Wildlife Update

arriving late this season was a shame but the wildlife seems to be behind the usual time. The Swallow has only just arrived and the Jacdaw Crow are still collecting material for the nest. But it looks like the Tawny Owl is well into the breeding process with the first young one seen last night.

Saying that the Kingfisher seems to be well behind and not feeding like you would expect at the end of April. I see the first young fledge around 1st May so it will need more observations this week to see if both adults are busy on the river. I have had a fantastic 2 weeks seeing the Red Fox, Roe Deer and Buzzard all in image distance with some great shots to go to my collection.

The Red Fox being my best image of the year so far

Then spending time on the river i came across the Kingfisher and after a few visits i managed to get a few images, which are not the best and i hope to get better when i visit next, as i dont think the young have fledged yet.

So with the first few weeks on site a real good start it just got better when i found out that a Barn Owl Nest Box i built and placed up on the moors in my mates barn has got a adult bringing voles in, means they could have young in it.

I will be updating as i find more birds and animals on site and on my travels

Blackie

Always Be Prepared For The Unexpected

sitting having my coffee in the Deer Hide i thought it would be a good idea to put some seed out for the little birds, i focused in on the feeder and was trying to get the birds before they landed. Using a high shutter speed of 1/5000 of a sec. It was very hit and miss wjen i was about to call it a day.

Ilooked up to see a big pair of eyes looking at me behind the lens, the Buzzard had come in as i was chewcking my camera and sat on a Log i had placed for the birds before they land. I could not believe my eyes and fired some shots off before it got scared of the shutter sounding.

Buzzard

You just have to love nature it comes to those who wait, ejoy the moment like i did.

No Thoughts

This is not negative writing but a first for me and have to describe my feelings.

As readers know my mind play tricks on me and the latest is truly amazing, I have been living up at my static van in the countryside with my 2 Beautiful ladies, Ruth and Bella for 3 weeks.

I came home to our house yesterday and after doing what I had to do I sat down and for a moment I asked myself, why are you not thinking of anything at all. My head felt clear, clean, at peace, are can’t describe how it felt.

It carried on and I could not see my boat by the lake waiting for me to get in and row to the middle.

So I wake and for a second I look out of our bedroom window and see the sun come up, the feeling is still there.

A calmness in my head I wish I could save bottle and sell, so I had to write this as I feel so wonderful.

Blackie

Countryside life update

Beautiful weather Beautiful wife and our Beautiful Bella, you could say we are living the dream. Bird song from the Song Thrush morning and evening, rivers flowing both sides of the site, a Beautiful lake with sun set every evening, Owls flying, Kingfisher fishing, the Dipper with its young.

Looking out at our garden with our little pond, flower’s coming through, the Goldfinch, Greenfinch all feeding well. The nest boxes are all being used, the Blue Tit, Great Tit and Tree Sparrow all taking the nesting materials in for building this year’s nest.

Tree blossom everywhere you look, moss covering the site verge, Blackbirds and Thrush collecting worms for the young. The Grey Wagtail and Pied Wagtail flick their long tails as the young copy them. Picnics by the streams and rivers, villages with smoke coming from the chimney, lambs calling as they start the short journey of life, spring back and forth playing and fighting not knowing it will end in September.

Sitting under the trees at night with Ruth gazing into our real fire. It’s dreamland we smile at each other no words spoken just feelings of joy and peace. Life seems to be rolling along just fine, no money to spend, no Prime Van pulling up outside, no Postman to wave to, no bins to remember. The tempation to go and get a bar of chocolate or sweets from the corner shop is not there.

No cars, vans, bin lorries, voices coming back from the pub. Sirens all day long wondering what has happened now.

Onwards and Upwards.

Blackie

Photography from our Static Van

Well after 9 days the little birds are using my new feeders i made when i got here. The Great Spotted Woodpecker, Siskin,Redpoll, Goldfinch, Great Tit Blue Tit Tree Sparrow Chaffinch and Blackbird together with the Robin all feeling safe feeding close to our daily living.

