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Wildlife Photography

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Photography and Updates


Honestly, I didn’t realise I had that many readers but I’ve been asked quite a few times now why I haven’t been posting for a while, so here’s a quick update. I’ve been moving home over Christmas, which hasn’t been the smoothest process, having had todo most of the actual moving myself, with a herniated disk and two lumps on my spine, so that wasn’t fun, but it’s all done now! We’re settled in, just got a loong list of things to fix or replace on the new house but all doable work. Despite it being cold outside right now, signs of spring are really showing and I really wanted to focus on these signs this year, as for me, they are the highlight of this time of year.

A goal of mine has always been to record the sound of Frogs Croaking / Spawning, but I haven’t had the right location or a gap in the weather just yet, but I did manage to have a great photography session with my Amphibian specialist friend Michael Rodgers. I remembered an old spot that I had previous success from, so thought we’d give it a go and was shortly rewarded with several males and females popping their heads up to keep an eye out. Must admit these are some of my best Frog images I’ve ever taken, capturing them spawning, mating and croaking, painting a true picture of the atmosphere that filled the pond. I’ve thrown in a few images from my travels, usually between work breaks on the Gwent Levels, with Magor Marsh and my home Garden being my go-to break time locations at the minute. Despite several ill-health moments over Christmas, with Viruses, Shingles, and my usual health issues, I’m back at my ecology work, mostly on the Gwent Levels but in the uplands of Swansea soon too, not to mention the Bat season is fast approaching so it’ll all be chaos soon again!

Here’s the shortest video in history to make up for the lack of sound recording gear! That Croak is epic :)

Sound Recording

I’ve done very little this winter, as it’s been quite a windy one! Here’s a recording of 50mph gusts from the backdoor of my new home to prove it!

But still, signs of spring started quite early in the year, with short windows of southerly winds spurring some early spring songsters into action:

These last two recordings I’ll revisit in a future blog, as the mimicry in these two very different species of bird, is spectacular and whilst the Starling is very well known for mimicking, I think the Siskin can give it a run for its money!

This year I also intend on doing more ambient recordings, and I’m off to a good start with some Wave recordings at Goldcliff, and River Recordings along the Usk. These recordings directly tie into my Mental Health company called In Our Nature CIC, which I’ll give updates on also below.

Glad I brought the Dish on this river visit as further upstream there were two Oystercatchers chasing each other around, so I was able to continue recording the river sound with a stereo pair of mics, whilst also pointing my parabolic dish upstream to capture the echoing sound of the Oystercatchers as they flew up and down.

In Our Nature CIC

We’re kicking this year off with a bang! No thanks to the Heritage Lottery Fund which has allowed us to continue offering our services to the public, totally FREE of charge. You can expect weekly walks, special events, everything from Birdsong Identification to Tree’s, Otters, Bats and Flowers, keep an eye on our website for more details or head over to our Facebook group. The project is called ‘Take A Moment’ which is a fitting title that encapsulates our message that we’re trying to send thru our company. We could all do with Taking A Moment this year with nature, as the mental and physical benefits aren’t just incredible beneficial to us, but they’re absolutely free!!

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Indian Summer

Anything can happen this time of year with the weather but September has become a month not to underestimate, as we have consistently had warm weather creeping in, just when we all had a taste of the autumn in august with wet, windy and cold. Migration has some-what come to a stand-still in the last week, with no waders moving on my nocmig, but it has been replaced with a large movement of Siskin, Meadow Pipit and the odd Chaffinch. Now my Nightjar have left for Africa, I usually turn my attention to the water. Llandegfedd has already produced a few Ospreys on passage, one of which stayed for a week but remained antisocial due to all the boat activity on the reservoir. We were lucky to witness it leaving the reservoir after one last circle of the water in search of a fish and literally the next day, the same bird was picked up at Chew Valley Lake.

