Yorkshire wildlife & landscape photographer

Estonia and the big freeze

February 5, 2012

Estonia landscape at -25dg!

Just got back from Estonia where the trip results were the exact opposite of the fabulous three days I had in Greece a couple of weeks ago! The Greek trip resulted in over 5000 images in three days while Estonia resulted in around 20!! The reason for lack of images was the incredible freeze creeping across eastern Europe with daytime temperatures between -24dg to -36dg! These extreme temperatures caused many bird species to move out of the area, including our target species, the white-tailed sea eagle. We were due three days in a hide to photograph this magnificent bird but after two days we didn’t even catch a glimpse, so we decided to cut our losses and shoot some wintry landscapes on the final day. The trouble with eagles is that they are very wary meaning we had to be in the hide in the dark by 06:30 and couldn’t come out of the hide until it was virtually dark again at 17:00hrs. So, once you’ve committed to the hide, you’re in there for the duration and despite the weather being fantastically sunny, we just couldn’t make any images. Not even the ravens were coming to the carcass which is unusual, but given that the carcass was as hard as granite, who can blame them?!

Here are a few landscapes taken on the last day. Thanks to our man on the ground, Jan, for guiding us around that day. At least we got a few images to remind us of the intensely cold, but beautiful Estonian landscape and we did manage to catch up with a hawk owl, a new species for me and a very beautiful and enigmatic bird that I’ve long wanted to see. Check out me shooting in the snow, then look at the back of the camera seconds after I took the shoot and see the frost that has formed from my breath on the camera and tripod head, then look at the temperature guage in the car just moments later as we left :¬o And by the way, they are wolf tracks in the snow in case you’re wondering.

I am sure I will be back in Estonia before too long to make some really nice nature images :¬)

by John

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Dalmatian Pelicans in Greece

January 19, 2012

Just got back from 3 days in northern Greece where I’ve been photographing Dalmatian pelicans. The weather was superb for the whole of the three days we were there and the pelicans couldn’t have performed any better. Both the D3 and the D7000 took a beating as I rattled through 5000+ images in two days intense shooting. My aim was to get flight shots and low level feeding shots and I think that in the end I came away with what I’d set out to do. I’ve only just skimmed through the images and, as ever with so many images to go through, new favourite shots will appear over the coming weeks. Here are 20 shots to start with.

by John

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Common birds from the hide

January 6, 2012

Spent a couple of hours with Mike at his feeding station today. Lots of activity although limited species due to the mild weather. The great tits and blue tits performed very well but I was pleased with the three great spotted woodpeckers and the nuthatches that kept appearing on stage. At one point, the woodpeckers had cleared the nuts from the tree and so one attempted to land on the bird tanle and perched one the rusty ironwork we’d put in place for the songbirds – way too big in the frame but good fun! Here is a selection of images from the shoot.

Common British birds photographed from a hide including great spotted woodpecker, nuthatch, blue tit, great tit, willow tit

by John

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Red Grouse in the snow

January 2, 2012

Decided to down tools on the commercial photography edits today and head to one of my favourite little spots where red grouse congregate at the side of the road. The weather was glorious as I left home but by the time I got to my destination on the hills an hour later, the wether had closed in terribly: howling gales, horizontal driving snow and very low light levels! Still, the grouse performed well but, despite the snow and extreme conditions, there just wasn’t enough light to light the shots. Flight shots were a dismal failure due to motion blur caused by the lack of light, even at 2000ISO. Here are a few shots of grouse, done round about 800 ISO. Will have to go back shortly as these boys were getting ready for the spring and there was a lot of postulating going on despite the cold snap!

Red Grouse (Lagopus lagopus) in the snow

by John

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Great Northern Diver at Pugneys

November 25, 2011

Got a call last night to say there was a great northern diver (common loon for the USA visitors) on Cawood’s Pool at Pugneys Country Park and it had still been there at dusk. So, I set off early this morning as the sun was rising and met up with this battle cruiser of a bird as drifted across the lake in the winter sunlight. Cawood’s is a big pool and the bird was a way off, but fortunately just as I arrived it dived beneath the water and I ran to where I thought it might pop up only to find it broke the surface about a yard in front of me!! I was over-geared for the bird at this range but in any case it panicked, dived again and came up about 100yds away to look back at me. I got off a few quick shots before it headed further out into the lake. I always find them hard to photograph because, despite it’s size, they sit low in the water and there is little contrast or definition for the camera to lock onto. Here’s a shot of the bird which will at least serve as record of its visit to Wakefield. On the way back to the car, I came across some carrion crows drinking in a puddle in the car park. I’d already reached my car and taken the 500mm off the tripod when I saw them, but the light was good so I whipped off the 1.4x and stalked them hand held. Here’s a couple of shots I really like and were an unexpected bonus to the short morning session.

by John

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