_____________________________________________________

01:12:11 - Is Time Speeding Up?

I was meaning to write about my experience recently when I attended a ceremony on top of Glastonbury Tor for 11.11.11.11.11, but so much keeps happening there never seems the "time" anymore to get around to my website.

Time is always said to go faster when your busy, but the weird thing is I'm not that busy.  In fact I sometimes find it hard to find something to do - with a small child in tow - and before I know it, it's dark again and then bedtime..

The Spirit of the Wildwood often symbolises the yearly cycles of life, death and rebirth. This was taken during the deer rut just 2 days after 11:11:11.   Doesn't this remind you of Cave Art?

The only thing keeping me busy, so to speak, is "thinking" a lot about our wildlife, my place in it, and the future.  I have been doing a lot of reading too, and I'm now fascinated by how our minds work and the "nature" of consciousness.  "Time", I would say, is linked to conscious thought.  Everyone and every animal lives at its own speed according to their conscious connection with the ...... well I don't yet know!  Maybe a God, or the universe, or maybe to something deeper within the mind itself - a mind that creates its own future.  This would agree with those who say reality is an illusion.

The remarkable thing that occured to me at Glastonbury was that time almost slowed to a stop for a few hours.  About 200 people had gathered there to meditate and to celebrate that precise moment in time of 11:11 hrs on 11:11:11.  I was wandering about with my camera on my own watching the others do their thing, but at the same time my mind was freed of all the material things in my life.  I was taking photos more or less without thought and with as clear a mind as I could by using Light as a symbol to focus on.  The time came and went and people hugged, others sarted drumming, some chanted or sang and others continued their meditations.  Nothing seemed obviously different at first until I started talking to my family about how slowly the day had gone.  They agreed, and it became obvious that for the next few hours we were playing out a scene in our lives yet the clocks were hardly moving.  Trust me, there was no drugs involved in this!  I am still trying to work out what happened during this illusion or reality.

The Tor is steeped in stories about a consciousness that brought Light or transformation to those willing to try.

King Arthur, Joseph of Arimathea, Jesus and The Magdalene are the main contenders for Christians, but Sufis, Buddhists and Hindus also know of the energy here.

One clue maybe the reason I had gone there.  It was to help reverse the usual mass hypnosis of Armistice Day.  I went NOT to think war, death and the colour of a bloody poppy in my mind.  I went to mediate on a future that is beautiful.  To help this become realised I believe I mustn't think of what we collectively mustn't do (thinking of past mistakes) but of a future filled with natural harmony and peace.  Many great thinkers have claimed that the cosmos does not grant prayers according to a negative (I musn't do...I don't want...), it only creates a future of positive intent.  If you pray for no war or death then that thought will only create war and death!  The more who think like this simultaneously the more likely it is to be played out.  I now believe we have all been tricked into creating conflict, which creates profit for the few and suffering for the many.  By meditating on a symbol - a flower associated with the ritual blood letting onto soil, a flower associated with opium and the drug trade (which has historically funded wars), and of sadness in the world, it is doing the opposite of what you may want.  The numerology of 11 may also have been reversed by the manipulators to create order and control, when in fact it should symbolise feedom and transformation.

The Pilgrimage on 11:11:11

11:11:11 was hoped by many to be a moment in "time" when we could create our own future or become connected to some higher conscious dimension.  For the few people who were there that day, and the many millions of others around the world doing the same in their "time zones", I sincerely hope the future is now brighter than the one being intended by the unelected thieves, manipulators and murderers who presently run our country and planet.  This includes those who rape our planet of its natural richess, kill animal for fun or profit, and take the miracle of life as something for granted.

Was this a sign?  It was a very dull morning and very windy.  Just as the ceremony began the LIGHT appeared and this sunbeam struck the Tor.  No kidding! 

This is the view over the Somerset Levels.

Here's to Love and Light and a shedding of the skin in readyness for next year.....

 _____________________________________________________

12:08:11 - Good News and Bad News.

I have had the most hectic month of my photography career!

