Marsh Harrier nest building

A trip along the M62 to the banks of the River Humber to photograph bitterns turned into something far more exciting when I witnessed this male march harrier nest building deep in the reedbeds. The bird spent about an hour flying in with reeds and twigs and dropping them into the reeds and then each time went straight back out for more material. I don’t know if he was nest building alone or whether the fenale was in the reeds arranging the twigs as he dropped them but I suspect not. My thoughts that he was alone came afetr he flew off and despite my waiting around for nearly two hours, he didn’t return and no female came out of the reeds. It was a fabulous experience made all the more exciting by the fact that I also photographed a bittern and bearded tits along with the harrier. However, the marsh harrier remained the star of the show.

male marsh harrier carrying nesting material by John Gardner
male marsh harrier carrying nesting material by John Gardner
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Firecrest – a jewel of a bird

I never tire of photographing firecrest, they are such gorgeous little birds flitting around in the bushes and trees. I’ve been lucky enough to photograph them in Wiltshire on several occasions now so I thought I’d post an image I’ve just processed up.

firecrest by Yorkshire wildlife and landscape photographer John Gardner
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Website overhaul for Wildscenes

Ive been running the Wildscenes website since the early 90s and it has gone through various iterations to become what it has today. I am no coder by any means and so updating and changing the web site style has always been a challenge. Over the recent weeks, Wildscenes became corrupt and was not displaying correctly so I have taken the opportunity to rewrite the site and apply a new design. I am currently in the throws of completing this transition and it has meant I’ve had to pretty much do a ground up rebuild. So, you may find a few broken links and sparsely populated galleries but I am working hard to fix it in between my commercial photography shoots. I’m still taking a few wildlife images and here’s one I’m pleased with taken just a few days ago on the Humber estuary.

drake teal in flight
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More tales from the reedbed: Bitterns

After several visits amd many hours in the hide, I finally had a chance to photograph bitterns on the Humber estuary. The views were only fleeting apart from a single fly past so it paid to be on full alert the whole time in the hide. Once a very rare bird in the UK, bittern numbers are growing and sightings are more frequent, especially in the winter months.

bittern in reedbed
A bittern emerges from the reedbeds
bittern in flight
A bittern flies past the hide
bitter in flight, Yorkshire
Bittern fly by
gadwall in flight
A gadwall in flight
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Reedbed jewels: Bearded tits

Despite the attrocious impending weather conditions due later in the day, I decided to pay a vist to Old Moor RSPB reserve and have a walk around. The visit paid dividends as I ended up with a small party of bearded tits feeding in the phragmites not too far from the path. The midday sun was very bright and I was shooting directly into it but I thought it made for some atmospheric images of these wonderful jewel-like birds.

male bearded tit Old Moor RSPB
A male bearded tit amongst phragmites heads
female vearded tit Old Moor RSPB
A female bearded tit feeding on phragmites seeds
a female bearded tit on reed
Bearded tit (female) on a phragmites reed head
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