Mostly Hares

I seem to have been stuck in a rut recently photographing brown hares and roe deer. I make no apologies therefore to be posting yet more images of these delightful animals.I have been confined to barracks most of the week and have been feeling unwell at times.I did manage a couple of hours yesterday evening with a drive round some of my favourite areas of Bowland.

I needed some fresh air and was having withdrawal symptoms from not using the camera.It had been another warm and sunny day but things deteriorated as I was preparing to leave .It was dark with showery rain but thankfully it passed and stayed dry for my trip.I found brown hares in the expected places eating the fresh grass and some of them were within camera range.I finished my journey with a return over Longridge Fell and found the roebuck feeding on his usual part of the fell.Another sunset presented itself  but there were still showers over the Irish Sea and these conditions spoilt the effect somewhat.Shown above my best efforts from the evening and I hope to be fully fit and return with more of Lancashire's wildlife next week. Thanks for looking in and enjoy the weekend. 

More from Bowland

This last week or so has seen me visiting Bowland again.Previously I had visited early mornings but recently evening visits have been the norm.It has been Easter Week and with it has come some settled, warm and dry weather.Usually around Easter time the weather seems to be cold and wet and the little lambs suffer with many dying from exposure.This year however the sheep and lambs have done well and it has been nice to see the sheep and lambs posing to have their photos taken at the side of the moorland roads.

The evenings have also been good  for seeing more hares and roe deer enjoying the new growth now appearing in the fields.It has been a pleasure to drive Bowland's quiet lanes and observe the wildlife.As well as the hares and deer I have also seen a couple of stoats and a tawny owl but both quickly vanished before I had time to get any shots.It was nice on my return from Bowland to drive over Longridge Fell and witness a magnificent sunset to round off what had been very enjoyable excursions into this lovely part of Lancashire.Hope you enjoy the images above and thanks for looking in.

Deer.. Hares and a Grouse

This last week has seen me going out on the early and late shifts to catch up with the local wildlife.I have been out in my favourite areas of Bowland to photograph brown hares and roe deer.An early start is essential to track down these shy and elusive animals.Roe deer particularly are very shy and vanish at the first signs of human presence.I have been reasonably successful and have managed to obtain a few satisfactory images from the comfort of the car before the deer departed from their early morning forays.The brown hares are a little more reliable and there are certain areas of Bowland where I am guaranteed a few sightings. Again I have found early morning to be best but have also had encounters in the evenings.

It has been worthwhile getting up early to experience the beauty and quiet of this lovely area of Lancashire.It gives me great pleasure to see the magnificent scenery and wildlife before the working day begins. Hope you enjoy my images above of the roe deer and brown hares and also the red grouse which posed nicely on a roadside wall.Thanks for looking in and enjoy the weekend.

Waders and Wheatears

This week on what was probably the warmest day of the year so far,I visited the coast at Southport. This is one of my favourite parts of the Lancashire coastline and I visit frequently particularly at times of high tide.This week there have been more spring tides and as well as the usual assembly of waders I was hoping to see and photograph wheatears. A number of these lovely spring migrants had already graced the coastline and I hoped to catch up with one or two.

It turned out to be a magnificent very warm day with blue skies and little or no wind. As usual at this time of the year and on such a beautiful day the skylarks were out in force pouring out their wonderful songs from the blue skies above.The waders were distant but eventually a good number of knot put in an appearance not too far away and I managed to creep up within camera range and obtained some reasonable images as shown above

I had spotted some wheatears on the way out but they were skittish and kept well out of camera range.However on the return journey I spotted five wheatears around one hundred metres ahead.I decided to stay put and concealed myself behind some vegetation and eventually the birds came closer and closer.Eventually after around twenty minutes they were well within camera range and I fired off many shots of these handsome birds.It had been a very interesting session with the camera and I have posted above a selection of the many images I took. Hope you enjoy my efforts and thanks for looking in..