Apologies to all thiose who I did not email or talk to promptly, or even forgot about, but ever since my monkey photos hit the press in early July I have been inundated with wellwishers, press calls and magazine write ups.

Please look at my Sulawesi Macaque page so I don't need to repeat myself here!  Anyone who is interested may like to Google "Slater + Monkey + Camera" to see just how big this story got!

I have also been busy doing prints of the monkeys.  Yes I do prints and a poster.  Poster is A2 size and costs £10 (GBP).  It is on 180gsm poster paper and good enough to frame or just pin straight to a wall.  The prints are much better quality in terms of colour and detail, and they take a little more effort to do (I do them myself).  They cost £20 for A4 and £35 for A3.  I do several versions and formats so please email me for details - I will send you thumbnails to look at.  All payment will be by PayPal which I will send to you (you don't need to be registered with Paypal to use).

I have also made a screensaver / desktop wallpaper that I can email to you for £20.  It is a really fun image and wll make you smile whenever you turn on your computer.  There is a nice space for your icons too!  Email me again for a thumbnail.

The Bad News is all about the Wild Boar again here in my beloved Forest of Dean.  I am so worried for them now as the population appears to have crashed.  I am also getting eyewitness reports and other evidence that the Forestry Commission are now shooting, through need or through bloodlust, piglets and sows with young.  This is a serious welfare issue, and I have already taken the story to the Daily Mail, and intend to spread it much further afield when I get more time.

Please link to my Wild Boar page from here now, again to save me time repeating myself.  I have added a lot more new and amazing images of the boar just now, so take a quick look - and a LONG read....

Take Care Everyone

  _____________________________________________________

20:06:11 - Life & death.

I don't usually catch Springwatch on the TV, but I happened to catch an epidode that showed a nestbox with pied flaycatchers, and they also debated the possibility that redstarts compete with them for food as they seem to share the same insects. It was interesting because I always try to photograph both these birds every year here in the Forest of Dean, and it's always been hard to find redstart and easy for PFs. It has always had me thinking about the relationship of the two. Last year, but particularly this year, I have find the opposite occuring. I have long been a critic of PF nestboxes, and I am becoming increasingly sure that this has something to do with the decline of PFs here. Without the data, which is hard if not impossible to find, it is hard to prove, but time and again I see PFs outside the areas with nestboxes and there is always a redstart nearby. Within the areas with nestboxes, there are fewer redstarts. Are nestboxes becoming unpopular with PFs (the redstarts may have realised this long ago?) and pushing them into competition for food with redstarts? Is competition more ferocious in nestbox areas? Aditionally, PFs are easily bullied off a nestbox by other small birds, even blue tits, making life doubly difficult for them. Maybe competition with just redstarts is preferable? I've been watching 2 families of PFs very carefully this year, one in a box and one in a natural hole far away from the nestbox area, and it seemed to me the natural nester was much more active in terms of nest visits with food - leading to healthier chicks maybe. I have never seen a natural nest getting visited by tits or the usual predators of chicks such as woodpeckers and jays, so maybe it's a case of where there are redstarts there is food albeit to share, but less disturbance from unwelcome nest visitors? Just my thoughts. Here is a pic of this year's pied flycatcher chicks:

Aren't they delicate little things? You have to worry!

Changing the subject, I want to just pay my own albeit humble tribute to a man called Brian Haw who passed away this weekend. He lived in a tent outside parliament since mid 2001 as a protest of UK foreign policy in the lead up to 911 and the illegal invasion of Iraq (see link). He was an inspiration and a hero for fighting the all too forgotten corner for the innocent across the world caught up in war zones, particularly our own species youngsters. This is a topic almost never spoken about due to its totally abhorrent nature. Bully boys creating wars on behalf of our corporations and the US war machine's need to protect oil supplies to feed its airplanes and ships in over 700 bases in over 100 countries. The daily consumption of oil by the US military equals that of Sweden. It is a self-fulliling need to invade countries to keep the war machine alive. It is an industry - a military-industrial complex that needs to protect fuel, air space, water and food for a quarter of a million US soldiers living in these permanent bases, even long after the "war" has finished. Feeding this Empire's grid requires, and is their evil justification for, war that kills not just those who attack them but millions of innocent children every year. They call this "National Security". It is actually "International Insecurity". This does not include the injured and seriously ill citizens of the planet dying from the toxic effects of depleted uranium weapons and biological agents, some of which are included in vaccines that are being promoted by the west (pharmaceutical corporations) under the disguise of humanitarian and health aid!. Thank you Brian for all your efforts, you will be missed by many. I only wish I met and spoke to you more than I did.

