So maybe we've not had the best of summers, but it does seem to have been a good one for butterflies. On my recent trip to the Lake District I saw rather more butterflies than birds, which was a bit of a problem because I left my best butterfly lens at home! Taking photos of butterflies with a 400mm lens is definately possible, but it does make getting the right angles more interesting.
It was nice to see tortoisehell's again. It seems a long while since I last encountered one.
And the speckled wood was a new one for me - but there were a lot of them along the banks of Lake Conniston.
Saturday, 19 September 2009
Wednesday, 16 September 2009
Sunday, 13 September 2009
Weather and Waders
My week on Mull was quite wet, and the weather prevented me from getting a boat out to the Treshnish Isles. It did not prevent a good time though - and in between the showers I managed a number of photographs. I spent the majority of the Thursday on the beach photographing waders. They were a bit flighty to start with, however, I knelt on the (very cold and wet) sand, and eventually they largely ignored me.
Fidden Beach is a beautiful Hebridean white sand beach. It had large numbers of dunlins, sanderlings and ringed plovers as well as a pair of bar-tailed godwits and an otter.
Uisken beach was a bit wilder (and rather smelly due to a dead sheep on the high-tide line). Here I saw more plovers as well as a number of white wagtails.
Fidden Beach is a beautiful Hebridean white sand beach. It had large numbers of dunlins, sanderlings and ringed plovers as well as a pair of bar-tailed godwits and an otter.
Uisken beach was a bit wilder (and rather smelly due to a dead sheep on the high-tide line). Here I saw more plovers as well as a number of white wagtails.
Wednesday, 9 September 2009
Saturday, 5 September 2009
Encounters with otters
I love Mull.It's official. After nearly fifteen years of Highland visits I discovered Mull only three years ago. It has everything that Scotland has to offer, plus the widest variety of wildlife compressed into one relatively small island. When the weather is good you cannot beat it.
Last time I came with the express intention of seeing otters. This, apart from the briefest glimpse from my B&B window, I spectacularly failed to do. This time I decided not even to try. Consequently of course I have seen at least one otter every day. On Wednesday I spent over an hour watching a mother and two cubs fishing, playing and resting on the far bank of a loch. They were too far away for a photo, but great to watch. As I did so another otter emerged on the seaweed about fifteen yards from me affording me my first decent photo of an otter in the wild. I wasn't expecting it to get much better than that.
On Friday in the company of an otter-mad family from Yorkshire we found two more in nearly the same place. A stealthy slither across the seaweed covered rocks put us about twenty-five yards from these. As we settled down to watch, a car went by on the road behind us and one of the otters looked up to see what was going on. Right down the lens of my camera. Fortunately he did not see us.
After a short fishing expedition, the pair hauled up on the other side of us and afforded us another excellent view.
This, and several other unexpected otter encounters, have made this perhaps one of the most exciting wildlife holidays ever. In my personal 'top trumps'of British wildlife a wild otter beats almost anything else...
Last time I came with the express intention of seeing otters. This, apart from the briefest glimpse from my B&B window, I spectacularly failed to do. This time I decided not even to try. Consequently of course I have seen at least one otter every day. On Wednesday I spent over an hour watching a mother and two cubs fishing, playing and resting on the far bank of a loch. They were too far away for a photo, but great to watch. As I did so another otter emerged on the seaweed about fifteen yards from me affording me my first decent photo of an otter in the wild. I wasn't expecting it to get much better than that.
On Friday in the company of an otter-mad family from Yorkshire we found two more in nearly the same place. A stealthy slither across the seaweed covered rocks put us about twenty-five yards from these. As we settled down to watch, a car went by on the road behind us and one of the otters looked up to see what was going on. Right down the lens of my camera. Fortunately he did not see us.
After a short fishing expedition, the pair hauled up on the other side of us and afforded us another excellent view.
This, and several other unexpected otter encounters, have made this perhaps one of the most exciting wildlife holidays ever. In my personal 'top trumps'of British wildlife a wild otter beats almost anything else...
Wednesday, 2 September 2009
Saturday, 29 August 2009
Pre-trip optimism...
Looking out of my window this morning the sky is a cloudless blue, and low morning is highlighting the first tints of autumn in my neighbour's garden. After a grey few days it is a wonderful sight. It fills me with hope for the next few days. I'm off up to Mull for a bit and then coming back via the Southern Lakes. Very much looking forward to it all; but rather hoping that the light is good
I've just review my last my Mull shots. Some potential there in terms of subjects, buzzards, curlews, sea eagles, seals - but all uniformly drab and uninteresting thanks to unhelpful weather. Hopefully this year will turn up something more noteworthy!
I've just review my last my Mull shots. Some potential there in terms of subjects, buzzards, curlews, sea eagles, seals - but all uniformly drab and uninteresting thanks to unhelpful weather. Hopefully this year will turn up something more noteworthy!
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