This blog is not abandoned - I am not too well at the moment and lack time and impetus to sit down and type...... More soon, I promise :-)
in the meantime here are a few images to view…….
NB: There are 110 images in the slideshow from several locations.
9th January and we got around to actually going somewhere – the usual reasons for a late start – illness and Seri’s work getting in the way of our playtime, ce’st la vie :-).
So we awoke to a glorious day, bright winter sun, which means very blue light and overly long shadows to the photographer. Sunshine and a diminished ice supply makes for a pleasant change – this winter started early and has been quite harsh, compared to a usual UK winter, of course……
We decided to make the 28 mile trip up the M69 to Bradgate Country Park, in Leicestershire, not a long trip and a great place to visit. In a previous post we showed Bradgate in the snow, now, finally the snow has all gone, although the river is still iced over in places.
Each visit we make to Bradgate also encompasses a visit to Groby Pool, again see the previous post for details and a map of the area. Groby, a sizeable lake, is still iced over, with pockets of clear water.
It is quite interesting, if somewhat uncomfortable
Coots and Black Headed Gulls are ducking and diving amongst the larger species and manage to hold their own quite well. The Coots grab food and run, usually with the gulls in hot pursuit. Great to see, not so great to be a participant perhaps……. Alas such is the life of a wild animal.
The resident hybrid ducks are back – they were missing last time we visited – and it was so nice to see them.
Whilst at Groby we took the opportunity – nice place with few people – to test some new equipment. A Hahnel “live view” remote control unit – which allows the used to view what the camera’s viewfinder is seeing through a small wireless screen, which in turn accommodates a remote control unit that can operate the shutter from up to 60 metres distance. We have few photos of Seri and myself together, and now we have the opportunity to take such shots – at the risk of scaring people :-)
The system works, but we need to practice with it at home, to get the best out of it. Click the link above to get info on the unit…….
The reason we have few shots together – well, basically on the first hand we don’t feel comfortable handing several thousand pounds worth of camera equipment to a stranger and asking them to take our photo and secondly it is not practical to set up the tripod, push the timer switch and then try to run back into the shot. I’m not that fast on my feet these days :-)
A happy 45 minutes or so feeding the birds and off to Bradgate.
We visit Bradgate for the whole of the environment, we love to see the birds, deer, the ancient oaks and indeed all the people interacting with the environment. We fed the ducks, couldn’t find our little friend – the noisy Wigeon – on the way into the estate, but we could hear the little monster on the way out and gave him his customary feed.
Lots of ducks around, a Bibbed Mallard and a bunch of Mallard mostly, but also this visit a trio of Tufted Duck males, with a solitary female. A couple of Mute Swan adults bathing enthusiastically as it their wont.
We discovered a few years ago that Swans, as well as many geese species, invert in the water when bathing, kicking their legs in the air as they do so. It is very funny to see, but hard to identify as the manoeuvre takes only a second or so to complete. So, if you see a Swan bathing watch closely you may see this very funny spectacle. Last year we found a Leucistic Jackdaw, this trip we found it again. A very odd looking little thing :-) good to see him still around.
One does not visit Bradgate and not go in search of the herds of deer, it is one of the reasons for the parks “fame”. It is perfectly possible to visit Bradgate, spend several hours on the estate – assuming one can afford to park there, now the price has gone so high – and find no sign of deer whatsoever, apart from copious droppings and hoof prints.
It is equally possible to walk into the park and find Fallow bucks on the pathways, within a couple of metres of the hundreds of visitors who arrive daily with their children and their dogs. Red Deer, despite their immense size, compared to Fallow, tend to be a little less “friendly” and prefer to keep their distance from people. We have often observed that the Fallow are unimpressed by people, and take little notice, whereas Red Deer look distinctly uncomfortable in human company.
On this trip we were quite fortunate in that, after a reasonable walk, we found a large herd of fallow females, youngsters and yearling bucks. Unfortunately they were in a less than ideal spot to photograph, with the now failing light behind them, but we got a few shots….. Just across from them we also spotted a group of 5 adult Red Deer stags, all friends again now the rut is over.
