Avoiding The Heat

This last week the temperatures have soared with new records being established.The South has had the highest of the temperatures when it has been around 100 degrees in old money. Here in the north it has still been less hot but still well up in the eighties.I personally don't like this sort of heat so I have been going out at first light around sunrise at 5am when it was still around seventy degrees but much more manageable.I have been out early on three occasions into Bowland to see what wildlife I could find.

It was wonderful driving on traffic free lanes and roads in this beautiful part of Lancashire.The wildlife was also good with sightings of owls,deer,stoats and brown hares.I saw two barn owls and two little owls.Unfortunately I failed to get images of the little owls as I had a problem with camera settings.The barn owl images are only record shots but I will be back to rectify my images.Much better results were obtained with the roe deer.The female in particular posed beautifully as I hid behind a roadside wall.The roebuck image wasn't easy as light and position were not easy.Of course the brown hares are abundant and are actively feeding early morning in the dew laden grass and always provide excellent photographic opportunities.

I have also included some images of the sunrise and splendid Bowland scenery.You will notice in image seven the mist in the valleys below and it was a wonderful experience to see Bowland at it's best on these early Summer mornings.Thanks for looking in and I will be back soon with more efforts from my camera.It looks like the very hot weather is on it's way out as normal service has resumed with a wet weekend ahead. PS I forgot to mention the final image of a barn owl having a close encounter with a car.It was ok and flew off to survive another day.

Terns and Falcons

I always look forward each year to the arrival of the terns at the former Preston Dock where they have bred for a number of years.There haven't seemed quite as many this year but there has been plenty of action to keep the camera busy. I have only made a couple of visits and some of my better efforts are shown below.A lot of young chicks have been predated by the lesser black backed gulls and when one arrives looking for a takeaway the terns all rise up to see it off.Fighting,mating and coming in with food for the chicks can all be seen below.

After visiting the terns and on my way home I called in to see if the peregrine falcons were showing at St Walburges Church.Martin keeps a regular eye on the falcons and said they had been showing well.So it proved and I had nice views of an adult and one of the young way up on the side of the church.I didn't stay long having obtained some decent images of these wonderful birds.All this seen a few miles from home showing that you don't always have to travel far to see some of nature's spectacular birds.Hope you enjoy my efforts and next time I will probably be reporting on the Lake District ospreys which are having a successful season and will soon be departing for their Winter Holidays in West Africa.Thanks for looking in.

Bowland...Brown Hares and Curlews

Recently I have been enjoying the excellent weather.It has been settled with very warm and sunny days.I find that for photography when the weather is very hot it is best to get out and about in the early morning .It is nice and cool,traffic free and the wildlife responds by being very active.So I made a couple of early morning starts leaving around sunrise and driving round Bowland's quiet lanes and backroads to observe the wildlife.

The farmers had been very busy cutting and baling silage for winter feed and consequently the brown hares in particular had nowhere to hide and I was able to obtain some nice close up images.Also curlews were more obvious but still the numbers seemed to be down on previous seasons but again i got some nice images of these now very scarce waders.Also shown below a mistle thrush returning with food for it's hungry family and a splendid looking oystercatcher which had a youngster nearby.

As usual I have shown some images of Bowland's wonderful scenery and images of the many foxgloves seen along the way which really brighten up the scene.Hope you enjoy the images below and thanks for looking in and I will be back soon with more of the local wildlife.