HOWARD'S BIRDSPOT: June 2011

Sunday, 26 June 2011

Barton park and Our back garden. 26.6.11.

A quick visit to the park for a Nuthatch picture, Then a quick shot of the Goldfinch young in our garden.

Thursday, 23 June 2011

Cuckoo at Far Ings this morning. 23.6.11.

Cuckoo. A bit distant. The chaffinch in the frame took an instant dislike to it.

Monday, 20 June 2011

Nuthatch at Far Ings NNR. 20.6.11.

After a couple of reports in recent months of sightings of Nuthach, I remained confident that the species would turn up on the patch sooner or later. Today my brain latched onto that unmistakable song. Struggled to get a picture as the bird was on the move through the tree tops. But at least we got a record of it at Far Ings today, and only the second recorded bird of this species ever at the reserve.

Tuesday, 14 June 2011

Willow Tit Far Ings NR.

Monday, 13 June 2011

Marsh Harrier and Bittern 13.6.11.

Three hours in the hide early this morning straight from working a night shift. Early passes from the Marsh Harrier were in poor conditions with rain showers and mostlty cloudy conditions. The light improved later and the bittern put in a brief appearance before I was well ready to get some sleep!

Sunday, 5 June 2011

5.6.11.

More Bearded Tit and a Linnet, all taken this morning. Thick cloud when the beardie was taken. Light improved later , though I couldn't get the right side of the Linnet to get the light behind me.

Saturday, 4 June 2011

4.6.11.

Resorted to trying to get photos of swifts today after a disappointing day in the hide left me with little to show. Also here is a picture of a Chiloé Wigeon, an escaped bird which showed up on one of the pits on the patch. The Chiloe Wigeon breeds from central Chile and Argentina southwards. Southernmost populations migrate to Paraguay, Uruguay and south Brazil during the austral winter.

Friday, 3 June 2011

Reed Warbler 3.6.11.

Marsh Harrier 3.6.11.

Wednesday, 1 June 2011

1.6.11.

Three more Bearded tit photos taken very early this morning. Click on the image to see a larger version of the photo.

HOWARD'S BIRDSPOT

Hello and welcome to my blog. Firstly, I am not a professional photographer or a bird or wildlife expert. Most of what I have learned about photography and wildlife or birds is self taught from books or what I have learned from friends and wildlife photographers and birders. I owe a lot of my sucess to friends and photographers for their guidance. I am still learning and have many subjects I still want to photograph. I am very passionate about birding and bird photography. All of my subjects are wild birds or wildlife in the wild. I do not photograph captive birds or wildlife in a staged setting. It's just not my thing. I get no satisfaction from photographing captive sujects. That's not being disrespectful to those who do, I'm just not comfortable with it, and would rather go without pictures of rare subjects than take photos of captive ones. I do however respect the work of captive breeding programs and caring for injured birds and wildlfe. I belong to the local bird study group which records breeding birds on my local reserve. This has helped me to gain increased results in locating species to photograph from an increased knoledge of birdsong and bird behaviour. I have enjoyed increasing sucsess with my work in having work published in books and magazines including birdwatching magazine, in national newspapers and countless web features and articles. I was also the winner of the 2011 wildlifextra.com national photography competition "birds" category. leading to the publishing of the winning picture in the competitions book. The same picture is liscensced for sale by Getty Images through the Wildlfe and wetland trust, who featured my photo in a published article. My photo's have featured many times on flickr explore. I have also had pictures feature on the BBC springwatch red button site on television and have received the Springwatch photo of the day award. I've also had them used during the BBC and ITV weather forecasts and on the BBC Earth and BBC Nature websites. I also featured in a BBCTV look north feature shown on BBC 1 about my competition win and my love of photography on the Far Ings Nature Reserve. Thank you for visiting, and I hope you enjoy viewing my pictures. Please feel free to contact me with regard to using any of my images. I rarely refuse, but do like to know where my images are being used. I don't sell my images in print format due to the fact that I don't have the time at the moment as I am in full time employment. If you have any questions regarding my photography please contact me via email.

To view a larger version of any photo double click on it. Images on this blog are protected by copyright ©. Images may not be reproduced without my consent. If you wish to use any of the images, please contact me with your request. The files uploaded here on my blog are small jpeg files. This is to speed up post updates and to prevent reuse of the original large files.