Grey Seals

Yes it has been some time from my last post and I can remember saying that I would not get into the same routine as a lot of other people do when starting a Blog, but believe you me a LOT has been happening and there is a LOT more to happen!!!!!!!

Anyway role on 2017 that's all I can say.

Decided to have a trip to the East coast, for two reasons really one to see and photograph with a good friend of mine the second to be able to photograph Grey Seals and their pups.

Bags packed and the B and B sorted, Anne home from work fed, watered and changed; off we set. A good steady three hours later we were shown our room in this very nice country pub and enjoying our evening meal. A sign of things to come was the gritting lorry that passed the pub that night!

After a good wholesome breakfast we set off for the beach, not a cloud in the sky and a very hard frost but the sun shone and did we feel the chill when we had parked up and stared out to the North sea.

The walk was not as bad as I had expected and my friend had been before a few days before hand so knew just were to go.

There was a good number of Seals on the beach with young some just a matter of hours old , and also the obligatory Bull Seal patrolling an area of beach just waiting his chance to mate with a female if he could catch her!

Thanks for looking.

Waxwing

This year looks like being a 'Waxwing' year if the numbers of birds arriving on the East coast is anything to go by.

I had heard reports of a few birds being seen/heard in Derbyshire but mostly were birds that were flying through, that was until about a week ago when four birds turned up in a pub car park in Chesterfield.

By the time I could get myself out the four had gone down to a single bird, a first winter male, and perhaps with it being such a young bird it had no fear of people and was the tamest Waxwing that I have ever been lucky enough to photograph.

Thanks for looking

Isle of Mull .....Otters

It has been 5 years since I last visited the Isle of Mull but I hall not leave it that long again. This time myself and Anne stayed just outside Salen on a working farm for two weeks.

The last two weeks in September you don't exactly come for the sunshine!! We had sunshine, rain and high winds thrown at us but more than anything it did not stop us from going out everyday and locating the elusive European Otter.

It always amazes me when on Mull the amount of people that come up to you and say something like "this is our fifth visit and we haven't seen one yet"!!!!! Well' perhaps if you stayed in one position longer than five minutes then you may stand a better chance.

Myself and Anne saw Otters everyday, but not always photographable, that is where the luck, patience and a bit of field craft comes into play.

My first location was one I was very familiar with and in the past I had seen and photographed there before, this time what made it better was that I met a fellow photographer Robin Stansbridge and his wife Bridgette, so that meant some of the time there was four sets of eyes but mostly there was just the two.

We came good with our first session with this Otter and after watching it for several days we got used to it's traits and could forward guess the rocks it would come onto when bringing in a larger fish or to mark out it's territory.

Not everything is smooth sailing I must have put an average of six hours watching getting into position etc. for just a couple of minutes photography time, but this is what it takes when dealing with something that you can be watching one minute the next it has dived and you do not relocate it for another twenty minutes or more  because it is no longer heading the way it was but has turned back and gone to where it started!!!! So frustrating at times.

The second week I met a guy called Carl Gray another great wildlife photographer and after meeting Carl on his first day on the island I told him about this certain Otter what it was up to etc. And hopefully Carl would get some decent shots as I was going to look for other Otters in different locations. It was very nice to here from Carl at the end of the week that he had had some luck with the Otter and he thanked me for the info.

I eventually saw eight individuals at different locations but only spent time with three of them over the two weeks.

This is two typical views of an Otter, just imagine looking at the first one if the water was a little choppy!! Second one typical distant view of Otter cleaning itself and caring for its coat.

They can also blend in very well especially in the Bladderwrack seaweed

Even when asleep they can be difficult!

But then sometimes they can stick out like sore thumbs!!!

Or they can swim right past you!!

But then sometimes it all comes together

Thanks for looking

Kings of the River

Well the web site is on the back burner for a while, just as I get one or two things sorted! I knew I would have problems with it but that's me and computers!!!!