Brian Haw 1949-2011

"It's not the dates on a headstone that defines a person's life, but how he lived the dash between them."

___________________________

24:05:11 - Lining the Nest.

The weather this year has been brilliant so far and a relief for so many of our breeding birds. Many species seem to be a little ahead of what I've seen over the last few years, a sign of a return to a normal Spring, maybe? Yes, it's now accepted the climate has been cooling since 2000, so hopefully that trend has started to reverse again. It may also be great news for our adders for they too have been disappearing...

Forest Adder fresh from hibernation

For some reason the scientists think that DNA tests will uncover why. Maybe they know something more serious is happening much akin to the plight of amphibians around the world - genetic mutations possibly occuring due to a toxic environment - such as radioactive fallout from nuclear power stations and especially from "depleted" uranium weapons used in the Balkans, Iraq, and now Libya. Or maybe it's due to chemicals in many airplane vapour trails these days - many researchers are uncovering evidence of chemical experiments (see link) with the climate - and your health too (what is this new fear of smog about eh?)...just connect the dots... Of course, the warming / cooling of our climate and strange things happening to our wildlife may also be due to naturally occuring pulses of radiation (see link) from the sun or galactic centre?

My chick Indigo has long since fledged her nest and is now running around demanding more and more time from me. I hardly find the time to get out and about with my camera, and when i do I'm so out of touch with things here in the Forest of Dean I find it hard to find anything worth a photograph. I have thus resorted to nest photography - the irony! I've never before been "into" nests, but they are strangely compelling in that they give just a little more insight into the dedications, hardships, failings and successes of our wild animals. I feel somewhat like an interloper prying into someone else's business, and as such I respect even more the privacy and welfare of these tiny bundles of fluff and energy. Here are a few examples:

Great Tit

Long-tailed Tit

Nuthatch and Wood Warbler

I have many more to show and will in due course put them all up on the website. In the meantime just enjoy nature and all the benefits it brings into your life.

  _____________________________________________________

17:02:11 - A Climate of Change - Thank Goodness!

The big and much hyped sell-off of the public forests in the UK has been scrapped today, or at least that what the government are saying now. A lot of hot air, not to mention forests of paper in consultation documents, letters to MPs, replies from SW1, leaflets, signs and newspaper lines, has been spent in large volumes that would in itself have contributed significantly to climate change and raised profits of the pulp industry.

The entire debate was to my mind a red herring from the outset, as nobody seemed to speak common sense on the matter, but rather just recite what someone else was saying. The politicians keep bleating it is all for "Big Society" not "Big Government". This included our snivelling career MP, Mark Harper, who would rather cowtow to Cameron and his bankster puppet masters, rather than his constituents, but also the voices of angry residents and the HOOF campaign who used fear and spin in the effort to fight the government's plan of change.

But after speaking with some of the leaders in the HOOF (Hands Off Our Forest) Campaign, I again realised and agreed with them that we live in a world of politics that is not working for your rights and priveleges, but for corporate interests only. This is the UKplc. It is the Statutory system often misleadingly called "Society" that runs on a for-profit basis, including taxation and fines for anyone breaking the "rules". This is not law but a deceitful system that "Acts" as though it is law (by your consent). You see, Big Society IS Big Government (both run for profit in exactly the same misleading way)

The government had simultaneously enacted a public consultation document about how we want the future of forest management and ownership to go, at the same time as a background change to an existing "Act" (law?) that would make the consultation a waste of time. It seems they had already agreed a plan for sell-off and privatisation without proper proceedure of introducing a Green Paper then White Paper to engage in discussions with the public and elected officials. The Public Bodies Bill (precursor to an "Act"), as it is known is/was (?) being simultaneously pushed through with clear aims to take away current legal protection measures given to the Forest of Dean in 1981 (after a long fight by angry residents or "Foresters") thus allowing sale to private investors. Maybe this illegality is the real reason for withdrawl of the sell-off, rather than it just simply being a mistake by fall-girl Caroline Spelman, who has today apologised (see link) for "her" mistake (does anyone actually believe ministers can change laws on their own say-so without pressures from elsewhere?).

