Merry Christmas

I love this time of year, when the weather is good the light is to die for, cold crisp clear air and rich colours; the recent fall of snow has added a big natural reflector to that, needless to say I've been out with the Canons as much as possible.
One of my main target species for this winter has been Redwing, and no disappointments with them, they seem to be the "christmas decorations" on every berry laden hedge or bush, along with Fieldfares and lots of Song Thrushes (no doubt from the continent) too, great to see and photograph all of these.
The snow covered landscape has been a rare sight in recent years, so it's been a joy to get out and photograph wintery scenes.
The highlight by a long way for me was a chance encounter with a Woodcock, an elusive bird usually, but their cryptic camouflage is rendered useless by a coating of snow on the ground, I've seen 5, but one of them was such a poser, I spent over an hour with it and shot several images with fill-in flash..... and then drove home with a very smugg grin on my face!

Diver and hoverers

It seems a long time since I updated this Blog; in the past month I've been doing quite a bit really, but the weather has not been particularly good.
A red Throated Diver at Chelmsford posed for photographers on a small lake in the middle of the town, again not good weather the day I was there (despite a good forecast) however I got images that I was very happy with.
I had a few trips to Norfolk, some productive, but I seem to be good at attracting the " oooh thats a big lens", "I've never seen a camera quite like that" and " can you photograph the moon with that" brigade just at the least appropriate moment........... however the Turnstones at Salthouse are always reliable and good value!
With the weather being rubbish I have spent some time doing studio shots of various things, I really enjoyed shooting a series of autumn leaves images, simple compositions and strong colours.
I am also keeping an eye out for modern farming landscapes, the long plastic strips used for plant propagation make good graphic images.
Then last of all, I had a very posy Kestrel that nearly hovered into the car at one stage, over 300 shots of that which were all stunning... if only it was that easy/good all the time!

Harrowing moments

I'm still really busy shooting the pictures for a bird feeder catalogue, although the weather is doing all it can to slow the job down; this morning the rain is hammering on the windows as I type, so I'll be editting and captioning again today!
However I have been out and about shooting locally, the Green Woodpecker was a bit of luck.

The other images show a Northern Wheatear on the local dung pile, feeding on the bugs before continuing it's epic journey south, a Lapwing in the regimented lines of a harrowed field and the tractor and harrow in the landscape are all part of a themed series of images showing birds in a farming environment that I'm working on.

Old stones, fireworks and waders

This last month has been a bit hectic really with airshows at Eastbourne and Dawlish, I took the chance to photograph Stonehenge en route; I also took my mum away for a few days to Plymouth, part of the reason for picking Plymouth was because there was the finals of the UK firework display championships, a two night spectacle of noise and colour, she loves fireworks and really enjoyed the show, we also went to Dartmoor and Castle Drogo. Lots of firework shots on my Flickr pages.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/nigelblake/sets/72157621914563129/detail/

.......and many more on Celebration fireworks website http://www.celebration-fireworks.co.uk/ throughout the site and on the gallery page.

Airshow pictures here http://ngbjets.blogspot.com/





I have been doing more work on the local Kingfisher, but with lots of migrant birds on the move and much higher tides at Snettisham it seemed like a good idea to head up to Norfolk for some Waders; I have yet to process most of the images, but heres a few of the first batch.

Kingfisher.

Kingfisher, always a joy to photograph these birds, sometimes a frustrating wait for them to perch where you want them, but they always look stunning, haven't got the shots I want yet, so i'll be doing more work on them this coming week.

Haring about after Owls

Title say's it all really; last night I had a great evening with a great friend, Major Gilbert, we spent several hours trying our luck with the Norfolk Owl and Hare population, despite some pretty garbage light and strong wind it turned out to be both successful and fun too!

More of the Spotted Flycatchers

Another couple of sessions with the Spotted Flycatchers has been great fun, I introduced a more photogenic perch, and within seconds it was sat on the green cable tie I attached it with! Once the cable tie was trimmed the bird just kept returning to the new perch, perfect.

"Spotties" at last

A target species for me this year as I really needed to top up my stock of Spotted Flycatcher shots at a higher resolution. Despite looking at several sites where they have been in the past I have found them difficult to pin down; I have seen them, but none that were in locations suitable for serious photography, and then all on the same day I found 3 pairs that were very workable, all are in churchyards too!

Barn Owl face to face.

I have spent very many enjoyable hours photographing Barn Owls, the sight of one always excites me, but this bird was a real surprise!
I usually have a camera with me when travelling in the car, and very early Saturday morning was no exception; at the nearby village of Steeple Morden where there are houses either side of the road I saw what I thought at first was a cat sat on a fence by a bungalow, that was until the "cat" took off and flew down the road to perch a fence post by asmall paddock. It was too far away for a decent shot so I made a little squeaky noise, as you can see in the pictures it flew straight towards me as if to come into the window of the car; it then spent about 5 minutes perched just above my head on the car roof!
The glow of the rising sun on the ripening Barley made such a great soft focus backdrop that compliments the Owl's colours, a great way to start the day!

Golden Plover

Golden Plover, well here are some more images of these superb birds, I have had some memorable times photogrphing them in the past; but they were nothing as amazing as the 3 days I have spent working on these birds; more often than not they were too close and I just sat admiring the fabulous colours and dainty movements of them.