Bowland Mix

I have managed a couple of trips into Bowland this week to catch up with the wildlife.The weather has been very mixed again and is currently pouring down as I write this account.It did stay dry and much warmer than on some of my previous visits.I enjoyed a very interesting session in a remote part of Bowland with Simon and Paul. We had a very enjoyable afternoon photographing whinchats as they looked for food and perched up obligingly on nearby thistles.We were hidden by camouflage and were able to obtain some nice portraits as the birds came close to the camera.I have shown some of the results below and an image of Paul and Simon at the location in the wilds of Bowland. On another trip this week I had excellent views of a golden ringed dragonfly and another encounter with a couple of adders. Images of these are also shown below. Hope you enjoy the images and thanks for looking in.

Long Time No See

It has been a long time since I had last seen kingfishers.They had been badly hit by previous severe winter weather and have been slow to recover. So it was nice to hear of the whereabouts of kingfishers not far from home. I have made a couple of visits this week to an area used by the kingfishers and have had nice views of the birds.It was not easy to obtain images as the stream is in a deep valley surrounded by trees and the light was not good for really sharp images.I did however manage a few reasonable images and these head this post. I have also this week made early morning and evening visits to the Bowland area.Distant views of roe deer but nice close ups of snipe and brown hare which are shown below. I have also shown a couple of the area of Bowland where I have been and where I have enjoyed my morning and evening visits.Hope you enjoy my images from the week and thanks for looking in.As I write this it is pouring down again and it looks set to continue with this very unseasonable weather for some time to come.

More of the same

It has been another week of very unseasonable weather with rain on most days. I managed to get out again early morning before the next period of rain arrived. As usual it was a good decision and another fruitful one with the camera.The usual early morning birds and mammals were up and about and I got some nice shots from the comfort of the car as I traveled the quiet backroads of Bowland. The birds seem to like sitting up on fence posts and walls to greet the sunrise and provide some nice opportunities for the camera. Shown below are oystercatcher,common snipe and curlew all posing nicely.The other bird posing for me was a barn owl which I discovered surveying it's territory from the safety of it's field barn.It had probably hunted very early and returned to roost. I hope to catch up with the owl at a later date when I can watch it hunting the meadows and hopefully obtain some nice images.Also below are yet more brown hare shots. This one was very close to the car and allowed me to grab some close ups .Hope you enjoy my efforts and thanks for looking in.

A Nice Surprise

The very poor weather has returned this week with plenty of rain and very cool conditions and it doesn't feel very much like Summer.I made the effort and left just before sunrise to avoid traffic disturbance and headed for my favourite byways and backroads of Bowland.I had fleeting views of a little owl again and then saw a female roe deer on one of her favoured areas of the fell. She was around one hundred yards or so away but stayed put whilst I rattled off a few shots. It wasn't until later in the day whilst reviewing the images at home that I noticed a new born fawn by her side which can be clearly seen in the images below. This was a very nice surprise indeed and I look forward to hopefully seeing them both again very soon.I continued with my tour of the quiet backroads and again had nice views of curlews and lapwings in the upland fields.The ever present brown hares were again out in force and I obtained more shots of these delightful animals as they enjoyed the peace and quiet of this lovely part of Lancashire.Images from my morning's efforts are shown below and I hope you enjoy them. Thanks very much for looking in and enjoy the weekend when hopefully we may have some better weather.

A Wonderful Week

It has been a wonderful week for observing and photographing the wildlife of Bowland.I made a determined effort to get out very early avoiding any disturbance from traffic.My main objective was to photograph roe deer. I had sightings on my three early morning sorties.Other than the deer I had many encounters with brown hares. They were enjoying the fresh meadow grasses which had benefited from recent rainfall and higher temperatures.Numbers of curlew and lapwings were also present in the upland meadows and the lapwings had well developed young.I also had an encounter with a little owl but the images obtained were on the grainy side and I look forward to further meetings with the owl.I have shown below further portraits of buck and doe roe deer together with the brown hares and I finish this posting with images of a curlew and the grainy shot of the little owl.I hope to get out again soon into the quiet lanes and byways of Bowland and bring you more tales from this beautiful part of Lancashire.Thanks for looking in and enjoy the Jubilee celebrations.