It was interesting to see that 4 of the stags were very relaxed, whilst the 5th was very agitated – and was keeping a constant vigil on the numerous people around them. It was equally interesting to see that this guardian was dominant within the small group, where he walked so his colleagues moved out of his way – and quickly :-) They clearly knew who was the boss……….
Whilst photographing these handsome fellows we began chatting with a really nice young fellow from Africa – who was, like us, enjoying the experience of photographing such majestic animals. Didn’t catch his name, but we enjoyed the chat nonetheless……
Lovely day, good company, nice gentle walk and to end the day a gorgeous red-sky sunset. What more could one ask for :-)
And so we get to the end of 2010, the end of the year and the end of the first decade of the 21st Century. In personal terms this year has been nothing short of a bloody nightmare – family matters – we miss you so much Trish - , but in terms of our photography and wildlife watching – which is, after all the reason d’ etre for this blog, we have had the proverbial ball.
So, just for the moment, let’s forget the personal and concentrate on the lovely animals and the photo adventures Seri and I have enjoyed this year…….
2010 has been our most “productive” year ever in terms of photos added to our database and collection. As of today – 31st December 2010 – we have added a pretty astonishing 90,859 images to our database – we have never approached this number of shots in any previous year. I should point out this is not the overall number of shots, but rather the number that have survived the cut. We probably shot 40-50% more than this…….
So – a few, ok, a lot of, boring statistics –
| Month | Number of shots |
| January | 4993 |
| February | 5185 |
| March | 6415 |
| April | 8537 |
| May | 11597 |
| June | 9087 |
| July | 7629 |
| August | 8842 |
| September | 7464 |
| October | 8316 |
| November | 8756 |
| December | 4038 |
| Sum | 90,859 |
Not all of the above were wildlife shots, of course, we tend to take one or more camera each with us wherever we go to. Also it is true to say that cameras with a high frame rate (8 frames per second for our D2h and 7 Frames per second for the D300s) tend, on the whole, to generate more output simply due to the fact that more shots are taken in shorter periods of time.
So more boring statistics – which I shall read in future years, which in itself makes this a worthwhile effort - So the cameras workload:
| Camera | Number of shots |
| Nikon D2h | 8344 |
| Nikon D200 | 14339 |
| Nikon D300s | 54659 |
| Nikon D50 | 11870 |
| Lumix FZ28 | 650 |
| Olympus U850sw | 281 |
| Pentax Optio S40 | 70 |
| Fuji S5700 | 141 |
| Konica-Minolta Z1 | 82 |
As you can see the Nikon D300s is our most worked camera, hope it survives LOL
Lots of very old equipment as you can see – but hey it works and it costs a great deal less than buying new……
Our database lists 93 different locations for the shots we took this year – most of them are in the Coventry and Warwickshire area – where we live at present. We did however manage to get out and about between periods of illness and so on. Brandon Marsh Nature reserve figured largely, no surprise to anyone who knows us, in our photo activities and we shot 56040 images on the site, spread over 158 visits - as you can imagine we didn’t miss a great deal :-)
We also managed to visit Bradgate Park in Leicestershire 9 times shooting 5774 images, Coombe Abbey Country Park in Coventry 8 times – 4266 shots, Donna Nook Seal Rookery in Lincolnshire twice shooting 2610 shots, Draycote Water 4 times – 1960 shots, Groby Pool 7 times (it’s close to Bradgate Park) – 1477 shots, Rutland Water twice – 1090 shots, Slimbridge Wetland Trust twice with 3560 shots, Warwickshire University Grounds – 4356 shots and Seri visited her parents in Malaysia returning with 484 shot in tow. We also made a trip to Wales, our old homestead for our “summer holidays” shooting Red Kites and a May Day trip to the Cotswolds – to the Bird of Prey Centre at Batsford Arboretum. Not a comprehensive list – but these are the main places we visited.
In terms of what we have taken photos of this year, well, anyone who knows us knows that we shoot anything that is in front of the cameras – so we have taken lots of scenic shots, especially at the beginning and end of the year when snow was on the ground. We try to place our images in context in our database, so if we go to Bradgate Park to shoot the deer, we will also shoot the scenery to place context into the overall trip’s portfolio. As I said, we shoot everything, plants, fungi animals, birds and so on…….
