First Workshop

The first Harvest Mice Workshops went ahead without any problems, although I was chasing a mouse round the studio (shed) for 10 minutes at one stage!!

I have had some good feedback from the participants and if I was any better at using these damn machines I would probably put in what they had to say!!!!!! Perhaps at a later date.

Anyway here are a few shots that I took during the time the workshops ran, I actually took 43 shots compared to one person who took over 1500!! Told you it was addictive!

New Workshop dates will be announced at the beginning of each month through Spring and Summer

Thanks for looking

Harvest Mice Workshops

I am now ready to put together a few dates in March for the first of the Harvest mice workshops; these are

14th and 15th March

18th March

21st and 22nd March

Each of these dates there will be two slots available the first starting at 10:30 and the second starting at 13:30.

Both sessions will last for 2.5 hours no longer, this is due to the Harvest Mice themselves that seem to work on a 2 hour rota!!!

If you are interested and would like further details on equipment etc. then email me on this address


alanheeley59@gmail.com

You will need plenty of memory cards photographing Harvest Mice gets very addictive!!

Thanks for looking.

Tree Sparrow

Personally I think the Tree Sparrow is doing better than people think, especially in Derbyshire, unlike let's say the Yellowhammer.

I just think that they are overlooked as another L.B.J.!! And yet they have a charm and a character all of their own.

Down at my feeding station there must be upwards of 20 plus individuals that are coming to feed on a daily basis. Here are a few shots from today.

This last one got a little wind swept.

Thanks for looking.

Jay

Whilst down in London photographing the Heron's and Parakeets it was not long before a few Jay's started to take an interest in the food that the public were offering, and once again a bird that can be shy when trying to get it in front of the lens showed no fear.

I tried to do something a little different to the local photographers and that was to get it down onto the metal fencing. I think most of the 'Corvid" family are clever birds and it did not take the Jays long to start to get used to the idea.

I am hoping to go back down for a day to do more with the Parakeets, but it is in someways a surprise to see just how the wildlife in our major city is so confiding for us photographers.

Thanks for looking. 

Blue Tit

Spent a couple of hours down at the feeding station with a few different props.

Of course one of the first birds to try each prop out was the Blue Tit, and when everything comes together some decent results can be had!

Thanks for looking  

The Parrots are coming!!!!

Another reason for wanting to go down to London was to be able to photograph the Ring necked Parakeet. Now I can remember going on my first DOS trip (Derbyshire Ornithological Society) down to Sir Peter Scotts home at Slimbridge, many years back!! And as I was sat there in a packed hide I noticed this green long tailed quite big bird come onto the feeding station and without thinking just shouted out .... me its a parrot!! I had only just started birdwatching and no one had told me I was going to see a 'parrot'.

I have seen one or two in the county of Derbyshire but unlike other 'colourful' birds, Waxwing, Kingfisher for example I have never been able to capture one with my camera.

This was until now, with some help from a friend of mine Tony Duckett who works in the Royal Parks, it did not take long for me to find them, in-fact one of the many complaints regarding these birds is the noise they make it was this that soon had me taking my first pictures of these birds, dare I say it after nearly 30 years from seeing my first one.

These birds first started breeding in the South and South East in the late 60's, and how they got here, well you can believe which ever story you like!! But as it stands now they certainly have been successful, to the point that Natural England have declared that they are officially a pest. Many people fear that they will damage native wildlife and crops and I suppose like most non native introductions into this country there is always a set back to our native wild life.

But once again when you talk to people who see them most days and have them in their own backyards you do get a mixed reaction some love em and some hate em, myself, well I still cannot make up my mind!!!!

I have added this photo because I realised that all the other pictures are of female birds, they lack the collar ring! This then is a male............... Thanks for looking.

Grey Heron

Well I am starting to be able to get out and about a bit more now, but that does not mean I am 100% not by a long way as yet, but I am getting there. So once again the project on the Mountain Hares will have to wait another year!!

My better half Anne took me on a two day trip down London just so that I could do something I had been promising myself for a number of years but never got round to doing it, photograph the Grey Herons in Regents park.

I must say from the outset that these birds are fed on a regular basis by members of the public, (something the Royal Parks do not condone) and so the birds are very easy to approach as some of the pictures you are about to see shows.

Here are a few of the 400 or so pictures I took!!

So that I wasn't carrying a lot of weight around I only took the 400mm f5.6 and a wide angle lens with me on the 7D MK2, what I could have done with was the Macro lens!!!!!

None of these pictures are cropped

It got to the point of what could you do different with the lenses you had, but the chance to do these birds that lets face it on the whole are very difficult to get close to was an experience in itself, and next time I go down..... well lets see!!!!

Thanks for looking!