Quick update

Thank you so much for arriving at this blog.

I'll give you a quick update.

I moved my blog to

www.appletonwildlifediary.wordpress.com

in October 2015.

Since then I have posted about Badgers, Barn owls, Sparrowhawks, a day at the Wildlife Crime Conference, the Big garden Bird watch, hares and lots of trail camera clips.
Please visit my new blog

Thank you

Alex

Taken by Oxford Mail

Woodfest and a quiet Saturday

Woodfest is a celebration of the woodland and it's creatures in my local wood, to show members of the public what they can see when they visit.

I helped out on the Oxfordshire Mammal Group stall to promoted what the group do and encourage people to join or come to some of their talks.

(The next one is George McGavin on 12th October, which I'm really looking forward to. http://www.oxonmammals.org)

Other stalls at Woodfest included Forest School, Butterfly Conservation, Moths, Wilderness Pioneers and The Wood Conservation Group.

It was so nice to see so many people enjoying walking around the wood.

Woodfest was completely different to Saturday when I had the wood and the fields to myself.
Mum and I spent 3 hours just sitting watching the Hares and wandering around the fields.

There are so many Jays around in the trees at the moment after the acorns.

Jay

The Jays have competition for the acorns from the squirrels, this one sat in the tree above our heads and was chattering while flicking its tail, which is an alarm call, although it sounded more like it was telling us off.

If you stand still for a few minutes in the woods all the birds reappear.

Green Woodpecker

Coal Tit

Long tailed tit

 This female Kestrel hunts near to the Hare field every day. On Saturday it was chasing the Yellow hammers and other small birds up and down the hedgerow.
Sometimes the small birds gang up on her and chase her away.

 There were 4 Hares out on Saturday afternoon, it was a bit earlier than we normally go to see them.
I found was interesting to see how when the sun came out the hares were more active and hopped about eating, but when the sun went behind a cloud, the Hares laid down so I couldn't see them.

H3 and her mate came over a few times and the Hares hid in the grass. When two male Pheasants starting fighting and making a lot of noise all the Hares ran into the maize.

The best camera is the one you have with you

'The best camera is the one you have with you' 

I don't know who said that or where I read it but it has been true this week.

So far this week I have missed getting a photo of a young hare which was happy to hop around the allotment while my mum was weeding.

I missed a Sparrowhawk chasing a bird - twice.

I also missed getting photos of a Kestrel being mobbed by around 10 small finches.

These are some of the photos I have managed to get.

H3, one of my local Buzzards has been around a lot this week, with her mate and another Buzzard. I can hear them calling to each other in the evenings.

I have been putting my trail camera further and further away from the badger sett.
I want to see how far the badgers go at night and to see if I recognise any of them so I can see which sett they come from.
(The date stamp isn't correct)
I don't recognise the first badger but the second one, a female, comes from one of the setts I watch that is about 800m away. I know they come this way because you can follow the tracks through the grass. They also used the ditches to get places.

Back to school blues

Today is the last day of my summer holidays, it's back to school tomorrow.

This holiday has been full of exciting experiences.

Starting right at the first couple of days with going down to Bristol to take part in filming for National Badger Day (Don't forget 6th October), next a visit to BBC Wildlife magazine office.

The next few weeks included a Narrow boat trip and a couple of weeks in Devon and Cornwall.

Straight after that Birdfair, which was amazing, especially the chance to catch up with people and meeting Charlie Hamilton James.

Unfortunately the saddest news over the summer was the extension of the Badger cull in to Dorset.

Back on my local patch the Badgers have been quite active and out and about more in the fields so difficult to watch - although getting more predictable over the last few days.

More and more Hares seem to be appearing in the field and last night there was at least 10 hares.

Over the weekend I have spent sometime experimenting with all the different settings on my camera, just on the birds in the garden.

I put the trail camera down in part of the wood and got a nice film of a Roe deer and the Badger with a damaged eye. It has been suggested that this might be a cataract.
It was nice to see this Badger again as I haven't seen her since the Spring.

Last night Noah, another blogger who lives nearby came over and we went off to take photos of the Hares. I didn't get any really good photos as it was quite overcast and it got dark quickly.
There was also 4 Fallow deer and a couple of Roe deer in the field.