It’s now a great time to search for any late summer insects. Wasp Spider females are now at their largest size so they are easier to find and there are plenty of Caterpillar’s around that are fattening up, ready to pupate. In terms of resident birds, the local Raptor population seem to be turning to insects for their main source of food, including Red Kites, that I’ve observed feeding on what looked like large Beetles. This field was full of sheep so it’s likely that the beetles are a variety of dung beetle species that are draw to the fields by the sheep droppings. The coast-line is filling up with waders, with large flocks of Turnstone, Ringed Plover, Sanderling, Dunlin, Oystercatchers and Knot. It’s been a great year so far with waders, mostly around the coastline, with an abundance of Curlew Sandpiper, Pectoral Sandpiper and Little Stint in the country, all of which have been seen at Goldcliff Lagoons in the last two months. I have a group of friends that regularly bird Goldcliff Lagoons, and if you want to see regular updates on the birds seen there. I highly recommend looking at Blair Jones’s blog - https://www.thewildlifeoculus.com/ where he has a very well written, running documentary of Goldcliff Lagoons that’s also packed full of images that paint a vivid picture of the often, action packed lagoons. I also recommend subscribing to John Lawton’ youtube channel - https://www.youtube.com/c/johnluk/videos as John also spends a lot of time on the Gwent Levels and puts a lot of time and effort putting together video clips. Video is another ball-game, you really have to be dedicated as not only does it take up a lot of space on the hard drive, it’s pain-staking to edit footage and cut it up into a presentable form.

I have a lot of images below, some of which have been taken very recently on short trips to the beach at Ogmore-by-sea. All others have been taken in Gwent, with a Great White Egret showing well at Blaenavon Garn Lakes. Wasp Spiders at Marshfield on the Gwent Levels, Osprey at Llandegfedd and the rest, pretty much in my tiny little Garden.

I’ve also been continuing to search for natural textures. I’m planning on using these images as part of a task at In Our Nature CIC. For anybody suffering with mental health issues, it can be an important exercise to make your world smaller. You might find yourself stuck in a closed environment all the time, whether it’s office work or you might be house-bound for health reason, so open spaces can feel a little overwhelming. Focusing less on over-all landscapes, and more on the little details right in-front of you can be a good way to over-come what can otherwise be a sensory overload. The same technique also works for people who take in too much information, in that they’re constantly exposed to open landscapes, where they’re always having to interpret large quantities of information. People who drive long distances tend to suffer from this and it’s often subconsciously so you aren’t even aware of how much information the brain is actually taking in.
We’re subjected to information every single day and we can’t control everything, but we can chose to concentrate on the little things.

Sound

The end of august was quite a windy one so I didn’t do much in terms of sound recording, other than of course this recording below from the comfort of my doorstep. Here you can really hear the depth of the wind storm at was upon us that day.

Since then it’s returned to our Indian Summer, and the water coming thru the inlet at Llandegfedd sounds beautiful.

The bird soundtrack is still very much so Robin dominated now but with the hot weather I have started to hear the odd Dunnock, Blue Tit and Great Tit singing. Next on my list is to get some nice recordings at the beach, the sound of Waves are magic, but I’m saving this for those cold winter days where there won’t be any birds singing.

Nocmig

I haven’t had much on the wader front, as there’s been a low pressure over Scottish seas for a few weeks now, holding those wader flocks back. I have had large numbers of Siskin, Meadow Pit and Grey Wagtails over the house early morning though, with the off Yellow Wagtail in the mix. I’ve just started to get Chaffinch in the morning also but Siskin seem to be dominating the morning migration, with numbers reaching in the hundreds. I’ve had that many recordings I haven’t uploaded any of them yet but here’s one of the closer Yellow Wagtail calls to end this lengthy blog.