So this year we have taken 8637 invertebrate shots (insects, spiders, snails and the like), 6658 vertebrate shots (not including birds) ranging from dogs and cats through to rare Great Crested Newts and all manner of mammals, 59247 shots of birds ranging from very rare Bittern and Osprey through to the most common Pigeons, Starlings and so on. We have also photographed Deer 3217 times (Fallow, Red, Muntjac and a few shots of Reindeer). 1830 shots of Fungi, 3751 shots of people and 1669 of ourselves, 3951 shots of plants and flowers, 4896 shots of scenery and landscapes and so on and 1535 shots of Grey Seals.
In amongst the above are 103 shots of Osprey and their nest site and chicks, 314 shots of Bittern, over 800 shots of Kingfishers and 2371 shots of Robins – what can I say, we like Robins :-)
Highlights of the year, undoubtedly our two trips to Slimbridge Wildfowl and Wetland Trust, and the two trips to Donna Nook for the seal breeding, and also our trips to Wales and to the Batsford Arboretum.
The first two locations could not be more different to one another – Slimbridge teems with captive and often highly endangered species of wildfowl from all over the world. All nice and tidy each species or breed has an enclosure suited to its needs, with manicured pathways and lots of staff to care for them. Donna Nook is a stretch of beach with a fence, some 2000 seals, at the peak, and several hundred interested and excitable people all trying to get a view, and more often than not a photograph of the new-born pups.
Both of these sites are gorgeous in their own way – it is not accidental that we visited each twice - and are well worth the pain and effort required to get there and back, and indeed the week or so of bed rest required after such trips.
The trip to Wales is, for us a trip home. We saw hundreds of Red Kites in the air above our heads at Nant yr Arian – a site to remember forever. Batsford Bird of Prey Centre was similarly memorable – to see large raptors such as the Golden Eagle and European Eagle Owl swooping above one’s head has to be seen to be believed. Some great trips this year :-)
We have had a great year in terms of our photography……… hope it continues into next year and beyond :-)
You probably noticed there are no photos in this posting – the reason being – we have posted hundreds of shots throughout the year. View the other posts on this blog, or visit our Flickr sites or the Brandon Marsh Galleries to see what we have been up to.
For now we wish everyone we know a Happy New Year and I’m off to prepare our equipment for 2011. We shall be at Coombe Country Park tomorrow – 1/1/11 a visit we have made each New Years Day for the past 3 years.
So Happy New Year – and if we see you, we will probably take your photo :-)
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We awoke on the 27th to snow, only a little bit of snow here in Coventry, but enough to get our attention. We had intended to make a last visit, for this year, to Donna Nook in North Lincolnshire to see the seals. Alas the snow had been falling for several days in that area, and onto the motorways between us and our objective. So Donna Nook was out, it was just too far in poor conditions to travel safely and sensibly. We shall have to wait a whole year now to get back and see next years pups…… Ce’st la Vie.
Being the intrepid explorers that we are, or is it just that we were bored in the house, we decided to go back to Bradgate Country Park – much closer to our home at only 29 miles distance. We know from visits in previous years that the deer, for which the park is famous, tend to come out of the woods when it snows, in search of food. Bradgate Park is usually teeming with people at the weekends, thankfully the bitter cold and slippery conditions persuaded many of them to stay at home :-). So more wildlife to see, and less people to get in the way, great…. we got up, dressed like arctic explorers and off we go.
A slow drive on the motorways and in no time we turn off to Groby Pool. We always try to stop at Groby, it is a SSSi, is on the way to Bradgate and is usually a good spot to shoot ducks geese swans and gulls, as well as the odd small species. The only trick required is to take a loaf of bread – we planned ahead - LOL. A feed for the birds and a bunch of photos for us. None of the usual Goldfinches today – they were probably in the woods opposite – keeping warm. It was bitterly cold.
I had purchased a new lens a couple of days previously, well a second hand lens actually, but it is new to me :-) and actually it was purchased for me by the lovely Seri as a Christmas present, anyway, a Nikkor 12-24 F4 wide angle lens is now a part of our kit, so, attached to our ageing Nikon D200 we took it out for a test drive.
