Some of my favourite photos

Tuesday 30 December 2014

Frosty morning

 Second morning of a hard frost. The last two nights the temperature has dropped to minus 8 degrees.
In the garden the Long tailed tits have appeared for the first time this winter and the blackbirds are quickly working their way through the berries.
Out in the fields it's quiet, I've had my trail camera out for the last few night and the badgers are not very active, only stopping to eat a few peanuts around 8pm before they disappear.
The owls are quiet but I heard the fox barking.
The buzzards have moved away from their normal perches preferring the road side where the fieldfares are eating the berries. We saw a buzzard a few days ago with a fieldfare it had caught.


Female Roe deer




Blackbird listening to something

Blackbird with a white patch on it's head




Saturday 27 December 2014

Looking forward to 2015

Here are the second batch of my favourite photos from 2014 (in no particular order, again)
I'm really looking forward to 2015, my wildlife aims are to take photos of a Weasel, see Water voles in the wild and see the Otters on my Local Patch for myself. 
Also work out some way to take photos of the Tawny owl that flies up our garden path.
As well as spending as much time as possible watching wildlife. 
I am really excited about our family trip to Monterey Bay, USA, later in the year. I am hoping to see some Whales, Sea Otters and Sea lions.



Badger watching



Whitethroat

Fox
Dolphin in Wales

Local buzzard
Bathing Bluetit


Baby Great tit




Female Roe deer



Dragonfly at night


Dunlin




Friday 26 December 2014

Review of a year as a Local patch reporter for BBC Wildlife Magazine

On the 17th February 2014 I had the amazing news that I had been choosen as a Local Patch reporter for BBC Wildlife Magazine. Through the year I have had great encouragment and support from Ben, Matt and Jo at the magazine and was lucky enough to meet them during the summer.
This year has been quite mad with newspaper interviews and appearing on the radio to do a live article.
During the year I have been fortunate to meet some of the people who inspire me such as Chris Packham, Simon King, Ben Garrod, Wildlife Kate, Jo Cartmell, Stephen de Vere. All of which have been helpful and supportive.
Appleton Wildlife Diary joined Twitter and facebook this year. I want to say a big thank you to all those who have followed me, RT, favoured. liked, given advice and generally encourage me.
The wildlife highlights of the year were getting closer to the badgers, finding the one eyed hare, fallow deer, peregrine falcons, getting my first photo of a fox, dolphins, puffins and finding out there are Otters on my local patch.
In the past couple of weeks, the best ending to the year was finding out I'd won 1st and 3rd in the Gloucestershire Wildlife Trust 8-11 years photo competition as well as coming first in the people's choice section.
Here are some of my favourite photos from the past year.
(In no particular order)


Hare

Heron in the garden

Kestrel

One eyed hare

Two peregrines fighting over a pigeon

Puffin

Red necked grebe

Reed bunting

Rook drinking

Seal

Sedge warbler

Baby squirrels

Tree creeper

Grey wagtail

Water Lily

Great spotted woodpecker
More of my favourite photos of the year to follow tomorrow

Monday 22 December 2014

Otmoor in December


Whilst at Otmoor we saw many things such as Squirrels, Pintails, Herons, Shovelers, Wagtails and Starlings.
 The most interesting thing I have learnt over the weekend is why Shoveler ducks spins around in circles; to get its food aa well as how to count a murmuration of Starlings by using particle counting software or take a photo and simply count in sections. (Thanks Twitter)
Don't think I'd like to count that many.
We also saw two hares chasing each other around the field and huge numbers of lapwings

Lapwings


Under the bird feeders.


Pintail

Lapwings

Cormorant

Shoveler duck getting food

Pied wagtail



Heron

Pellet on the windowsill of the hide.