I am sure this will raise it's head again once the Public Bodoes Bill is passed, and perhaps in a more agressive form as part of some future invention such as some UK international agreement to trade pollution permissions through the Carbon Tax trading scheme.

Until then, I wish the Wild Boar and all other woodland creatures peace in their natural home.

 _____________________________________________________

14:01:11 - Wading through Winter

For the first time since May I actually got away from the Forest of Dean and stayed in the UK to do some photography! It was Christmas and I visited the Isle of Man with family for a week, when down came the snow. The Island was in shock and not a single road was gritted. For 3 days it didn't stop falling and everyone was confined to home - good practice for martial law I thought! With temperatures down to -3C much of the island's birdlife fled to the coast. When finally I could venture out, the beach in Douglas gave me some much needed time away from the hideous Christmas TV.

In fact, the weather over Christmas Eve and Day turned out to be fantastic, with superb light and clear skies, just perfect for lying down on the beach! Well OK, it was freezing, my hands hurt and body went numb as I lay motionless in full view of bemused Christmas shoppers. I doubted they could even see my intended subjects from the short distance from tide to promenade, which perhaps explained why so many dog walkers and Christmas strollers came up to me to have a nosey, and at the same time of course scaring away the prize - waders! It's been quite a while since I last enjoyed these tiny little tearaways that play a teasing and torturous game of "you creep as close as you can and when you put your eye to your camera I'll fly away!". Waders are so small that to get anything like decent sizes in the frame you need to be within 5 metres or so of them with a 600mm lens with 1.4x teleconverter.

The birds included ringed and grey plover, turnstone and sanderling, accompanied by gulls, rock pipits and hooded crows.

Yes, I really enjoyed the challenge and even though the light was short-lived at midwinter, the couple of hours a day I had with them was the best present I could have had.

Douglas Beach, Isle of Man, on Christmas Day. Great for lying down on!

  _____________________________________________________

31:10:10 -  Trees, Climate and Health

It's the end of the harvest or Samhain, and I'm glad to say I'm back!  It's been a tough few months harvesting my efforts whether it be photos or my daughter!  She now walks and gets ever more demanding of my time and doesn't like me on the computer updating websites, and if ignored will climb everything in sight (my genes!!). 

On my return from Svalbard it took over 4 weeks  just to get my images processed and ready to send out to Aqua-Firma (baby to blame again!).  At the same time I'm trying to reply to an increaed volume of emails, organising workshops, a talk (very time consuming!), and last but not least, I'm now involved with the UK's best known photography monthly, Practical Photography.

There have been several alarming, as well as some overdue, events on the world and UK stage that should concern us.  Worst is the sell off of Forestry Commission land (click link).  Half is to be sold to privatisation (Tories in power!)  and hence threatening a huge amount of land home to British Wildlife.  Houses may be built when or if trees are cleared, and more and more theme parks may appear, also at great cost not just to the ecology but the spiritual welfare of us as well.   We are told this is due to the UK deficit.  This is a joke of enormous proportion.   The UK has been bankrupt for decades.  Income tax goes mainly towards the paying off JUST the interest payments on "fiat" currency (pounds sterling) bought from a Central Bank - The Bank of England.   This bank prints money simply to sell to the government at interest.  When the government needs more cash, rather than print it's own, it buys it from this private company (it is not a public body as they want you to believe).  But many banks are now publicly owned that are offshoots of the Central Bank.  If The Bank is owed, as it is, and it's mainly ours, then we all can say - hey Bank, let's just drop the debt and start again.  I forego the debt I'm owed!  Bingo.  But they don't because the BofE is one huge illegal, deceitful and certainly uncharitable entity this country has been burdened with.  Our leaders are coerced into to supporting it - they are shown pictures of JFK etc.

