Common Lizard

Yet another run up onto the Moors but this time to look for Common Lizards, and to be honest I had not been up to this particular area for some time.

A good friend of mine had told me that the Lizards this year for some reason or other had been quite difficult to locate, so with that in the back of my mind off I went.


This one hunkered down until the weather seemed to get a little warmer

And another one decided to brave it!

Thanks for looking

Red Grouse

I was joined on this trip out by Anne (the boss)!! Things have changed over the last couple of months at home and this has now given Anne the opportunity to join me on this trip and hopefully more in the future.

I wanted to catch the Grouse in the heather and as always things never go to plan!

We have three types of Heather in Derbyshire; Ling Heather which is the most popular and makes our  hills and moorlands look as though they have been carpeted in purple.

Bell Heather which is less common and has slightly larger flowers.

And lastly the least common Cross leaved Heather which favours more wetter ground and is usually found in bogs.

Unfortunately for me on this visit it looks as though it is a couple of weeks from it's best showing.

I visited this part of moorland three days before the Grouse season starts and the first thing I noticed was the large numbers of young Grouse, still mainly in their family parties. We even came across an adult pair with seven very small young!

female Red Grouse looking grumpy!

male Red Grouse

As you can see below the Heather in managed areas was very sparse in coming through.

Eventually I did manage a few shots but looks like another visit is on the cards!!

And finally before the 12th!!!!!!!!

Thanks for looking

Preening Kingfisher

Here are a few shots taken in sequence of the juvenile bird preening, this is of course an essential part of the Kingfisher's life as they have to take care of their feathers, one thing they do not want is to become water logged....that would spell disaster for them.

  And when that is over with yet more

Thanks for looking

Caught out

Got told of a pair of Little Owl's in a stone building only 5 minutes from were I live. Anyway got in position and gave it nearly 3 hours, just as I was starting to pack things up I caught some movement through the corner of my eye over the Barley field I was stood in.

Once I had got all my senses onto what I was looking at the bird was almost on top of me, talk about taking me by surprise...............

And off it went as quick as it came Thanks for looking

Something completely different!!!!!

As the title suggests this is as far away from wildlife as I have ever been, photographically I mean!!!!

Got invited up to Doncaster by two great guys Trevor and Glyn to have a go at photographing a round of the BRITISH JET SKI CHAMPIONSHIPS!!!!

I enjoyed it so much I went again on Sunday.

Not sure of what to expect I was a bit more than taken back a little when you see some of these guys and girls going past you at 60 - 70 mph, no wander they have full body kits on.

After about the first two memory cards I started to get the hang of things, talk about being out of my comfort zone this sports photography lark is something else, someone did say to me "well at least you know they are going to turn up"!!!!!!!!!!

The good thing about it was that you did not have to worry about your background.

Thanks for looking

Brown Hare......with a difference!!

A few weeks ago I received a phone call from a good friend of mine who is the farm manager of a couple of large farms close to where I live.

" You have to come up here Alan we got one hell of a funny Rabbit"! And that's how the conversation started.

Now over the years if there is one thing I have learnt is not to drop everything and rush to wherever only if you know the person knows what he or she is talking about, however with that in mind and a couple of questions later I was soon heading out.

And just has I had been told there it was, but not a Rabbit but a Brown Hare ...but different why; well it had a brown head brown bottom but in the middle it was all white!!!

After speaking to people in the know it turns out to be best described as a 'genetic mutation' and nothing to other things that have been mentioned on social media sites!!

Hares in general keep themselves to themselves and only usually come into contact with one another during breeding; however this Hare does find it hard to mix with any other Hare and whilst I have watched it now for several weeks I do tend to worry a bit for it's future.

Only time will tell....................... enjoy the pictures.

Thanks for looking