Wind and Rain

Winter has arrived and it looks as though we're set for plenty of wind and rain over the next week or so, I'm just hoping it'll change before I break up for christmas in a couple of weeks. Here's a picture of a Blue Tit from a week ago at Draycote Water, my local reservoir. On the calmest of days this place is often blowing a gale, so there are only a few select days when the water is calm enough for good photography, unfortunately it was not one of those days, so I chose to sit in the only hide and see what turned up at the feeders. With the light quickly disappearing I managed to real off over 300 images of Blue Tits, Great tits, Chaffinches, Greenfinches and the odd friendly Robin before the warden came calling and told me I've got 10 minutes to leave and not to drive my car around the 10km track again as it is now banned, apparently it's OK for fishermen to drive around because they have a lot of equipment, have they tried lugging a 600mm F4 around!

Prince of Tides

I live and have only lived in the midlands, previously when I headed for the coast I inevitably forget to check when high or low tide is, this lead to a few wasted journeys, like arriving at Titchwell to photograph waders just as the tide is going out. So, now I've got into the habit of checking the tides before leaving, you can check websites for the next 7 days, but for some reason tidal information in the UK is copyright and you have to pay to get it!!
After a bit of searching I found a fantastic piece of software for the Mac called Mr. Tides 3 you can get tidal information for many locations around the world for anytime in the future, very useful if you want to book the photography hide at Snettisham next year.

After the Storm

An informal meeting was arranged by a few members of UKNP to visit Donna Nook in Lincolnshire to photograph the Grey Seal colony, which is also a R.A.F. Bombing range in the week. After making the 170 mile drive, I arrive to find we could not venture out onto the sands because the tidal surge that hit the east coast of England on Friday morning had washed up some unexploded ordnance, we would still be able to walk along the boardwalk to view them, however this is not as photogenic as being out on the sandbar.
I decided I would not stay, preferring to start heading back down the motorway and visit Blacktoft Sands RSPB reserve where they have a healthy colony of Tree Sparrows, a species which I had not photographed before.

Bradgate Park

After numerous questions on what I've been taking pictures of and failure on my part in not updateing my website, I've decided to give the world of blogging a go.
Since the conception of my first child, Archie, who arrived 3 weeks ago, I've had very little time for photography. But I did mangage to convince my wife that the short trip to Bradgate Park in Leicestershire would stop me going stir crazy.
As anticipated, I was not the only photographer there. This time of year is particularly good as the Red Deer rut is in full swing, unfortunately it was not the all action day I had hoped for, there were a few stags about but none really up for fighting one another.