After a three busy weekends chasing Red Squirrels on Brownsea Island, Red Kites in Wales and Fallow Deer in West Sussex, there was nothing planned for this weekend. It was a good opportunity to catch up on a mountain of processing, but the weather today (Sunday) just begged for a session with the camera.
It's been a while since we ventured to either Radipole Lake or Lodmoor, but the lure of the juvenile Spoonbills that have been at Lodmoor for a few days required a visit. Once there, it was apparent that only one of the three remained and as usual was quite distant. But this one was more accommodating than usual and not only did we get several fly pasts close to the viewpoint, we also got a landing quite close, which yielded this image.
Other highlights of the day, although not in range of the camera, were a Yellow-browed Warbler, a pair of Marsh Harriers, a number of Snipe and a Bittern in flight. It was good to meet up with Richard Collier, his wife Ann and Linda Priestley for the first time too. Mustn't leave out Danny Dench, who was giving out his usual nonsense, as well.
We've had a couple of visits to Gigrin Farm to get some shots of the Red Kites and on both occasions had dismal weather. On both weekends we also tried a back-up shoot at Nant yr Arian, but encountered rain there. So it was unfinished business.
We learned about another feeding centre in the Brecon Beacons at Llanddeusant and last weekend paid a visit. This site is a bit lower-key and in our opinion the better for it. The feeding is much closer to the hides and there are less birds, around a hundred, which makes the photographic experience slightly easier.
Needless to say, conditions were against us again. So we decided to delay our return on Monday, when the forecast was for unbroken sunshine, to have another try. Sadly it was no better, probably worse, but we had fun trying. Red Kites are still unfinished business, but we feel this site is just about achievable as a day trip when the weather is set fair.
I don't seem to have had much time recently to blog, post images to Flickr, or do much other than try to make images. The blogs that have appeared recently have been lifted from our website, which we have now closed down. The problem lies in the fact that I have 5700 images to go through and little time to do it.
I suppose the answer is to put the camera down and not pick it up until I have either cleared the backlog, or at least made a major dent in the total number. But the time of year is against that; the Red Squirrels are busy, the Red Deer rut is underway and we also have a date booked with Red Kites. It looks like there is a recurring red theme there, but that's just the way it is.
So I'm going to try my best to get something out there on a weekly basis from now on, starting with this Red Squirrel captured on our trip to Brownsea Island over the weekend. We had a memorable day and over three hours with a small number of these beauties entertaining us. This was probably at least our fourth attempt to get some decent 'Red' images and there's still a trip to the Isle of Wight booked for next year to get them. Maybe after the Brownsea success, we should cancel that trip so that I can spend more time clearing my backlog.
