HOWARD'S BIRDSPOT: 2012

Saturday 15 December 2012

Waxwings at Waters Edge Country Park Today.

25 birds present today. The light was terrible today though.

Thursday 13 December 2012

A few shots from this week.

WAXWING

Goldcrest

Kinfisher

Fieldfare

First three from today(13/12) at Waters Edge. Last two from the 10/12 Far Ings.

Friday 9 November 2012

Goldcrest at Far Ings 9.11.12.

Spent a few hours walking the entire patch yesterday and today looking for waxwings to no avail. So I settled down sat on the ground on the edge of some thorn bushes waiting for long tailed tits coming past bringing the Goldcrests. Managed just one shot worth keeping which believe me is a good day on this species. Constantly on the move they frustrate me so much, but I love the reward of a shot of one when I get it. Saw a couple of Jays today again but didn't manage a shot. I'm sure Jays have had a good breeding season this year. I've seen far more this last week or so than I have in previous entire winters.

Tuesday 6 November 2012

Far Ings 5.11.12.

More Goldcrests taken yesterday at Far Ings nature reserve. The first shot features on Flickr explore today.

Sunday 14 October 2012

Far Ings 14.10.12.

Great Tit and Goldcrest at Far Ings.

Saturday 13 October 2012

Goldcrest Far Ings 13.10.12.

First decent shots of the autum. I must be mad to keep chasing this species, it's one that's sure to make you want to to throw your camera as far as you can at times. It's so difficult to pin down shots of this species. Nice to get some today, albeit ISO 1000 due to the lack of light in the woods at the moment. That will improve once the leaves fall.

Tuesday 9 October 2012

Common Kingfisher Far Ings 8.10.12.

A trip out today between more pressing chores to see if I could catch sight of a kingfisher reported yesterday at Ness lake was not wasted. The bird showed twice and fished in the hour or so I stayed. A sparrowhawk spotted at the other side of the lake did come to try to take the rather noisy Kingfisher as it fished from the posts infront of the hide. Glad that didn't happen as it's the first Kingfisher seen here in a few months.

Friday 31 August 2012

Far Ings 31.8.12.

Been rather busy lately installing a new kitchen, but todays forecast of clear skies meant a day off to spend on the resverve. Photos from the top are Juvenile Swallows, Willow Tit, Common Treecreeper and Winchat. The winchat was taken at Chowder Ness. Thanks to Graham Catley for the original heads up on that one.

Monday 16 July 2012

Barn Owl 15.7.12. In late fading light.

Sunday 1 July 2012

kestrel Juv and Swallow in the early morning sun. 1.7.12.

Saturday 30 June 2012

Barn Owl and Juvenile Kestrel 30.6.12.

Friday 29 June 2012

Kestrel 29.6.12.

Barn Owl 28.6.12.

Tuesday 26 June 2012

Local Kestrel fledgling.

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.