One story linked to all of this could be (I say could be as no-one else has made the link yet as far as I know) the selling off of trees as carbon based funny money.  Trees could be worth vast fortunes if traded on a corrupt market - which carbon-trading is!  If you didn't know, carbon trading was introduced to the world hidden in the Bank Bailout Bill (HR1424 Division B: sections 100-115), and as part of the population's gullibility in believing carbon is an enemy where the climate is concerned.  Mmmm - you are made of Carbon too!  But thankfully, some scientists are now getting the story of climate change being the greatest pseudoscientific hoax (click link) ever foisted upon mankind into the press (October 9th, 2010).  I leave it to you to read the details and put these connections under your own scrutiny.  Don't take what I say as truth, find it for yourself, not from others.

I  believe the forests, including the world's great rainforests, are our spiritual heart.  They give us peace and silence.  The trees give us oxygen to breathe and homes to zillions of animals.  They are possibly ecosystems in their own individual right.  Trees help prevent floods and stabilise what could be dusty ground that winnows away in a wind.  We need more trees, not less.  We need more space to breathe and escape the corporate and stressful world this aggressor bears upon us.  The monetry and moral benefit to health in keeping our forests intact will far outweigh any other form of profit.  We will never get other nations to preserve their forests if we cut ours down.  We will never get them to grow more forests until we do likewise.  This is the World's Harvest.

Please fight to save your nearest forest, as well as the far distant ones in the tropics. 

 _____________________________________________________

10:10:10 -  Svalbard

Svalbard is a place I will never forget, for it is beautifully wild and rugged, a quiet and contemplative place, cold yet strangely welcoming.  It so reminded me of my beloved Scottish Mountains with snow clad summits protected by sharp challenging ridges.  Almost the whole island is mountainous, surrounded by bare rocky slopes, sometimes  moorland or bog, but all of which which really made me feel at home.

I was staying aboard an absolutely stunning ship called the Noorderlicht.  Life on deck was bitterly cold but worth it for the view and possibility of a wildlife sighting, but below deck the wooden beams and comfortable furniture nestled in a small but cosy warm environment was where I got to know the other 17 guests on the trip in a relaxed and friendly manner.  This was one of the best aspects of the trip, not to mention the fantastic gourmet food we were served.

I had been invited aboard to help guests with their photography.  Most guests had not booked with photography in mind, as my inclusion was a late advertising attempt by Aqua-Firma to simply fill the last remaining spaces that threatened to go unfilled.   It worked, and to my surprise of the 18 guests, 6 were really keen photographers, including a talented Italian photographer, Federico Sambolino who has now uploaded his images to his website and well worth a look.

In terms of photography the trip started well with a visit to a Hornsund bird cliff (no birds though!) and onwards to the Paierlbreen glacier with kittiwakes dancing in front of a blue-green-cyan ice wall.   Some of us enjoyed experimenting with slow shutter speeds here, hoping to get a more arty look (see my Arctic Birds gallery).  We then saw our first Polar Bear.  This turned out to be frustrating as the tour leader (Robin Buzza) and crew wouldn't approach the bear closer than 100 metres.  Too far away for the cameras!  This was because they didn't want us to interfere in any way upon the bear's natural behaviour!  We would only get closer if the bear came to us we were told.

The photographers were disappointed.  We were surely going to get a better chance for a photo in the coming days?   Well, as it turned out we didn't do too well.  Most bears seemed to have moved northwards with the sea ice, which lay just to the north of Svalbard by now.  We saw only 4 other bears in 2 weeks, all of them in the same place feeding on a submerged dead whale just off shore.  Again, the guide and crew held back so we could only watch, or photograph the bears as specks in the frame (I was ok as I had a 600mm lens plus teleconvertors, but most photographers had much less zoom power, especially those with instamatics!).  Requests to board a zodiac were declined, which seemed strange as I have often seen photos taken from zodiacs with bears as close as ten metres away.