Needless to say everywhere is covered in ice, and the pool was frozen solid. Not so many birds around, but still Seri managed to get shots of a Redwing and a few Long Tailed Tits, as well as a hungry European Robin, Canada Geese and A few Mute Swans, both adults and youngsters. In harsh conditions all of the bird species become much more aggressive towards one another and fights are common.
Protection of their own access to food is obviously foremost in their minds – and who can blame them. One of the swans grabbed a Canada Goose by the neck and threw it across the nearby rocks. No mean feat – Canada Geese are large and robust birds – Swans may look serene, but they are mighty strong birds.
The usual hybridised ducks were missing, I guess they were off in search of open water further into the lake……… So Seri fed the birds, taking photos when she could as I alternated between my Nikon D300s with the Sigma 120-400mm lens and the D200 with the new 12 – 24. A nice little stop at Groby and off we go towards Bradgate.
Click the above image for a slideshow from Groby Pool
Between Groby Pool and Bradgate Park is a particularly steep hill - from the moment we decided to make this trip I had been saying to Seri we will not go down the hill – it will be a sheet of ice. Near Leicester I re-iterated the statement, at Groby again same decision. Yes – you guess correctly, we went down the hill….. It was a solid sheet of ice, so first gear, don’t touch the brakes, don’t touch the accelerator and off we go. All is fine apart from the last 5 meters no choice but to brake as we approached the cross roads with all the wheels locked up and sliding towards a 4wd vehicle which had decided to cross right in front of sliding vehicle…… Thank God for anti – lock brakes LOL managed to steer off to one side and eventually stop……
Bradgate is a wonderful place for anyone into photography, or wildlife, or indeed for those who just want to have a walk in pleasant surroundings. As I said above – there were much fewer people to be seen than on a more typical weekend.
So we went off into the park – first stop – to see our favourite bird, the resident Wigeon. We had seen several hundred of this species at Slimbridge WWT recently (see posting below) but still this noisy little blighter is firmly embedded in our hearts. As you approach he can be heard calling his name (wi-geon, wi-geon) as a high pitched whistle. He is a feisty little thing and holds his own pretty well amongst the larger mallards. The resident Black Headed Gulls, masters of flight, are always hungry and always provide great action for the cameras. There is to see at Bradgate than the Fallow and Red Deer.
That said, of course we go to look for the deer. Now the rut is more or less over there is a more relaxed atmosphere amongst the stags and bucks. The females are bringing last years young out into the open to feed and it is altogether easier to get better photos. the light is not great, of course and the winter sun creates shadows so long that it is all but impossible to keep them out of images where the sun is behind you, but that if life. We cannot control the weather, so we live with it and shoot what is there……
The new lens is holding up pretty well, easy enough to use, just no experience of shooting this wide an image, it will take a little time to work out I guess, but I'm happy with the results thus far.
We see and photograph lots of Fallow Deer, adult males, females and several youngsters. We also came across a large solitary Red Stag. This animal has the largest set of antlers we’ve ever seen at Bradgate. He was quite a sight to behold, very impressive.
Click the above image for a slideshow from Bradgate Park
A few more wide angle shots of Lady Jane Grey’s house and the surrounding scenery, Seri spots a Fieldfare high in a treetop, and a few more Fallow deer, and we are on our way back towards the carpark. We can’t go too far into the park, as I've said many times, illness is a restraint on our actions, but we manage to get some exercise and a lot of lovely photos.
As we are on our way out of the park we see a real treat, a large herd of Red Deer crossing the River Lin and dashing across the fields. Red Deer are large animals, when you see a lot of them together you cannot help but be impressed. A dominant stag within the group chased off a young pretender, and then led the group up towards the Old John monument (a Folly placed on the highest point of the estate).
Back to the carpark, both sweating profusely, but hey, it beats freezing. Rest for a while and then a slip sliding drive home. Lovely day, bitterly cold but beautiful scenery, beautiful animals and birds and a lovely time out together.
Wildlife photography is a wonderful hobby, even if you miss the shots, you still get out into the environment, you still see the sights hear the sounds and meet with all manner of adventures.
What can I say, we love it :-)
