Personal Favourites

I have been frustrated recently as the very disturbed weather has meant I have been unable to get out with the camera. It gives me an opportunity therefore to post some of my personal favourites from what has been a productive and interesting year photographing the wildlife in Lancashire.

This is the first series and I have selected some of my images from the first half of the year. The early months saw good numbers of waxwings around locally and as usual they provided lovely subjects for the camera and a couple of my better efforts are shown above. Spring saw a trip of dotterel on the local fells and I made the long walk early one morning to capture these enigmatic birds. As usual they allowed a close approach and together with others who had made the trek obtained some intimate portraits and again a couple are shown above.In May I was definitely in the right place at the right time to see for the first time a pair of great crested grebes performing the weed dance. This was something I had waited a long time to see and I made the most of the opportunity taking a burst of dozens of images to capture the moment.An image of this unique event is shown above.

Also in May waders were on the way to their High Arctic breeding grounds and called in on the Lancashire coast to refuel for the long journey ahead. This was very welcome as the sanderling were now beginning to show their rich breeding colours and I was able to get very close to them as a high tide brought them close to the camera.A nicely marked bird is shown above looking for food on the sandy shore.

Early June and I visited a local peregrine nest site on a church in the middle of a local market town.That evening two young peregrines that had earlier fallen from the nest were returned to their parents having recovered from their ordeal. The parents gave great flying displays that evening against a blue sky in lovely evening sunshine.I grabbed the opportunity to get some flight shots of what is the fastest bird in the world.Again one of the better efforts is shown above.

My final entry to this post is of a barn owl which it was my great pleasure to observe and photograph with fellow photographer Martin very early on a warm summer's morning in July. A pair of barn owls were hunting close by and at times came very close and we made the best of this golden opportunity. I will post another selection of my favourites from the second half of 2011 at a later date. Hope you enjoy looking at these images again and thanks for looking in.