Hornets

The summer is the time I mainly end up snapping insects - not just the fact that there are so many around, but also the fact that not so much else is! When I heard that Rich had a hornets nest in an empty barn owl box I knew I finally had a chance of snapping an insect that had previously escaped my attentions. Trouble is the box was pretty high up, and the hornets didn't seem to use the nearby foliage to rest.
Brainwave - fruit. The plums? Nothing. What about the windfall apples? As I walked up a large yellow shape flew off and I realised my luck was in.Actually it wasn't that easy - there were a couple visiting, but only now and again. Still they proved to be very tolerant, not at all aggressive. Unless that is you were a careless flesh fly .......... Clearly a chunk of protein was a better bet than fruit.
I've put plenty more shots on the web album - 'latest pictures'. Mostly insects, including a fair few inflagrante delicto ...........

Woodland Puddles

I can't believe how long it is since I last posted. I've been taking a fair few shots, mostly insects, and I'll get some up soon.
In the meantime here are a few shots from my spring project this year. I spent (too) many hours lying next to some woodland puddles, but was rewarded with some amazingly close views of a wide range of birds, drinking or bathing.
If you look on the web albums you'll find a whole set, but here are a few tasters:

From Woodland puddles

From Woodland puddles

From Woodland puddles

From Woodland puddles

From Woodland puddles

From Woodland puddles

From Woodland puddles

Islands and Highlands 5

Enough islands. From Bass Rock we headed north to the highlands, but sadly the weather worsened. In this shot you get an idea. Beautiful when the sun was out, but mostly cloud, some real wind and intermittent rain.

The mountain tops were out of the reckoning, and even lower down we didn't fare so well.
Slavonian grebes were seen, but I didn't get any decent shots and they were looking a bit tatty anyway. Lovely to see the youngster though.
We did poorly with the local birds, although I had an eyeball-eyeball encounter with a crested tit that would probably have been too close for my macro lens!
There were quite a lot of common sandpipers around. This adult was unusually perched in a tree, but actually it was keeping an eye on at least one youngster scuttling around in the vegetation below.
Where we were staying we watched a small group of youngsters gain in confidence and finally start to fly around the small loch.
The sparrows posed nicely in the sun.
After a very rubbish day weather-wise - we went fishing and had a brilliant time, albeit with stockies - we headed up the next day to the Moray Firth for the dolphins. Again the weather wasn't great, but they put on the best show I've ever seen - and I've watched them a lot over the years. There were probably 15 or so around in various small pods at one point (you can see 4 in one shot below), and they were breaching so well that even I managed to snap a few in mid-air.
Remember the flying fish in the first of this series of posts? Well this is what it was all about - dolphin volleyball with salmon. We saw a few caught. I presume this breaks then up into better bite sized chunks.
To close, a birch wood robin, summing up our highland experience - a hint of sun, but mostly shade.

Have a look at the web album (links to the right) if you want to see some better views of the dolphin shots. Not great light, but you get a feel of how good the morning was.

Islands and Highlands 4

From Seahouses and the Farne Islands I headed up to Dunbar for a trip out to Bass Rock the following morning. Arriving at the harbour I recognised several other faces - clearly the Farne Islands -Bass Rock circuit is developing! The aim was a boat trip out, to feed some Bass Rock gannets on the way, and hopefully, weather permitting, to land on the Rock.

The weather was reasonably kind (although it clouded over as the morning passed), a few birds came to feed at the boat (the fishing has been good this year, so the gulls outnumbered the gannets significantly, but it was still a treat to see them hit the water so near), and the spectacle of the Rock came nearer.

The largest gannet colony in the world, from a distance the birds provide a dusting on the bare rock.

Access when we landed was as high as the ruined chapel can see just above the lighthouse, and the birds were just phenomenal. These are big birds, but they are at your feet, all around you - the sound, the smell - quite breathtaking. In fact there are so many photography was tricky - always a bit of another bird in the way!

I feel I rarely get my best shots on the first visit to a venue - I'm still too green at this game, and need to look back at the snaps and consider what to do better next time, but here I only had the one chance. In hindsight I spent too long trying for some flight shots - it's not the best venue light-wise, and with the wind direction as it was the birds were flying in from the sun, tending to cast shadow on the head. Still in the end I got some snaps I was happy with.

I should probably have spent a bit more time on the nesting birds, but got some nice views of parents with chicks of all ages,

of the parents together (very easy to anthropomorphise here - sorry Brian - but there has to be some element of affection here surely).....

including the bill-fencing greeting as one of the pair returned ........

and the 'sky pointing' a bird would do just before take off.

Not all was peace and quiet though. Two birds started a scrap, then more joined in and the mud was soon flying before the target bird managed a get-away. I presume it had ventured into the wrong territory, but suspect it won't make the same mistake again.

I previously commented on the brightly coloured mouths of various seabirds. Not so the gannets - but just look at the size of that gob!



Inevitably gannet fever took over. I should have spent more time on the herring gulls also nesting on the Rock - like I say next time I'll do better.

It was a good trip, and a great experience, but it's not cheap and you need to be lucky with the wind and light if you are going to get the really best views - especially flight shots. I took way too many pictures as usual, but if you want to see some more, or just better views of these shots, click HERE and look at the latest pictures album.