t be complete without some kind of rant at dog walkers.  A sign at the entrance of this nature reserve saying ‘dogs to be kept on lead’.  Of the dozen plus dog walkers I saw, only one had bothered to adhere to this rule.  kudos to that one individual. (not the individual in the picture who had just walked past that sign!)

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One for the Fox

When I heard the news regarding the Fox attack at the weekend, as sad as this was, I think I was more horrified by the news story itself and the way it was told.  I long ago gave up on expecting news – whether in a paper or on the radio or television – to be objective and truthful, but this was just sensationalised.  The Fox was a bloodthirsty wild animal intent on eating a human, there was no details about the how, why and looking further into it, gave little more information until much later. The other thing that strikes me then and since and something I should be used to by now, is the ignorance and stupidity of my fellow human beings.  Despite the vast source of information available to us in this electronic age, people are becoming more stupid and dumbed down – you just need to look at the type of television we are subjected to to see why.  Some of the statements that have been made such as “They are wild animals they should be all got together - catch them and put them in the wild. Or just get rid of them.”  It’s hard to even know where to begin with that kind of dopy remark! We are the cause of most of these kinds of problems.  One report said that people were leaving rubbish on a nearby green.  As I walked up my own street today, there was rubbish bags left lying around, some broken open.  There is often some form of rubbish left lying around here, whether food waste or an old mattress, TV or sofa.  People don’t take personal responsibility for their own actions, if we didn’t turn our cities into cesspits there would be less opportunities for wild animals. To put things into perspective, Fox attacks of any kind are extremely rare.  Compare that to dog attacks which are pretty much daily and include deaths but you don’t hear anyone waiting to control or cull them.  There are more bites reported by dogs, cats and even humans than Foxes.  What a soft bunch of wimp's have we become in this country.  We have no truly natural dangerous animals, with maybe the exception of the vary rare Adder.  No venomous spiders harmful to humans, no large predators waiting for us in the woods and if you can brave the cold, a swim in the sea is unlikely to be fatal from any kind of attack (more likely from hypothermia).  The Wild Boar has been re-introduced to some areas but there has been an out-cry to that.  One local women didn’t want to let her dog out because of one the growing number of Red Kites might swoop down and take it away!  We’ve just about killed off anything that might threaten or simply annoy us in this country. Although we have urban Foxes around here, I have never seen one, so my only experience are the more ‘wilder’ ones which, at the first sniff of a human, disappear.  So, I’ve put together a few images of my favourite wild, British mammal, the much maligned, Red Fox.

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101 Posts

Missed the actual milestone of 100 posts since starting this blog in 2009, but didn’t think I could let it go completely by without some kind of mention.  Recently, I’ve not been sure whether to continue with the blog as my original main reason for doing it doesn’t really apply anymore and I don’t think it generates much of an interest so it might make more sense to just work on my website.  I did try and change the look of the blog recently and have ideas of further changes, but maybe I simply don’t have the blogging gene. Anyhow, I paid another visit to St Mary’s this weekend, but unlike last week tidal conditions were more favourable as it was coming in at just the right time.  The sun rarely made an appearance but it was milder and little wind making it more pleasant for a long sit but though pictures came out flatter and the ISO had to be upped from last weeks 400 - 800 to 1600+ this time.  Still, it was worth it.  As the tide came in the wading birds moved closer and closer to me, having had plenty of time to get used to my presence.  At one point they were too close for my lens to focus and were on all sides.  One Turnstone got to within touching distance!  Last week it was Oystercatchers that made the appearance.  This time it was the turn of Sanderlings and Turnstones with a solitary Curlew.

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A Morning at St Mary’s

St Mary’s Whitley Bay, is one of those places you might see lots of wildlife, mostly birds, or you might just see nothing.   With a return to freezing temperatures along with strong winds though forecast to be sunny, I wasn’t too sure what to expect. I stopped off firstly at one of the vantage points overlooking the wetlands area – usually the quietest part of the whole area!  After nearly an hour of waiting, I was about to leave when a Kestrel flew low and landed on one of bird tables (why did they put these things up? – they are never stocked and ruin the look of the area).  Just as I started to focus on the bird, someone came up behind me, took out his compact camera and took a few pictures, as if to say that was nice, and left.  I waited an hour in the freezing cold for something to happen and he just walks by just at the right time! The Kestrel didn’t stay long as it was soon hounded by a pair of Magpies, so flew off at which point a Crow took over and continue to mob the Kestrel out of the area.  I’ve always felt sorry for Kestrels.  Here they are, minding their own business, probably just looking for a mouse or vole and instead gets a whole lot of grief off a bird that’s as big or bigger than it and that’s in no danger from it.

Sequence of a Kestrel being ‘mobbed’ by a Crow

With the only bit of ‘action’ gone, I decided to head to the car park which usually has one or two food trailers – in this case two, Mister Whippy and one advertising ‘hot food’.  Hmm…winter, windy and freezing cold, Mr Whippy or some kind of hot food.  The decision wasn’t difficult and with my warm grub I headed towards the beach which, to my surprise was empty of the usual dog walkers and teaming with a wide variety of waders.  Initially I just sat down and ate my food, as the tide was going out making it difficult to get close to these birds, but the opportunity was just too good to miss, so I got as close as I dared and sat down.  With my camera backpack on, it makes a great back rest when sitting down and I could rest my lens between my knees.  After the birds got used to my presence, I just snuck a bit closer every now and then though this was negated by the tide going out which of course, they were following, however, the Oystercatchers were big and obliging enough to get a decent picture of. Conditions were almost perfect from a photographic point of view.  The sun was low behind me and bright enough for me to use a fast shutter speed and reasonably low ISO though I’m always willing to sacrifice ISO for a fast shutter speed especially when using the 500mm lens which, on this day, had the converter permanently attached.  If only the tide was coming in, this would have been a great session and I would have got some much closer images.

After around forty minutes the evitable dog walkers came along and the birds were chased off.  Still, with strong, cold winds coming straight off the North Sea, I was starting to feel the cold and needed to get some circulation going so decided to head back. One last opportunity.  In the fields on the way back, were three Curlews prodding around in the earth for, presumably, worms.  They certainly seemed very intent as they ignored me and I was able to get quite close to them as they methodically worked their way along the field.

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