Latest pictures
All my photographs are now uploaded to Flickr. Please click on the logo to view my latest pictures.
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My favourites
That Flickr gallery is all well and good, but 500 pixels isn't much in today's money. So click on the two pics below for a selection of my favourite bird and macro pictures, with a bit more size for your viewing pleasure. Hope you enjoy looking through them!
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My stuff
Since 2004, I've been through various Canon cameras and lenses, including two EOS 20Ds, an EOS 30D, an EOS 40D, an EF 400mm f/5.6L, an EF 300mm f/2.8L IS and various other lenses, before arriving at the following which I use at the moment:
EOS 7D
EF 500mm f/4L IS
EF 1.4x II extender
Kenko 1.4x DG extender
Sigma 150mm f/2.8 APO DG
Tamron 17-50mm f/2.8
Super-Takumar 50mm f/1.4
Speedlite 550EX
Macrolite MR-14EX
...plus sundry other gubbins.
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Older entries
March - April 2010
Spring moths
Bee Hummer cover
SSC sunset
Some more of the same
Vermins
BG LRPs
Grebes
Lesser Scaup (better)
Some grey ducks on a grey day
January - February 2010
Another egret in a muddy field
Moonery
Sense and Sensitivity
Stratford hide
Ducks of various provenance
Gigrin
Another dusting
A rash of thrushes
Happy New Year
September - December 2009
Cheddar Res
The friendly Goldeneye
Water Pipit
Cuba
Tomorrow morning
Pom week
Crappy light 2
Crappy light 1
Jack Snipe
Brown Shrike
More garden moths
Garden moths
Bowling about around the Parkland
Chew tick!
Not a Glossy Ibis
Glossy Ibis
Spoonbill
Chard Res
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More at my main site...
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A-Z index
If you're looking for something specific, please use the index below to take you to that species' page at my Flickr site.
I've uploaded most of the British stuff, but most of the foreign birds can still be found at the links above. There's still a fair old few that still haven't been processed, and I could have sworn I've done a lot more passerines than this!
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SATURDAY 17th JULY 2010
Mental...
...and that was just the American bloke on the tannoy from the USAF, who seemed to think he was commentating on a wrestling contest.
One of the highlights of this year's Air Tattoo was the F-22 Raptor, which put on the most unfeasible display I've ever seen. Unfortunately still photos can't begin to do it justice, but that's all I've got. There are more at my Flickr site.
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SATURDAY 10th JULY 2010
East Harptree and Lord's Wood
I took a trip to East Harptree Woods this morning to have a look for dragonflies at the Smitham Chimney pool. Sadly the weather was a bit too cool and cloudy for much to be going on, but on the way back, as well as seeing four or five Crossbills, I found this big caterpillar on a birch trunk. It looked a bit odd and I wondered whether it may be a sawfly larva, but at about 5cm long I thought it was too big. However, the internet tells me it is a sawfly - Cimbex femoratus, one of the largest in the UK.
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I popped down to Lord's Wood in the afternoon for a couple of hours, and managed a few shots of (top to bottom) Comma, Figwort Weevil, and Emerald damselfly. I also saw at least two White Admirals and six Silver-washed Fritillaries, and lucked in to a flypast by the Red Arrows. If only I could luck in to a flypast by a rare bird with such ease.
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MONDAY 5th JULY 2010
Small Ranunculus
After having disappeared from Britain in the early 20th century, and then gradually becoming re-established in the country a few years ago, the Small Ranunculus is now not uncommon in central Bristol. Last summer I was finding the larvae all over the place, so I took a few home in the hope that I could breed a few of the adult moths this year. And so a couple of weeks ago the first one hatched. I've also put up one a photo of one of the larvae I took last July.
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SUNDAY 4th JULY 2010
A bit of luck
One dragonfly which is particularly hard to come by around these parts is the Golden-ringed Dragonfly. They breed in small numbers on one of the streams which runs down from Rowberrow, and are probably at Towerhead Brook as well. I happened to find myself in Sandford this morning so I decided to check the site where I saw one in 1997, again for the purposes of record-gathering for the dragonfly atlas, and also in the hope I would manage a few decent shots if I was able to find one.
I found the site more by luck than judgement and almost immediately one flushed from the grass in front of me. It settled in a patch of thistles and whilst I was trying to relocate it I noticed a butterfly sat on a bramble leaf - it was a White-letter Hairstreak. Talk about lucky. It had now become rather cool and cloudy so once I'd relocated the dragonfly I was able to get some pretty close pictures of it; the one below is a stack of eleven frames taken at 8fps between gusts of wind.
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SATURDAY 3rd JULY 2010
Lunar Hornet
My annual search for Lunar Hornet Moth took place at Chew today. Normally this search involves a fruitless couple of hours bowling about through thick vegetation getting stung, bitten, and poked in the head by twigs. On this occasion, I found one with minimum effort, and it happily posed for a nice series of photos. And what a boy it was. Or probably a girl, in this case.
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SUNDAY 27th JUNE 2010
Scarce Chaser
A quick trip to a site near Chew Magna in the hope that Scarce Chasers would be on the wing at the River Chew - which they were. There were three males darting about in the sunshine but due to the nature of the site it was difficult to get close enough for any photos. Eventually one of them perched up on a convenient stem and I was able to grab the shot below with a 500mm lens and a short extension tube.