When it got too dark we headed back home passing the Badgers sett. There was 3 Badgers out, we watch one for 10 minutes before going home.
I am quite sure the Badger we watched was Cookie because he had a chunk missing from his ear and he was not bothered that I had someone new with me.

 This morning the Buzzards were using the thermals to climb higher and higher. I counted 10 altogether. They were higher than a passing plane.
While we were watching the Buzzards a Raven flew over, shouting at the Buzzards before flying off towards the river

 This is H3's mate. I was still mucking about with the settings on my camera but I quite like this photo.

Inspirations, influences and Birdfair

Over the weekend I spent two days at Birdfair. Birdfair is an annual event, based at Rutland Water, focusing on everything and anything to do with birds as well as other animals.
I had an amazing time meeting people that I talk to on social media, such as Lucy McRobert, Billy Stockwell, Toby Carter, Evie Miller and Josie Hewitt as well as seeing old friends such as Georgia Locock, Ben Long and The BBC Wildlife Magazine team .
One of the best things about Birdfair is going to talks such as the one on Friday evening with Georgia Locock and Josie Hewitt interviewing Chris Packham, Simon King and Nick Baker,  but the highlight of the weekend was going to see Charlie Hamiltion James's talks.
Charlie Hamilton James is one of the main reasons I picked up a camera and started taking photos of wildlife after I watched Halcyon River Diaries a few years ago.
Over the two days I was there, I went to three of his talks, each one was slightly different and containing so much technical information that I needed to go to all 3 to get my head around everything.

Here are two of the things I mostly remember.
When taking photographs of wildlife, having the subjects eyes pin sharp is important.
If the photographer tells a story with a photo then the aim is to get the reader/viewer to connect with the subject, so sometimes it is good to get a background in to show what is going on.

Every photographer has their own style and every person who looks at a photo knows what they like or dislike.

I use a Canon PowerShot SX50 HS, I like to use this camera because it's a bridge camera with a long lens as well as different settings. I mainly take photos around my local patch but sometimes visit places. I have just started on my photography journey and still have loads to learn and develope my own style.

Over the past week I have taken lots of photos of  Brown Hares (Lepus europaeus). I think 100's of photos is a lot but I was amazed to hear that Charlie Hamilton James takes thousands.

I like the first photo because its a nice close up of the Hare trying to blend in with the cut straw, everything in the photo is sharp but the straw is kind of covering part of the Hares face.
My local Hares are very shy and it takes a lot of time to get this close to them.

I also like the photo below it because it singles out the Hare in its environment. It shows the Hare coming out into the cut wheat to eat the green shoots but they stay close to the uncut maize so when the Hare is spooked it can run to hide from danger, the Hares are always alert.

These are two photos taken this morning in my garden, of a Male Green Woodpecker.

 When I take lots of photos it is always hard to choose one or two to go on my blog.

I prefer the second Woodpecker photo because it shows him looking over his shoulder, this is because there was another Woodpecker in a tree the other side of my garden and they were communicating to each other.

Althought this isn't a very clear photo because its at the end of my lens and the light is wrong as the sun was just setting, I like it because it still shows that this Buzzard is in fact H3. 

H3 is a Buzzard that I have been following and photographing for about a year. It is always nice to see H3 and to know she is still around. I also saw her and her mate a couple of days ago with what looks like a young Buzzard which I hope is one of their young.

She had just eaten before I took this photo and had spent a little while wiping her beak on the branch, unfortunately with her back to me.

 This type of fungi was in my local patch, I don't know what it is.

A quick walk around the field and flying ants

After tea this evening we went on a quick walk around the field. I am always amazed at how much wildlife can be seen.

The local farmer has spent the last couple of days cutting the wheat field and this evening 3 hares were out in the open.

In the hedgerow the birds hopped around before they settled down for the night and two deers stalked along the edge of the woods.

At the moment the most we see of the badgers is a rustle in the grass or a glimpse of dark grey running across an open patch.

The blackberries and elderberries are ripening, we ate a handful of blackberries on the way home.

Back in our garden the whole of the area around our bug hotel is moving with ants. The flying ants come out of the ground, climb to a high spot and take off in to the air.
When I tried to look up information on flying ants all I could find was articles about how to get rid of them, which I don't want to. They are only around for a few hours then all that is left is a pile of fine soil.