The quality this camera produces is amazing as seen in these images taken today.

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A Blade of Grass

From green to brown from long and short, wet then dry, sharp to the touch, soft as i lay, new mown sweet smell a sign of Spring. I creep on my belly as i watch the enemy, lying on you staying perfectly still waiting for the Deer to come into veiw. Parting you as i look for daylight, the sign of a track as i follow the Brown Hare, wet gewdrops fall off you onto my boots as i walk. Your different shades as you create a beautiful jigsaw from above. Short long thick and thin, cuts from your edge sting, holding you between my fingers trying to make a duck sound. Running from my children as i hide suffering from hayfever. Lying with my new girlfriend looking up at the stars, moon and sun. Tucking you into my Helmet making me blend in with enviroment. Cutting you for so long every year, treating you in the summer and autumn. Making stripes on you like the old Wembly Stadium. Cleaning you from my Lawn mower wet and dry, making you into compost for the garden. Watering you to keep you alive, growing you on rooftops and sheds. Collecting you for hay for the animals, picking you to give to the horse. rolling down you as a child from the top of the hill to the bottom. Edging you to keep my borders neat. Looking for my lost pound i dropped, you grow in my gravel when the birds drop the seed. my first touch as a child, to my hole in the ground removing you neatly to make way for my box. watching you every weekend as my beloved City run all over you with a ball. finding a ladybug crawling up you. The summer of 76 and 2018 so hot you turned brown everywhere i looked, just needing a drink. I lay on you in Germany, Bavaria, Austria, Ireland, Belize, Maxico, Canada, Cyprus, Bermuda, Port Stanley, and many other locations. Your burnt under control to encourage growth, taken from the jungle in vast areas to grow money making materials. The Lapwing, Oystercatcher and many other species need you to nest and buld their nests. The Barn Owl hunts over you longer the better, never cut just wild. Voles, Rabbits, Hare use you as thier home to live eat and sleep. The Roe deer fawn hides in you when mum goes off to eat, the red fox runs through you with the chicken. Baby lambs jump high on you landing in soft lush green grass. Dairy cows eat you to produce milk, sheep keep you under control for the farmer. Your level for miles then up and down as the hills get higher but still you grow. On the highest mountains to the lowest streems you cover the earth with your beauty. I use you for my work as a photographer taking you for granted as i get another image so i mention you in my blog as a way of thanks. I prayed i would land on you when i jumped from the C130 Hercules coming in at 25 feet a second my boots touching you first, you were my landing ground so many times being kind to me never hurt. at 7 i dived head first and scored the winning goal landing on you smiling as they cheered. I ran across you in a brown sack, with an egg in a spoon, fell head first 3 legged. Putted my first golf ball with my dad. Crashed on you on my first motorbike, made a muddy patch on you in the summer holidays in Goal. Sat with my family having a lovely picnic blanket covering you just for a short time so you dont die. Pitched my tent on you beside Loch Linne in Scotland in 2007. I dug you up many times to make my trench, to make my garden better, always turning you upside down to help the soil. Layed you so many times when i was a landsacaper always worried you would’nt grow. Walked you into many house as you stayed on my boots. Found you in my mug of tea in the army. Handfuls put down my back as a child, thrown you in the air hoping the wind will catch you. Watch your blades move as the Pheasant or other bird makes its way towards me with my camera. Your on films and documentary’s and get mention little or not at tall. They have made you false of all different shades and thickness to make the human life easier, but you will always be my Blade Of Grass that has been in my life for so long and helped me in so many ways.

Blackie

Why Does Life Get Harder

I have conquered many thinks in my life that I didn’t know I could do. Life with its ups and downs is something we get used to but I hate it when little things get you down. The mind is a powerful part of the body and yes you can train it to think in a certain way. The car getting a scratch on it would have kept me awake all night years ago before a Life changing episode hit me without warning.

