Summers End
Welcome to my latest riveting account of my photographic exploits during August!
The wildlife lately has become very quiet, not much to be heard or seen. On the run up to Autumn some birds especially the Summer visitors will be feeding up and getting ready for their migration South to warmer climates. Also birds North of the UK will be starting their journey South with many wintering here in the UK. Autumn is a great time of the year for photography with misty mornings and Autumnal colours which I am looking forward to.
Sand martins will be headed South soon for some Winter sun.
As the wildlife was a bit thin on the ground during August I spent sometime at the British wildlife centre, the hawk conservancy trust and a photographic evening at Herrings Farm, Bedfordshire. The photographic evening was something new for me. It gave the photographers a chance to get up close to birds of prey not normally accessible to the general public. Also photograph the birds in flight at sunset. A highly recommended way to get some great shots.
Barn owl at Herring's Farm School of Falconry.
Up close and personal to a Bald eagle, Herring's Farm.
As many of you know I can't resist a visit to the British wildlife centre (BWC) in deepest darkest Surrey. My main purpose for this visit was to see the Water voles. A very rare animal to see in the wild and thanks to places like the BWC who run breeding programmes we could start to see them more often.
Water vole at the British wildlife centre, Surrey.
During my visit it absolutely poured down but I was cowering under a leaking umbrella and managed to get some great shots of the juvenile voles. Success! I always get some decent shots when the weather is bad. It doesn't bother the wildlife or me to be honest.
Water vole at the BWC.
At the start of the month I had my monthly motorsport fix at the 26th Mopar Nationals at Santa Pod Raceway. This event mainly focuses on Mopar cars (Plymouth, Dodge & Chrysler). Some great racing as always and the weather was on its best behaviour this time!
Plymouth Superbird at the Mopar Nationals, Santa Pod Raceway.
Bank holiday Monday saw me at the hawk conservancy trust near Andover. It has some great bird of prey displays and also a great day out. Also they sell great cake in the cafe! At times they will fly several birds at once. Its a case of where do I point my lens!
Long eared owl at the Hawk conservancy, Wiltshire.
Over the August Bank holiday weekend I made a flying visit to see family and called at Pennington Flash on the way up. Didn't manage to get stuck in Bank holiday traffic either! The usual suspects were there but I was after the kingfishers but all I saw was the 'back ends' as they flew off into the distance. Very frustrating! Never mind the grey herons were showing their balancing skills off on the fence posts!!
Grey heron trying to balance! Pennington Flash, Leigh, Lancashire.
Back end of a kingfisher!
As Autumn is just around the corner there will be hopefully some new things to photograph. Now I have a macro lens I hope to shoot some fungi and try some landscape photography of misty sunrises from some high vantage points in the Chiltern hills close to where I live. At the end of September I will be making several visits to Bushy and Richmond parks near London for the annual deer rut.
That's about it for now folks. I hope you have enjoyed reading my latest photographic exploits.
Please continue to upload your photographs to my Photo's Page. There are some great photographs being posted.
More of my images can be viewed on my flickr page.
Steve