Off To A Good Start

Christmas and New Year were now behind us and I was looking forward to a return to normality. I seemed to have been in hibernation for weeks but a good forecast for Tuesday this week got me going again. Two birds I had not made the effort to see around Christmas were the Red Necked Grebe at Fairhaven Lake and the Iceland Gull at Preston Docks. Tuesday afternoon was looking good as forecast, so after an early lunch I left for Lytham St Annes.
It was indeed a lovely day and the temperature was reaching the dizzy heights of 7 Degrees and it almost felt Springlike as I arrived at Fairhaven Lake. The Red Necked Grebe was soon seen as it swam about at the eastern end of the lake close to the car park. There were three other long lenses trained on the grebe,two photographers from The Wirral and local bird photographer Michael Foley. For the next hour or so we were treated to some very nice views of this rare visitor to Lancashire.The Grebe at one point was fascinated by a swan's feather which it played with for five minutes or more and gave opportunities for some interesting shots. The very strong sunlight did make photography difficult at times when looking into the sun but it was a splendid session and we were all well pleased with the results.
On the way home I called at Preston Docks to look for the Iceland Gull which has spent many weeks at this location. There were no other birders there but I did manage eventually to find the bird out on one of the pontoons.It did later fly to my side of the dock and gave me some nice flight shots in the lovely afternoon sun. Well satisfied with my afternoon's work I returned home to view the results on the computer. A good start to the New Year and hopefully many more good birds will be seen and photographed in the months to follow. A few images of the Red Necked Grebe and a male Shoveler at Fairhaven are shown in and amongst some lovely reflections on the water surface . The Iceland Gull at the Docks also shows off his plumage on what was a very nice and welcome sunny day .

Still Looking Back.

Just a few more of my favourite images from a busy year in 2010 with the camera. I will be back soon with some new images when the weather cheers up a bit and I am able to get out and about again. See you soon.

Looking Back...Personal Favourites

Thought I would start the New Year by looking back at a few of my favourite images from a busy year in 2010 with the camera. Not an easy task from the thousands I took through the year. It was a very interesting year with very wintry weather to begin and end the year. My two most memorable experiences were a visit to a black grouse lek in the Northern Pennines and to end the year a close encounter with a fox in the snow at Christmas.
I am looking forward to more memorable encounters with the British Wildlife in 2011. I would like to wish all my friends and followers of this blog a Happy and Healthy New Year.The images are a mix of mammals and birds and may possibly require another posting. I have included Red, Roe and Fallow Deer..Red Squirrel and Red Fox for the mammals. The birds show Goldfinch, Barn Owl, Waxwing, Golden Plover, Black Grouse, Long Eared Owl, Dunlin, Sanderling and a Curlew chick. Thanks everyone for looking in and I will be back soon with new images for the New Year.

Christmas Fox

I am posting a few more images from the three visits I made to my local Nature Reserve at Brockholes Preston in the few days prior to Christmas. It was a wonderful experience to see some beautiful wintry scenery and all very close to home . Very often we don't realise that beauty is all around us and constantly delights us through the seasons.
This Winter so far has been very special giving us a taste of real winter weather throughout the country .It has provided many opportunities to observe Nature at it's most severe yet at the same time at it's most beautiful and I hope I have managed to convey some of that beauty in the images I have shown.
The final images of the fox were a wonderful Christmas present. I came upon this hunting fox unexpectedly at the edge of woodland as I was returning home and of course the photographic gear was in my rucksack !! I retreated back into the woodland to reassemble the tripod and camera and found that the fox was still preoccupied with looking for prey. This enabled me to quietly observe and photograph this beautiful animal over the next ten minutes. I was very well pleased with the results from the camera in capturing this close encounter with a hunting fox in the snow. It was a wonderful way to end these Christmas visits to my local Nature Reserve.

Brockholes.. Christmas

Christmas has now been and gone and I just wanted to publish a brief account of three fabulous afternoons I spent down at my local Nature Reserve at Brockholes just prior to Christmas. The temperatures had been sub zero for many days and in the countryside the powdery snow was undisturbed and still lay as it had fallen during the previous week.
I had decided to walk down through local woodland so as to avoid the treacherous and very icy roads. It was a lovely walk and after crossing the footbridge over the M6 Motorway a wonderful wintry scene awaited me as I made my way down through Boilton Woods towards the Nature Reserve at Brockholes.
There was plenty of activity along the hawthorn hedges lining the public footpath through the Reserve. Fieldfares, redwings,song thrushes and blackbirds were the predominant birds to be seen but many others were present including a water rail which appeared very briefly but managed to avoid the camera.
I have shown above a few images of the scenery and some of the birds present. In Part Two of this account I will post more images of the lovely winter scenes and also of a hunting fox which it was my good fortune to come across as I returned home through the woods.

Happy Christmas

Just a quick post before the festivities begin. I would like to wish all my followers  Best Wishes for Christmas and The New Year. The fox above was a surprise Christmas present whilst I was out and about this week. I will post more details and images in due course from what has been a  wonderful week in a very frosty and snowy countryside.  

Owl Time

This is the time of year around Christmastime when my thoughts turn to going to look for owls. So it was this week when I made three trips to see if I could find and photograph these evocative and spectacular birds. I visited areas of Lancashire where I had excellent sightings in previous years, notably two years ago in the Pilling area when there was an  " invasion " of short eared owls. Sadly this year this doesn't appear to be the case and during this week I have failed to find any shorties. Whether this is down to lack of prey or whether the SEO had a poor breeding season I don't know.
It is a different story however with the Barn Owl which is resident in parts of Lancashire and can usually be relied on at this time of the year to be found hunting over it's favoured areas of rough grassland. So it proved this week when I visited three sites ,two on the Lancashire Mosslands and one on the moorland of The Forest Of Bowland. The barn owl does tend to appear mid afternoon onwards hunting it's territory and the light then can be good for photography. One afternoon gave some lovely views of a barn owl hunting in the warm glow of a setting sun and enabled me to obtain some nice images with which I was well pleased.
I have posted a few images of one of the mossland barn owls in this lovely light and I hope my readers enjoy them as much as I did in observing and photographing this lovely bird. I will probably do another post before Christmas to show some more including the Bowland bird returning to it's hillside barn with a vole.