Happy Days.

No wildlife shots today, I've been busy with the wedding of my daughter, Lesley and my son in law, Matthew. I only have the one daughter and I was so proud to see her get married, It was a great day and lots of fun.

Back soon with some more wildlife shots, promise.

More from Wales, They talk funny you know!

More stuff from Wales, competely random in order.



One day we went to the River Glaslyn Osprey Project on the outskirts of Porthmadog. The Project is run by the RSPB and is staffed largely by Volunteers. We saw Osprey through the scopes and Its great to hear that the birds are returning year on year and breeding succesfully.

Another bird that has returned are the swallows. A pair nest inside the hide, here are two chicks on the nest, they are completely at ease with all the visitors, the adults fly in and out with food an barely pay any heed to the human activity.


In my last post I think I alluded to the fact that there were lots of Herring gulls seen. I like this flight shot of one, its different to the norm having its wings forward.

Whilst on Anglesey my son came across this little fellow or lass on the road. It wasnt very well. I could see a tick attached to its underside and it was breathing funnily. I moved it to the side of the road and hope it manages to live.

I was sitting wait for a bite whilst fishing and this pair of Damsell flies started to perform infront of me. Got this shot with my 300mm lens so apologies for the poor quality.

This Greenbottle was caught with my 100mm macro lens. I think I would like to get into Macro photograpy a bit more. I love to see some of the offerings on the UKNP forum site, I can't match some of the shots on there but I am pleased with the first few efforts.

We saw 44 different bird species whilst in North Wales, thats over 1/4 of my year to date list all seen in 5 days. I think that Wales has so much to offer, and have been watching the wild Wales series on TV, it has certainly opened my eyes to the diverse wildlife population that this part of the British Isles has to offer. I would strongly advise yu all to take a trip to Wales, it might be the best experience of your lives.

Just a few more pics to follow in my next post. As always click on pics for larger versions.

Back from Welsh Wales

I had a very nice time in Wales, with lots of birds seen and some not only first for the year but some lifetime firsts. However the weather was pants so there aren't many great shots, Its a mixed bag, so rather than just showing birds or one particular thing I'm going to mix it up over the next few postings. The one constant during the trip were the Herring Gulls, They were everywhere and although I've seen Herring Gulls before I was still amazed by the size of them.


I made the mistake of throwing bread out to some Blackbirds that were hanging around our caravan one morning in the hope of getting some shots, when I did it there were no other birds in sight. Yet almost before the first scrap had hit the ground there were a dozen Herring Gulls outside.

During a fishing trip to Anglesey I managed a few close up shots of a few smaller things. These were all hand held shots using my 100mm macro.

This is, I believe, a Magpie Moth.

This is a Large White Butterfly.

I have looked for this in both the Collins insect guide and the internet and I think its a Potato Capsid.

This is a Greenbottle fly, I dont like flies at all, but the make up of these things is amazing.

During the week I tried a bit of Landscape photography, again in poor light, This is not a good shot technically but the huge expanse of rock behind this tower was impressive, I have a few more which I'll post over the next time or two.

A trip to some waterfalls near Llanbedr was amazing, the weather was not great, very grey and humid, and very wet, muddy walking conditions but the waterfalls were something to see and I'm glad I went.

More to follow soon, however on the birding front I mentioned seeing some new birds, I will list the birds we saw in a future post but the new birds were, Great Skua and Sandwich Tern. Unfortunately I did not have the camera with me on the occasion that I saw these 2 birds. Suffice to say I was very happy, especially with the siting of the Skua, it was just off shore and was attempting to get a young Black Headed Gull off the sea, It was being mobbed by other BHG's but at one point it did manage to grab the young bird and start to fly off with it, but the sheer pressure from the other birds forced it to drop it. It was very amazing stuff.

A Break in the Clouds

A break in the weather allowed for a visit to Old Moor RSPB reserve. I am so looking forward to seeing this place in the winter, it holds such promise. First stop is the feeder hide by the centre. There are usually tons of birds on the feeders including Bullfinch, Tree Sparrow, Greenfinch, Magpie, Woodpigeon, and Collared dove. I loved this picture of the Greenfinch.



Out on the reserve there were lots of Juvenile birds and still a large number of chicks. Here is a female Shoveller with some chicks,



A juvenile Moorhen.

One of a pair of Juvenile Carrion Crow.

A juvenile Oystercatcher,

along with one of it's adults.

and lastly a juvenile Grey Heron.

Not as striking as an adult but still quite a magnificent bird, i hope you would agree.

I have yet to get any shots of the Med Gull chicks, there are 3 on the reserve, a first for the reserve. They are too distant at the moment but hopefully as they get bigger they will start to congregate with the large number of Black Headed Gulls. There are also at least one set of Common Tern chicks on the reserve but likewise they too are too distant for shots at the moment.

It's back to rain today so no shooting. I have found a great spot at a place called Adwick, not too far from my place and a walk without the camera yesterday gave me close up sightings of, Goldfinch, Longtailed tit, Reed Buntings, Willow warbler and Lesser Whitethroats. I hope for some decent weather before the weekend and the chance to get some shots of them.

I'm away in North Wales next week with my brother, hope to get some shots from South Stack amongst a few other places, will post anything I get on my return.

Bad weather and too much wind.

Due to bad weather and incredibly strong winds on those days where there has been some sun I have no new pictures to post. So a few more Gannet shots from Bempton Cliffs RSPB reseve for your viewing.

Firstly however, a quick mention to Andy Carey who has had his Squacco Heron shot included in Bird Watch magazine recently. Well Done Andy, however I think I'm right in saying that he's not yet posted them on his website for us all to see, come on Andy finger out!!! and before you say it I know you've been busy moving into your newest new House. Good luck for that mate, hope you and Kim will be happy there.

So Gannet, here are a few more for you.

The Gannet is a fabulous bird I think you would all agree.

Oh, I have to say, I've been nagging another friend, Chris Grady, to put more shots up than he has recently and he has listened and posted quite a few this week. If you havent already then go have a look at his website http://www.wildlife-imaging.co.uk/ and check out the Swallow pics in particular, tell me that the first of them isn't a brilliant shot if you dare.

Hope to have something new for you all shortly, thank you for your patience.