Nightjar + Updates

Some good news, some bad news, such is the nature of nest monitoring. In this woodland I have 7 pairs, but I’ve only managed time to find 3 nests so far. 2 of these nests are doing great, both with two chicks and both getting bigger each day, but as the nest gets smell from droppings from both the parents and young, it starts to attract predators, and the worse happened for my 3rd pair that seemed to get their chicks to a decent age, but the nest was found empty, with just a few chick feathers that were broken off. I didn’t have a camera on this nest so it’s difficult to know what the cause was, but this pair failed their first clutch last year also and managed to start again with their second clutch fledging one chick. Below is a male that I’ve come to call Midnight, as he’s particularly dark compared to my other males. Males are usually darker than females, but this guy takes it to another level. He’s the male of the failed pair, so is now sticking close to the female again where-ever she may go, so that they can start over. He’s even roosting on Rocks which makes sense now the nights are getting cooler as that extra warmth sitting on a rock that’s been baking in the sun all day will most certainly give them an extra boost of energy at sundown.

I don’t usually photograph birds on the nest, but I've been getting requests to see the chicks on Facebook so here we go. There are two showing in the photo, but the second is much harder to spot. They’re just getting too big to stay underneath Mum, and it this time lines up perfectly with their adult plumage coming into play, so they are becoming less dependant on mothers superior camouflage.

We’re so lucky in Gwent to have such a variety of fauna and flora and I don’t appreciate it half as much as I should whilst I’m out and about. Usually too busy to stop and observe the ground, especially when you’re focuses on Nightjar, you get a little tunnel vision, but it’s surprising what you do find if you just set aside a bit of time. There are some species that you just need to make the time for, like the Scarce Blue-tailed Damselflies in upland Gwent ponds, if you don’t look, you won’t find them, but there are other species that you just need to get lucky with, and luck was on our side as a Silver-washed Fritillary was sapping moisture and minerals from a clay patch right next to the car along Albion road, pontypool.

Sound Recording

I’ll start with a mystery, and if you do have an idea of what this begging sound might be, please get in touch as I’ve suspected many things but cannot find any reference material that matches.

There were a few Woodcock roding so I thought it might be a begging chick but I’m honestly not convinced it’s even a bird at this rate. This is the first decent recording I’ve got of a roding Woodcock but I’ll try to improve on this next season as it’s a very cool sound.

The star of the show was of course this beautiful performance off this Male Nightjar that does have a very distinctive song, where the inhale section of the song, also described as the minor phrase, is quite low pitched in comparison to its major phrase, making him identifiable, even by ear, so long as you know what you’re listening out for.

Throughout the season I have been observing Goshawks nearby that have been taking food back and forth, so I suspected at the time they were nesting quite close but till now I’ve kept my distance as I’m not scheduled and I have no interest in disturbing them, but in the last few weeks the chicks have fledged and are venturing much further away from the nest site, so it was a matter of time walking the woodland paths that I eventually came within reach of my recording gear. This is why I love sound recording with a Telinga Dish, as unlike photography, you don’t actually need to see the bird to appreciate it, which allows you to appreciate wildlife from a much greater distance.

Nocmig

I’ll end with a few updates from my Nocmig recordings, which have just started to pick up again as birds are starting their autumn migration.

So far I’ve had Little Ringed Plover, Oystercatcher and a few morning extra’s in the form of Swift, Linnet and Raven, which I don’t usually get here.

Babies!

So I know everyone loves to follow the Osprey projects around the Uk because of the live cams ect, but also because the birds are identifiable so people can really track their progress. Thousands of people watch avidly and know them all by name by now, and I know most pragmatic naturalists are probably cringing right about now, but I do think that in giving individuals names, that people start to realise that these birds are unique, and aren’t just carbon copies of each other. We all have individual characteristics and it’s no different with wildlife. An example of this can be seen below, as last year I found a Male Nightjar that would roost on rocks instead of the typical logs, but only when the weather was bad or it was due to rain. I have a few reasons why I think he would prefer a rock in these circumstances. Rocks don’t sway in the wind, the don’t attract Wood Ants, and should any sun make an appearance, the Rock will warm up. There may be no reason what so ever and whatever the reason, this is the only Nightjar in the area that I’ve documented doing this year on year.
As a result, I’ve come to name him Rocky, and his sandy female Pebbles.

