A Box Finally Ticked

Kingfisher - Alcedo atthis

A number of people have a nemesis bird, some of us more than one. It’s not that I don’t have a Kingfisher image, albeit a rather fortuitous capture beside the River Stour at Blandford while on Otter watch. But I never managed THE shot, until recently. Now I feel like I need never try to get another Kingfisher shot at all. Let's be clear right at the start though, the one above is not THE shot. That will see the light of day sometime later.

We decided to maximize our chances of getting a decent image and booked a day with Nature Photography Hides in Worcestershire. So bright and early on a Sunday morning in late May, we set off for the 8am meet in the car park of a well known takeaway near the hides.

A bit of an inauspicious start awaited us as the guy we were meeting was expecting six photographers and there were eight. Not only that, he wasn’t expecting anyone for the Kingfisher hide and that was us. We needn’t have worried, there was no problem at all and we were soon in the hide, as were the other togs in their respective hides.

In less than 20 minutes, a Kingfisher arrived and posed nicely to get the day off to a great start. It turned out to be superb day with seven or eight visits all told and plenty of super images made. There was a lull of about three hours around the middle of the day with no activity, but who’s complaining about a three-hour lunch break?

Did we see anything else? Yes, a Great Spotted Woodpecker removing a leatherjacket from the bark of a tree for his evening meal. But that was about it. Around 6pm, we decided we would leave after the next bird, or 6:30pm, whichever was the sooner. Funnily enough, they both came together.

As we left the hide to walk back to the car, we paid particular attention to the other hides erected on the site and there are a good few, including reflection pools. Needless to say, ours was the last car in the car park. A short drive to the nearest pub, some dinner followed by the long drive back to Weymouth.

A great day out and we can fully recommend the Nature Photography Hides site in Worcestershire.

Ospreys in Rutland

Osprey - Pandion haliaetus. The Gambia

During our trip to The Gambia in April, we had the opportunity to photograph Ospreys on a couple of occasions. Both of these were while we were on boat trips in what are best described as less than stable craft. There were quite a few birds to choose from as well and we got some half decent shots without capsizing the boat. No mean feat in itself. The image above being an example, not of the usual standard, but better than nothing.

It was therefore strange to think that around a month later we could well be photographing the very same birds, nearer to home. Leaving straight after work on Friday, we motored up to Peterborough for an overnight stay and to be ready for a 04:15 appointment with the birds.

A wet morning greeted us as we left the hotel, but by the time we arrived on site it had thankfully stopped. We were met by our ‘guide’ for the session and introduced to the other couple, who were joining us. Quickly dealing with the formalities, we were soon installed in the hide and preparing for the action.

The site is actually a trout farm and the pond that is used apparently holds around 10,000 fish. The guide sits in his car up on the hill overlooking the site and has two-way radio contact with the hide occupants to warn of approaching birds. All set up, we just needed the birds.

Not too long passed before the call came over the radio “bird overhead”. All four of us peered out, but saw nothing save for a Grey Heron. Our guide suggested the Heron had scared off the Osprey, but whatever, we never saw it.

It was around another 30 minutes before we got another call and this time we saw the Osprey perch in a tree front left of the hide. It soon swooped down to the pond grabbed a fish and was gone in a flurry of many frames per second. We were all annoyed that the bird had done this with its back to us the whole time, but it was good practice for the next swoop, whenever that might be.

The fact is, there were no more visits, even though our scheduled departure from the hide at 08:30 was postponed for 15 – 20 minutes. We had plenty of time to eat our snacks and drink our coffee without being disturbed. There was also time to indulge in an interesting conversation about Andy Rouse and his Fotobuzz group.

So all that was left was to head back to the hotel to have breakfast before returning to Dorset virtually empty handed. Even that was less than inspiring and maybe we should have visited the greasy spoon the guide directed us too rather than the hotel.

All in all a wasted effort, where we didn’t improve on our captures from The Gambia. But this is wildlife photography and days like these must be accepted. It actually makes the days where it all comes together that little bit more special too.

Suffolk in Spring

Barn Swallow - Hirundo rustica

Three years ago we spent a weekend in the Suffolk and Norfolk area with the intention of visiting a RSPB Minsmere and another reserve that took our fancy at the time. The other reserve turned out to be RSPB Strumpshaw Fen, but in the end that was a less than rewarding location. However, we were clear that Minsmere would need another visit and subsequent use by BBC Springwatch strengthened our resolve. So it was that we returned this year in early May.

