Shorter days

The autumn is one of my favourite times of the year, despite the weather being grey and the days being shorter, I always feel that everything in the countryside is busy and there is so much rich colour in the leaves, landscape and sunrise/sunsets.
No surprise then that I have been photographing autumn leaves and busy waders feeding as they return south for the winter.
I have also be taking many more shots of people out enjoying the countryside.
There are many more images from the past month on my Flickr gallery!

Tripod found

The good news is that I have now got my tripod and gimbal head back, very many thanks to Mr and Mrs Smith at Burnham Thorpe and Hunstanton Police!

Lost Gitzo and Wimberley head

During Sunday afternoon I lost my Gitzo GT3541LS Series 3 Systematic Tripod and a Wimberly gimbal head.
Most likely it was left at Burnham Norton beside the A149.
Many thanks in advance for any info.

Photo tuition

Are you looking to improve your images, if so, I now have some time again to do full day one to one photo tuition on all aspects of nature photography as well as other subjects; why not email me for full details.
E-mail address is in the 'contact' box (page right).

Rotten woodland!

It might have been a rotten summer but all that wet has lead to a bumper crop of fungus this autumn. This is a subject that I do not know much about and would be very wary of eating any of them; although lots are edible and tasty there are also many that will upset your stomach and even kill because they are so toxic.
You should be able to find lots to photograph in any woodland now, but it is best to go off the beaten track as sadly it seems many people trample on them, haven't a clue why!
I usually use fill-in flash or Lastolite reflectors to aid with lighting, it is also worth taking a sturdy tripod and cable/remote shutter release.
I think fungi are very photogenic and really like photographing them despite getting wet knees and also very muddy in the process!

Calendar

Now available from the RSPB online shop, RSPB catalogue and all the RSPB reserve shops is this 2011 calendar packed with 12 of my Owl images!

http://shopping.rspb.org.uk/p/Calendars/RSPB_Owls_Calendar_2011.htm

Eagle Owls!!

I am sure that most who follow my blogs etc will know that I am as passionate about aviation photography as I am about wildlife imaging.
Lakenheath is a USAF base in Suffolk, its home to the mighty F15E, F15D and F15C Eagles of the 48th Fighter wing and I do spend quite a bit of time there, in fact many of my birding trips to Norfolk can be delayed as I pass the base on route, if something is happening then i'll generally stop for a while.
Its not without its wildlife interests, the grass on the base is home to several pairs of breeding Stone Curlew (I guess they are the best protected from egger's in the UK), there are Buzzards and Hobby in the air over Brandon forest, lots of Pied Wagtails and Muntjac too, occasionally I have seen fleeting glimpses of Little Owl on the fence around the base.
This year though the Little Owls have been more evident but until now have been a bit camera shy, but last week they posed for me and seemed so tame that I was able to show them to other aviation enthusiasts, all of whom had never seen a wild owl before, they all got excited at getting some fine images of the Owls......... and one has just e-mailed to tell me he's bought a fieldguide.... maybe a future RSPB member too! Lots of new images on my Flickr gallery. http://www.flickr.com/photos/nigelblake/

Waders galore

A great day at Snettisham, with an 8.2 metre high tide just an hour or so after sunrise I knew it would be worth getting up at 3:30am, the forecast was perfect too. However it seems that the big flocks of birds went to Holme further around the coast. It's not that it was a bad day at all, loads of Godwits, Curlews, Oystercatchers, Knot, Dunlin and Ringed Plovers put on a great aerial ballet to delight the crowds and it was all spiced up by a Peregrine or two scything through the masses causing panic and confusion.
The star of the show for me was the single Knot that was oblivious to the people and carried on feeding along the tideline with a few metres. I laid down on the tideline about 10 metres ahead of it, wide angle at the ready, and waited, it walked past within inches of me and the camera. I am very grateful to Neil Stych for sending the image of the Knot and me shown below, its always good to have a record of such special moments.

A night on the town!!

I know its not nature photography, however I thought it would be nice to show some more images of other subjects. London at night is spectacularly photogenic, I wouldn't recommend going there to take images at night on your own, but if you can get a couple of other like minded photographers to join you, you will come away with some great images.

Some Hirundines and the Butcher bird.

This week has seen some quite nice weather with less wind so I've managed to get out and shoot alot of images. It was a real treat to find lots of Hirundines frequenting a stretch of barbed wire fence, using the car as a hide was perfect and I soon shot in the region of 15gig on Swallows, House Martins and Sand Martins in what was excellent afternoon light.

The Red-backed Shrike stayed for a few days so I had to go and have another session photographing it when there were fewer people around, it was in the same hedge by the railway and turned out to be a bit of a poser!

Some other subjects.

I like to just add a few shots of other subjects now and then, I haven't travelled very far afield of late but I did go to West Mersea in Essex, a day out for my mum who is recovering very well from a hip replacement operation, these beautiful pastel shaded beach huts caught my eye whilst there, luckily we got to a little cafe before the storm that was brewing in the background arrived!


This church is quite local to where I live, it's in the village of Steeple Morden and has just had the spire redone with wooden tiles, the local Great Spotted Woodpecker already has a liking for it!!



One of my favourite local subjects are the radio astonomy dishes at the Mullard Observatory near Cambridge, this is the Arcminute microkelvin imager (AMI) interferometer telescope that is studying the cosmic microwave background.

Lastly another great subject thats always fun to photograph, these are a small few from the Fireworks championships competition at Belvoir castle in Lincolnshire, a damp windy night, but very spectacular.

Red-backed Shrike

An adult female Red-backed Shrike at Biggleswade, between Biggleswade and Sandy on the common, this evening 28th August! There's a few more on my Flickr site too, http://www.flickr.com/photos/nigelblake/