I’ve only found two nests so far in this woodland, with another 4 to go but both females have managed to hatch an egg on the same day, so it’ll be interesting to see how they both develop.
The other pair have chosen the burnt habitat and I’ve come to name them Ash and Tinder. I think this pair is a young pair, as the spot she has chosen to lay her eggs is, well, questionable to say the least. I’ll keep you informed of their progress this season but anything could happen with lots of predators in the area.

One thing I am keeping an eye on is the weather as we’ve gone from 30c heatwave to plummeting temps with strong winds and rain. Not so great for breeding birds, but I did take some of the storms as an opportunity to record some rain storms. If you suffer with mental health issues like myself, you might find listening to these before you sleep really helpful. Stick the headphones on and relax.

Whilst we are on sound, on one of my nocturnal monitoring sessions with the Nightjar I come across a displaying Snipe. This sound is worth talking about, as if you didn’t know already, this sound is produced mechanically. It’s referred to as ‘Drumming’ as the sound is produced during a flight display, where the tail feathers are stiffened and spread out in such a way that the outer feathers catch the air and produce this incredible sound. I heard it for the first time this spring on the Gwent Levels, but this was the first time I’ve heard such a long extended performance.

I’ll leave you with a few ‘arty’ shots of Hard Ferns, Large Skipper and an Emperor Dragonfly on a short social distancing walk with Lee Gregory. Lee is such an asset to Gwent, his natural history knowledge is incredible and he’s such a nice guy! Hopefully when this lockdown is behind us we can get out more often.

Hidden Gems & Mystery Call

I’ve got a soft spot for wildlife that utilises camouflage. I’ve found numerous Jack Snipe this season but only attempted to photograph this one as you can do so without stepping into their habitat. This is something you can’t avoid when photographing Nightjar though, which is why I recommend you stay out of breeding areas during spring and summer where you’re more likely to cause disturbance, or even step on the nest, especially if you don’t know what you’re looking for. Somethings finding birds doesn’t require such subtly though, and sound usually gives their location away, even in the winter, which is why I love bringing my recording gear with me. This is a good example of why I encourage people to record sound in the field, as it can often reveal a much bigger picture of what species are in the environment. I heard this call numerous times, and it’s not unlike the call of a Whitethroat, or even a Dartford Warbler, but if you listen carefully, the sound isn’t made up of a group of notes like a typical bird call is. It took me a while to find out what it actually was, as I couldn’t see the critter in the hedge and it was right next to a reen, which was my first clue.
It was in-fact a Water Shrew! I’ve never seen one before, and I’ve certainly not heard one till today, but this is a sound I will not forget. It wouldn’t be the first time that I recorded something that I couldn’t see, and this is why I love sound recording, as you start to pay more attention to the whole environment and not what’s directly in-front of you.

Llandegfedd Delivers

It’s always good to have a regular patch to check throughout the year, not only do you get to learn a lot more about the site but you also give yourself more of a chance of finding something significant. Sharing a patch with a more experienced birder also helps for sure! and I’m lucky to visit Llandegfedd with Craig Constance as he really is religious about birding Llandegfedd and this week it paid off with a striking Male Smew. Last year we had a Female but she only came onto the reservoir when the water level was high on the usk river and she didn’t stick around for long. You need to time your visits in accordance to the weather and we learned a hard lesson this morning as the fog put a lot of birders off this morning, but an avid birder on the damn waited till the fog started to clear and managed to spot a Great Northern Diver leaving the reservoir and carrying on south. It goes to show how easy it is to miss migrant birds.

You’ve already spotted the pics below, but whilst watching the Gull roost we were graced with extremely good views of Jack Snipe from Petingale hide! I’ve been closer, almost standing on some in the past, but I’ve never had extended views like this. It was truly magical, and an experience I’ll never forget. I love birds that camouflage themselves. They don’t have to be colourful, but if they do have vibrant colours like this Jack Snipe, it is certainly a bonus.