Anyway in the meantime I have been getting down to my Kingfisher hide and once again I thought that the Kingfishers would have a bad time again as once more just as the young were about to fledge the heavens opened up for a few days and the water level rose. This year they were lucky they did not get flooded out.

So then it is just a matter of time for the adults to bring the youngsters; of which there are two this year, to my slow moving stream were they are taught to catch their fish, and anything else that slightly resembles a fish!

Here are a few of the images from this year.

You can book the hide by contacting me on

alan.heeley1@btinternet.com

Thanks for looking

Update!!!!!!!!

Sorry for the lack of posts recently but a lot has been happening with getting things ready for a new web site that is coming in the very near future!!!

This is something I have put off for as long as I can remember and all because I could not answer the question"why do I need a website"?? And to be truthful I am only 95% there in answering but I have succumbed into having one done.

So this is the main reason for the lack of updates, this site will still be in use but when I am happy with the new site I will let it be known that it is up and running.

Until then here is the latest Badger image...........enjoy!

A few things!!

As the title suggests I am working on a few things at the moment such as Kestrels and Badgers, and if I am not doing those I am sorting out the Kingfisher hide (still no Kingfishers)! and the reflection pool.

Here are a few photos from my last one or two sessions out with the camera, fingers crossed more to come.



Still not 100% with these but as these are my first Badgers on digital I am hoping to improve.

This pair of Kestrels are back in the old Chapel were I photographed them two years back

I only spent a small amount of time with these chaps but it was worth it.

Sometimes you just get lucky! I would have done if I had got the 500 with me!!!!

Male Roe Deer

Thanks for looking

Green Woodpecker

Everyone has a 'bogey' bird, animal plant etc. mine was the Green Woodpecker. It was one of those birds that never presented itself in front of the lens, even when I did go for them!

But just as the saying goes "Everything comes to those who wait" well after.... lets just say a few years!! my time had come.... albeit very briefly!!!

I managed to get within shooting range of a pair of birds that were busily feeding on a recently cut grass area and like I said it was very brief as a dog walker soon spooked them.

It is always nice to go out photographing a certain subject but then the added bonus of being able to photograph something else as well especially when it is your 'bogey' bird!!!!

Thanks for looking 

Foxy Lady!!!!!

At the start of last year whilst recovering from my heart attack Anne decided to take me down London for  couple of days so I could photograph the Parakeets and Grey Herons. Whilst there I met up with a photographer who told me about a London cemetery were you could photograph Foxes. At the time I thought I will remember that place and one day will go down. Months past and of course I forgot the name of the place but with a little digging came up with somewhere that I thought just maybe.

I travelled down  early one Monday with the intention of stopping and travelling back on the Tuesday I just wished that I could have stayed for longer.

I found a vixen that was not too shy of the public and would come and look you over rather than a couple more that I found and just legged it!!

On the first day like all new places it was just pure luck that I came across this fox and not knowing what her routine was I soon lost her. But my sadness turned to joy the next day when I found her going into her den. I sat and waited and after several hours she came out and yes you have guessed it just as she did I was looking the other way so missed the photograph I was after!!

After all that it was time for home and the traffic, was it worth it well you be the judge of that.

She kept a close eye on members of the public walking past.

Thanks for looking

Scotland.......part 4

Yes I can and do photograph the Mountain Hare in my home county of Derbyshire but there is one thing you cannot guarantee and that is the white stuff.....snow!

Once you come across these magnificent mammals in their Highland homes high up in the snow line you just have to admire them and feel for them I suppose at the same time. Just think for a moment what they have to put up with; the extreme low temparatures, high winds,
rain and everything else that is thrown at them.

From the pictures you are going to view the weather was glorious still below freezing (just), but the sun was shining all day, previous to that two days before we could hardly walk and was nearly blown off our feet!

I have three places that I visit for the Mountain Hare in Scotland but again a local guide put me onto a new place which both myself and Anne found was the easiest to walk, and the number of Hares was
truly amazing.

Enjoy

Decided to grin for the camera!

This one looks as though it is stood, it was still running towards me.

Thanks for looking