So to compensate for this, our efforts were directed at the landscape.  Here is where Svalbard is a winner!   We saw some spectacular light during our voyage, be it the dark stormy clouds over the mountains or the sweet golden light as the sun set each evening, with the midnight sun often giving some very weird light indeed!   Combined with the often abstract landforms this made for a really pleasing photography trip.

Each day we would land and be taken by Robin to a historical site where he would recount in detail the dates regarding Svalbard's whaling past or its base for exploration to the North Pole and the search for north-east trading passage.  We saw  lierally thousands of whale bones still stacked were the whalers of the Edwardian and Victorian Era discarded them, preserved in the oft frozen air as though they were unceremoniously dumped yesterday.  These gave some of the more abstract and urban photographers a chance to excel!  Being on land also gave those not too enthralled with whaling history, a chance to look about and take some good photos of plants and other macro subjects at their feet (the only time we could do this for stopping wasn't allowed on walks!).

Beluga Whale Bones and Whalers Hut

But after 14 days of whaling sites, dates, quotes from old journals, and witness to the sheer amount of rubbish and filth left behind by exploitative explorers (who all had payrollers with commercial gain paramount) I did feel uneasy.  After all, I was there with the impression I would be seeing and helping others to photograph wildlife, as it said in the advert!  But the wildlife was incidental to this tour as it turned out.  Worse, the boat crew shared no passion for wildlife.    I had no sway with the guide or crew about bettering the photgraphic experience for the guests.  I was sad for those who had become frustrated with the lack of wildlife, and especially the rule about Polar Bears on the trip.  Showings of David Attenborough some evenings just doesn't compensate (films being about the only passion for wildlife our guide seemed to have).

So it is that I have now parted company with Aqua-Firma.  It's a valuable lesson learnt.   I hope I've revealed some insight for you if you are considering a photography trip not just to Svalbard but anywhere - Pay the extra to go with a company who understands your photographic needs and will do all they can to get you in position for lighting and wildlife presence, and give you the patience that photography requires.  Don't make the mistake of falling for what it says in a brochure either - for this is the age of spin and exaggeration.  Ask other photographers for recommendations based upon personal experience.

Svalbard is a stunning place that could be made all the better for guests searching for wildlife and photographs with a well thought out itinerary.  If I had any money I would love to charter a boat for photographers for what would be a truly memorable trip.  Watch this space.

Click here to see my photos from the trip.

 _____________________________________________________

07:07:10 -  Svalbard Workshop

I've teamed up with Aqua Firma to invite you on board an amazing Arctic Sailing ship to join me on a wildlife photography holiday to Svalbard and the Arctic.   We intend to circumnavigate the islands of Spitzbergen and Svalbard using an icebreaking schooner.  This is the small window of opportunity when the sea is ice free around the islands.  We will visit remote areas rarely explored by other photography tours.

This elegant ship carries 20 passengers in warm, comfortable surroundings with great food and hospitality.  As well as me being there to help with your photography, there is a guide onboard who is one of the best in the Arctic and whether sailing or hiking on land, their passion and knowledge of this region will be infectious.

We will leave the UK on the 11th August and return on the 27th August.  The cost of the trip is £2,990 plus airfare to Longyearbyen

We will get opportunities both onshore and aboard to photograph Polar Bear, Walrus, Arctic Fox, Svalbard Reindeer, Orca, Arctic and Pomarine Skuas, Ivory Gull, Glaucous Gull, Brunnich's Guillemot, Whales, seals, arctic flora and much more.  Most of the animals will be unafraid of humans allowing us very close approaches as we venture onto the Tundra or out on a Zodiac - a large inflatable raft.   We will also be visiting towns and other sites of historical interest.

You will not need "professional" cameras or big zoom lenses to photograph the wildlife here.  Wide angle and medium range (300mm) telephoto lenses will be very useful, as will a tripod, beanbag, polarising and graduated neutral density filters.  I will be on hand to help and encourage you get the best from this trip and hopefully avoid the usual pitfalls on a trip of this sort.  We will look at and learn from each others photos every evening and discuss what we expect the following day.  Laptops with imaging software such as Photoshop would be very useful to bring along.