Visiting on the weekend is always going to be busy and at such a popular reserve as Minsmere, this is even more apparent. But with that said, it covers a huge area and there is plenty on offer. We were rewarded with good weather and even managed to sit quietly on the beach beside a calm North Sea to take lunch.

We decided to follow a similar route to last time and soon found ourselves at the Sand Martin wall, where Rose managed to connect with the electric fence that surrounds it. Moving on (swiftly) we found ourselves in the dunes and being fascinated by the Sand Martins pitching on the ground all around us as they collected nesting material. There were plenty of Stonechats, and Whitethroat around and soon an hour had passed.

We next moved on to the hide overlooking The Scrape and had to queue for a space to become vacant. But this was one of the main reasons for the visit, the Avocets. We probably outstayed our welcome here, but we got what we went for and enjoyed the cacophony of noise from the Black-headed Gulls.

Moving on after lunch, I became fascinated by a pair of Barn Swallows who were on a fence quite close and spent some time photographing them. Seeing this, another photographer approached me and tipped me off about another very confiding pair he had been shooting for about an hour. We moved in and spent rather longer than we perhaps should with this pair producing the image in this post.

Carrying on around we got a Sedge Warbler and could see and hear Bearded Tits. Trying to get a shot was nigh on impossible and we spoke to another tog who had spent most of his afternoon trying unsuccessfully to get them. We rounded off the visit with a very industrious Lapwing and a rather secretive Muntjac Deer. By the time we left, the visitor centre had long closed and the car park was nearly empty.

The following day we motored an hour from our base to RSPB Lakenheath Fen. This was a Cuckoo and Hobby fest the like of which I've never seen or heard before. To hear two, or even three, Cuckoos calling at the same time is a rare pleasure. It was a very hot day and as a result, heat haze was something of a problem, but well worth the effort. There were Bitterns booming and showing quite well, but photographically not the best day we've had. Have to say much better than Strumpshaw Fen on our last visit though.

On our way back to base, we stopped off at the Norfolk Wildlife Trust site at Weeting Heath, which we had spotted earlier. Apparently it's a prime site to see Stone Curlew, but I have to say was an expensive and wholly wasteful experience. From the surly volunteer who was too busy texting to properly deal with us to the hides which were so far from the birds, they were mere dots on the horizon. That was if they came up from behind the dip in the ground where they were nesting. Not a site for a revisit and perhaps not the best way to end our weekend.

Hares & Badgers

Juvenile Badger - Cranborne Chase

It's obvious to me that if I want to make a success of this blog I have to update it regularly. Clearly once every two months, or even once in a blue moon, just won't cut it. So I'm really going to try from this point onwards to blog at the very least weekly, I think the ultimate of daily is just too much to achieve.

It's not that we're short of material as we have been busy this last two months, but not so busy that I have an excuse not to blog. I have a reason for this lapse, a damn good one too, but it's no good hiding behind excuses.

You'll maybe notice that this blog has morphed into Ian Locock Photography, rather than Ian Rose. This change is reflected across all of the locations where Rose and I share our work in an effort to avoid further confusion as to who actually took any given image. Rose now has a Facebook page 'Rosemary Locock Wildlife Photography' in addition to her Flickr account.

I've already blogged about our trip to the Gambia, but as far as processing images from that trip goes, there are still a good number to deal with. A few days after that blog post we revisited a private site we used last year for Brown Hares and in more promising weather. A pre-dawn start saw us installed in a hide waiting for the action to begin and we waited and we waited some more. There were hares about, but they were keeping out of range despite the hides having been in situ for long enough to be accepted as the norm.

After around three hours with not a frame being shot, the decision was taken to adjourn for coffee and a welcome stretching session, before moving to another part of the site. Surprisingly, although we were out in the open, this yielded the best shots of the day. There was some distant boxing action out of range of our 600mm lenses, but there were some close passes to capture instead. This turned out to be the high spot of the day and a second visit to that part of the site a while later was less productive. 

As the session was coming to an end, our guide for the day took us back to the cars via a different route, which we later learned was carefully planned. There is a Badger sett on the site and he knew there were two juveniles who habitually came out foraging during daylight. It wasn't long before we heard rustling in the long grass and there to our delight was the youngster featured in my shot. We enjoyed his company for a good ten minutes before we were joined by the second juvenile. As they moved closer, they were able to pick up on our scent and after around fifteen minutes in total decided it was time to return to the sett. 

It really was a magical encounter to be so close to these animals in broad daylight and was a beautiful end to the session. All in all, it was probably less successful than last year's visit and probably signals a need to seek out Brown Hares in a new location for future shoots.