Born from Destruction

I find it hard to explain just how much I love Nightjars but hopefully by the end of this blog you’ll understand why.

The title sounds a bit dramatic, and that’s because the Nightjar for me is much more than just a cool looking bird that makes an unworldly sound. This bird for me is a reminder that even in a world full of environmental destruction, there are animals out there that have adapted to an ever changing landscape.

The Nightjar has done just this, by using clear-felled woodland to their advantage, as the bare ground, twigs, logs and cut stumps make for a perfect place to blend in and a perfect place to breed. The regrowth of these (often upland) clear-fells bring all kinds of plants, from heather, foxgloves, bracken, broom, gorse and native broadleaf trees, all of which are great for moths and insects which the Nightjar specialising in eating on the wing during the night. In the night they eat and drink on the wing, opening their mouth wide like a Swift and skimming lakes, tree tops and low vegetation for food and drink.

Below is a picture of my first self found Nightjar but hopefully not the last of the season. I have 6 pairs between two locations that I’m keeping an eye on. I hope to record enough male songs to confirm a theory that you can identify males by their BPM. This is a female, so she won’t be using this roost every day, especially once she lays her eggs as she will then incubate on the ground never to be seen again as the ground is mostly dead bracken which she blends into even more! The male was close by. He’s never too far away during this period as he will watch guard over them both. I hope to locate the male later on in the year once they’ve officially began breeding as it’s still early days yet and he’s still copulating with her.

I’ve shared this recording before but it’s still the best one I’ve captured so far, with perfect weather conditions and capturing the song from beginning to end.

If it wasn’t for the new green growth of the green bracken, I don’t think I would have spotted her at all.

I hope to get more opportunities but the most important thing for me at this stage is to ensure I don’t disturb them breeding so I’m going to let them settle in and see how the season goes. I might also continue to look for the other 5 local pairs and may even explore some new clear-fells in the valley to see if they’re attracting Nightjar yet. Either way, it’s quite exciting to finally get time in the day with these birds as I’ve spent so much time watching them in the night, it’s nice to see them in full light.

Discovery

The one thing that I absolutely love about the natural world, you’re always discovering new things. It doesn’t matter how long you’ve been studying, how old you are, there’s always something you haven’t seen, heard, smelled or touched. It might not be a significant find by any standards, but this week I added two new species, one flower called Columbine (Aquilegia vulgaris) and though it’s widespread and common, I’ve never seem them before.

The other species came in the form of a beetle which I’ve seen a lot of photographs of, but never actually seen one in person and that’s a large ground beetle called the Granulated Ground Beetle (Carabus granulatus). Seeing one of these large ground beetles makes me want to find the rarer Blue Ground Beetle (Carabus intricatus) which I’ve been told is a mainly nocturnal species of ancient woodland that feeds on slugs and snails. There’s so much to discover, even in the Uk where we have a fairly low number of over-all species on this island compared to mainland Europe.

To keep my birdie friends happy and for anybody who likes to know the ‘how’ behind an image. Below is a pic of me inside a custom made hide, designed by John Marsh of which I’ve made some modifications to suit me. It’s essentially 4 height adjustable spiked poles with 4 cross support beams made out of aluminium. The hide is square and has scrim netting over the main front hole which is the best for being able to still see out of. There’s nothing worse than being in a hide to photograph something that you can’t actually see. Hides are by far the best way to get close to nature. I’ve tried just throwing netting over myself in the past and while it does work, you have to remain completely still, which over extended periods of time is agonising. This hide is small, but it’s big enough that you can still move around, stretch and get comfortable in, even if you are sat on the ground.

My Hide

My Hide

In the making

In the making

Male Pied Flycatcher

Male Pied Flycatcher

Mental Health

Today just so happens to be World Mental Health Day, and I’d like to take this opportunity to speak about my own experiences, especially considering I’ve had to take time off work recently as a direct result of my own Mental Health. It’s all very real for me at the moment and I’ve finally got to the stage where I’ve had to ask for help.
 
