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A few days spent on the river Wye, close to Fownhope, gave a good opportunity to work with what appeared to be a resident and local population of mute swans. There were 25 birds in all and during the time I was there spent all of their time within an area of a couple of hundred yards. Read more…
A passage male and female ring ouzel turned up at Ogmore recently and as I was waiting crouched tight against a stone wall, a male sparrowhawk made a brief but welcome appearance.
Up on the mountain road yesterday, between Bridgend and Maesteg, I came across six fieldfares and a redwing, a little further on and a small group of mistle thrushes were feeding in the short grass.
A few more images in a way that I’ve been working lately. I’m putting them into a warm toned black and white and again looking a the wider aspect of the birds in relationship to their habitat.
I’ve posted a new essay in the ‘Birds Eloquent’ section of the web site that looks at a telling incident at Slimbrigde with a rare warbler and a common wood-pigeon - check it out here.
I’ve had a reply from a few folk from ‘Tracking Marked Geese’ about the ringed white-front that I mentioned in the post a few days back.
The white-fronts appear to have gone and the Bewick swans are on their way. Favourable weather for migration over the last day or so has encouraged the move and it wont be till late next autumn that the chance to see these classic birds comes our way again. Read more…
The European white-fronted geese at Slimbridge will be on their way back to their breeding grounds soon so I wanted to photograph them once more before they departed.
This set of images are beginning to acknowledge the context in which the geese and swans birds are experienced and were all taken at Pilling, Lancashire. Rather than always trying to get closer and closer and thus denying the space that they exist within, the aim is to give over a more holistic experience of being in the landscape with the birds.
I’ve spent a lot of time of the last few weeks and months photographing wild geese and swans. They hold a fascination for me and one that I’ll explore soon in a essay in the ‘Birds Eloquent’ section of the web site.
Just a quick post from a few images taken yesterday at Forest Farm.
A chance to see a rare vagrant gull on my doorstep was too good to miss and so last week I took a visit to the Ogmore estuary in South Wales and was not to be disappointed.
The relationship between the cliff top and the sea has always fascinated me. The space that divides the two is somewhere we rarely venture. I’m not a rock climber and even then you’re still grounded, all be it to a near vertical incline.
An early morning start at Llyn On gave a very atmospheric sighting of a Great-northern Diver. The photograph at the beginning of this post shows the breath coming directly after it called, a very erie sound with low mist hanging on the water.
During my recent illness and recovery I’ve been lucky enough to have some good friends who have helped me through some difficult times. Some of them have taken me out and about knowing that I’m never better than with a camera in hand and enjoying the act of making images.
In between the long spells when the Bitterns remained well hidden, there were other things going on.
I spent a few hours in the ‘doorless’ hide at Forest Farm yesterday, being so close to the city has its problems but it’s a great little spot and always provides something of interest. There had been at least a couple of Bitterns there over the last weeks and quite possibly three!
The owl was around again last night and with another fine evening the conditions were very good.
There’s been a Tawny Owl around our area lately and last night it was flying from ariel to ariel just across the road.