Until that day I wanted everyone to see my Bose Hi Fi system, my New House, my New Car. The £48,000 I had in the bank in 1999. My Wood floors, that I had retired at 42 years of age. I was just living a life with all things Material.

But I was a good Dad and Husband. So in one sentence all that changed, the world of material living had gone it didn’t matter if I had a Million pound in the bank and a Ferrari on the drive, it would not have helped my Mind.

So i stopped Smoking and drinking thinking this would help me in my Me And My Mind Battle. I know I am not Normal and I do worry for the future because my mind is so Powerful it scares me sometimes. If I could go one day without worrying about things I would be at peace for a moment.

You could say I have everything and live a great life, but what lies in my brain can’t be explained and trying to tell people I just feel down today is as far as it goes. There is nothing any person or Pill can be a solution to a Brain that was formed, hurt, tormented when I was a child. The closest person in the world I live with will never know how my days are filled with worry, sadness, but I try my hardest to make her life the best we can have.

Even now when I go out to film my beautiful birds I feel the need to rush back home, it’s horrible I feel guilty for being out thinking of myself, when I treat myself I feel for my Wife and family, why do I have to buy things all the time, and when I do I feel guilty.

There is so much wrong with the way my mind thinks its like another person takes over just for a moment, then I come back until it appears again. I want everybody to be happy with no worries but life isn’t like that so when my Pefect Family with no troubles is hit by something so small, just some words that affects me to a point where I think I have Failed Again.

I am a Full Circle all sides perfect for so long then a peice is cut out making incomplete. And knowing it can’t be fixed back means it’s weak, the circle has become a Worry one that will go on with no Closure.

The Ringed Plover

Ringed Plover Sony A7r4 Sony 200-600

The morning was kind here in the UK this morning and I ventured out to the coast. The tide was in and the place was dead as I walked onto the beach, the view was beautiful calm sea for the North Coast and a slight breeze. As I looked for the Oystercatcher or Sandling and Turnstone my eyes focused on the pebbles, grey, brown, white, cream, every colour of pebbles small large square and round.

Huddled in the vast area was a little bird one of my favourite to photograph when I can find them. They are very small and very shy moving if anything gets within 100 feet of them. I don’t know how my eyes focus on these little birds so well camouflage in the beach sand and pebbles.

Lying down carefully I position myself so I was eye level with the foreground nicely out of focus. I put my ext on the 200-600 so I had a better reach and came away with this really nice image of a thecRinged Plover.

The ringed plover is a small, dumpy, short-legged wading bird. It is brownish grey above and whitish below. It has a orange bill, tipped with black, orange legs and a black-and-white pattern on its head and breast. In flight, it shows a broad, white wing-stripe.

They breed on beaches around the coast, but they have also now begun breeding inland in sand and gravel pits and former industrial sites. Many UK birds live here all year round, but birds from Europe winter in Britain, and birds from Greenland and Canada pass through on migration.

Sadly the Ringed Plover is on the Red UK Conservation List.

The Joy it brings

Helping people in anyway is so rewarding and sometimes you get a surprise years later for something you did by helping or advising people.

So having a wildlife hide in such a peaceful place is unique and when it is yours to use everyday on your own its a woldife photography dream

So why not share the with people you don’t know but are envious if what you have. So I let s few people use my hide to get some amazing images that they would not be able to get without my help.

You forget all about what you did for your fellow photographer and 2 years down the line I get a message from a person I let use my hide.

The person thanks me for letting me use the hide and that his photograph of a Great Spotted Woodpecker had been voted top image and he one image of the month.

Little things mean so much to Blackie.

Blackies Bird Feeder

So today I could not get out with my camera so I used a nice peice of Willow and with my Chisel and Mallet made holes in the wood for the Fatballs to be crushed into. This is a great way of attracting the birds onto a natural bit of wood.

The Starling worked out where it was and was in and eating within an hour.