Firstly, I’ve suffered with Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) for as long as I can remember. This puts me in a generally low state throughout autumn / winter, and I have to try extremely hard to not fall into a trap, continually setting myself up for things to look forward to, or spending money on things that bring me pleasure in order to keep my mind occupied.

There are lots of things to look forward to in Autumn, and I am trying hard to break this cycle, but this is historical for me (and I’m sure many others), as autumn has always been a time of worry, stress, ill-health, bullying, drama, heart ache, anxiety, money problems… The list is endless  and the more I think about it, the more it makes sense why I am the way I am. Returning to school after a summer of roaming the British countryside, most of the time on my own, was always going to be hard to adjust to. Being forced to be in a room full of people, most of which are bullies, because if you don’t, you’ll fail at life. The system is a mess, with no regard to individuals.

This is where my social anxiety started and as the anxiety grew, I’ve sculptured my entirely life around it, making important life changing decisions as a direct cause of my social anxiety. I lost all my friends, not because we fell out, but because I chose to separate myself from a world I wasn’t happy with. Some deal with this reality positively and face it head on, and I’ve tried that.. I became a musician.. about the only place I was comfortable being in within any social environment, hiding behind a drum kit, watching the night go by and not really being a part of it. Just sitting there in my own world doing what I love, and doing it as best as I could, every single time. This seemed to work at the time but the reality was, it made me worse, and that is where I had my first anxiety attack. The first anxiety attack nearly put me in hospital as literally thought I was going to die, I didn’t know what it was, nor how to deal with it. That day I literally went home to my mother and cried my eyes out.. I hadn’t cried that much at my own grandparents funeral. Still don’t even know what the trigger was, other than trying to be the best I could be, the best way I knew how, and that was to get the speakers sounding perfect, the drums in tune, my hands warmed up, the car parked in a spot that wasn’t too far to carry the gear, all of which were far from perfect. The pressure to please people and myself got too much and something had to give out and the only thing I had left was my brain, which seemed at the time to have disappeared. It’s often called a panic attack, and that’s because the body has a flight or fight response to an experience that you can’t control. It happened again, at another Gig and even though it was bad, I did handle it a little better, because I knew what it was.

It’s good to know about these things, but nothing can prepare you for experiencing it yourself as it’s a silent killer. You aren’t aware its even there before it’s too late and you’re scraping yourself off the floor.

While it is tough for me, I can’t begin to think of how hard it must be for the people closest to me. My Girl friend and my Family know how hard it is to get me at family gatherings, social events, meals, weddings, shows, or just general meet ups. It affects me every day, and it’s hard to even talk about it as it just makes me ten times worse.

There’s no surprise that I’ve ended up with a passion for wildlife photography and nature conservation,. It’s because the outdoors takes me back to a world that is perfect…A world that doesn’t worry about human culture, it just carries on delivering the most memorable experiences of my life, all the while, making me a healthier person, thru sound, smell, touch and visual elements that have inspired the best creative minds in the world. Nature is incredibly powerful.

All I want from life is to be healthy, do right by my family, love my girl friend the best way I can, and share this wonderful world of nature we have on our doorstep with you. To do this, I'm going to need some help, and it starts by making everyone aware that people are suffering from their own Mental Health story, and I do take comfort knowing that I’m not alone. I just wished society would catch up faster, and start seeing us for the fragile minds we are, living each day as it comes.

I could go on but I think I’ll leave it there as I doubt I’ll sleep a wink tonight after this.
I’ll leave you with some photographs I’ve taken in the last couple of months. I haven’t managed to get out much as I’ve been flat out at work researching for a new Tv series for BBC Wales.

If all this is new to you but you feel you might be suffering from something similar, I’m happy to talk about it, but there are lots of support groups and a Doctor can offer various ways to help.