Despite having bred on the River Chew for some years there had only ever been one record of Scarce Chaser at the lake, so I went down to the short stretch of river between the main dam and the pumping station in the hope that one would have wandered upriver. One had! This is a very under-watched part of the lake so I bet they are more frequent here than previously realised. I also saw a White-legged Damselfly at the site near Chew Magna - another species not recently recorded at Chew.
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SATURDAY 19th/SUNDAY 20th JUNE 2010
Cotswold Airshow
Father and myself went to Kemble to see the Cotswold Airshow on Saturday; as with the last airshow I went to at Fairford in 2009, it was quite cloudy for much of the day, but Sunday's weather was rather more like it, so I popped down for an hour in the afternoon for some photos of the Typhoon display and some of the old-school stuff in the sunshine.
I'm just starting to upload a load more from here to my Flickr gallery now.
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Managed to catch the strobe on one of the Typhoon shots...
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SUNDAY 13th JUNE 2010
Emperor's lunch
As the weather was fine again, I took a trip to the AWT reserve at Weston Moor, ostensibly to gather a few records for the forthcoming dragonfly atlas, but also with the hope of getting some photographs of Hairy Dragonfly - a species I saw in Poland a fortnight ago, but not for many years in this country.
I saw a male in flight a few times on one of the rhines which was continually being bullied by Four-spotted Chasers, but I later managed to find this female perched in the marsh. It was tricky to get a clear shot through all the grass and juncus; never mind, as I only saw two all day I was probably lucky to come away with any photographs at all.
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Another species I'd never photographed before was Emperor Dragonfly. Primarily because I normally only ever see them in flight, tarting about along the lake edge at Chew. I've also never seen any evidence of the species' fearsome hunting prowess, evidently they take prey up to the size of a small dove, but I don't think I've ever seen one eat anything bigger than a house fly. Luckily I happened across this one tucking into a Brimstone butterfly.
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Again, I was a little irked by the nasty grassy background, but no such worries with this rather nice female Broad-bodied Chaser...
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SATURDAY 5th JUNE 2010
River damsels
In an effort to get a few dragonfly pictures done, I dropped in by the River Avon at Keynsham this morning to look for Scarce Chasers. Unfortunately although it was pretty humid, the sunshine that I was hoping for (and the dragonflies) didn't materialise, so I was left with half a dozen species of damselfly to photograph. By far the commonest were the Banded Demoiselles - there were hundreds of them, with a few White-legged Damselflies which I also managed to get a few photos of. The Red-eyeds were on lilies on the river, so hopefully the newly-discovered site at Chew might be more fruitful for those.
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TUESDAY 1st JUNE 2010
Poland
Between 22nd and 29th June, Portly Leader and co had the dubious pleasure of my company on a trip to Poland. Having visited the country in late March a few years ago, I was looking forward to a late spring trip, where there would be a full compliment of summer migrants to look at. Collared Flycatcher, Aquatic Warbler, Thrush Nightingale, River Warbler, Lesser Spotted Eagle, etc etc...
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This spring there have been exceptional floods in Poland, and as a result the water level in the marshes is much higher than normal. Hence a lot of meadows have been flooded creating ideal feeding and breeding sites for marsh terns. This trip was particularly memorable for the sheer number of White-winged Black Terns we saw; thousands of them everywhere over the marshes, and at really close range as well. There were also good numbers of Black and Whiskered Terns as well.
I could have done with my 7D for photographing the terns in flight, but as it has been sent away to have the AF fixed (bloody piece of unreliable shite it was) I had to try and make do with my old 40D.
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There were White Storks everywhere - they nest almost exclusively on platforms which have been erected especially for them. Most of them had chicks but nearly all the nests we found weren't very good for photos because you were always looking up at them from the ground. Then we found this nest near Goniadz which was below a viewpoint overlooking the marshes.
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As well as the birds we also took a 40w actinic tube in the hope that we would see a few moths that are unusual in Britain. It proved a good move, as we recorded species such as White Prominent, The Feline, Dusky Hook-tip, Birch Mocha, Silver Barred and so on. The dragonflies weren't bad either - in fact the first insect that came to the light on one night was actually a dragonfly - a smart Yellow-spotted Emerald.
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The Biebrza Marshes really are a sight to behold, and are famous as one of the best places in the world to see Aquatic Warbler. At least 1000 singing males are reckoned to be present, easily making the site of international importance for the species, which has an estimated global population in the order of only 13,000 pairs (based on singing males). The species is now known to breed at fewer than 40 sites in only 8 countries, with 80% of the world's breeding population being found at just four of those sites. I'd quite like to see one of these at Chew sooner rather than later!
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I had no real expectations of getting blinding photographs of these - just as well, as they only show themselves properly when they sing, which happens mainly at dusk. So whilst I did enjoy some good looks at this one bird, I only had a proper chance at getting any clean shots after the sun had set. Hence these were taken at ISO 1600 with an exposure time of 1/25 second.
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Not having done many trips to Europe, there were a few new butterflies for me as well - like European Map.
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WEDNESDAY 5th MAY 2010
Better late than never
After almost a year of not being arsed, I've finally processed some of the Ferruginous Duck shots I took at Chew last May. Loads more on Flickr.
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