The temperatures you will encounter will not be as cold as you may imagine.  This is the summer when the ice is melting with average temperatures of 4-6 Centigrade - a common enough temperature in the UK between November and March.  And in case you don't realise, there will be round the clock daylight!  I think we will get tired!  For more info on Svalbard click here.

Aqua Firma is a very well respected adventure and wildlife operator.  The trips are created using the help of professional scientists, conservationists, photographers and explorers. For more information please take a look at their website, which includes telephone numbers and booking forms for this trip.

Hurry, there is only a few weeks to go!

 _____________________________________________________

26:06:10 - What a year so far!

I've now been back in the UK for just over a month but I've hardly been in the house.  Partly because my time is rapidly looming to becoming a full-time daddy - my partner is soon to return to work and my job doesn't earn enough to employ a nanny etc (and even if it did I wouldn't want Indigo to be parted from me) - but because the weather and breeding successes of our birds this year are brilliant.

The redstart project was good, with several of my workshop attendants getting shots of this beautiful bird.  As these youngsters began to fledge I switched my attention to Goshawk, an unbelievably fantastic bird.  I have long been watching these forest phantoms without much success of a photograph.  I really need to be near a nest but thanks to the ridiculous and petty licensing rules we have in the UK I have found it too tough to go and find one "by chance" (photographers need a piece of signed paper to go near a nest, wheareas anyone else can have a rave and drug party under the nesting tree without so much of a warning letter - yes, it happens here in the Forest of Dean!).  Because of the alledged disturbance to the nesting birds these rules are pretentiously enforced in this country, so instead many photographers go abroad to disturb them, because no such rules apply there.  Anyone thinking of sending me an explanation needs to answer why disturbance is allowed everywhere except in the jurisdiction of a stealth taxing UKplc (in fact, any legislative "ACT", or Advanced Corporate Tax, is a voluntary "rules and penalty" game)!  Are these rules for the good of the bird or just the revenue and elitist tendencies of UK authoritarianism?

Anyway, when you have lived and breathed in the Goshawk's realm for as long as I have it is just a matter of time that I got my chance.  I didn't need to be "near" a nest (what is near or far?), just patience and knowhow and the right contacts and things start to happen.  Many hours in a hide and a bounty of roadkill squirrels later I have something like 14 "good" goshawk images in the bag.  YET, not one good one of the adults!  I am in such awe of the psychic ability of these birds to know where I was hiding, when I even just thought about them, that they kept "just" out of reach behind a branch or simply knowing when or where not to land.  This is a long project and I really need to focus on next year now to get the adult.

On a different but still successful note I want to announce my BIG workshop I will be running early next year.  It will be in the Antarctic with a British company called Aqua Firma.  I will put more details here as I get them - dates, prices etc.  I am so excited to be going to one of the world's truly wild places.  I wouldn't otherwise be able to afford to go on my own so this is a great opportunity for me.  I hope you can join me.

Now maybe I am counting some eggs here as well, but I have once again reached the very final stages of the BWPA (British Wildlife Photography Awards) contest, and can't wait to see if I have been selected as a winner.  Again details will be posted here asap.

Things do seem to be better in good weather don't they?

_____________________________________________________

10:06:10 - Parents!

It's been 3 months since I posted anything here or in the galleries, the longest stretch of nothing since I started this website.  The joys and added duties of being a parent is mostly the reason, not to mention processing all my images from my time in Spain and adding a few of these to the website.  Please check out the newly fledged European Wildlife galleries I've created and  hopefully will be added to over the next few years to create a fully mature collection of European wildlife.

   Since I returned back to the UK at the beginning of May the birds have been in full swing too starting their own families.  Always a brilliant time to go out in the Forest, listening to the song in the tree tops, excitedly awaiting the sight of a bird visiting its nest.  Now I have never been any good at finding nests, so when I do find one I feel particuarly priveledged to witness a private and probably anxious time for these parents bringing up their little and vulnerable offspring, dashing around for their food seemingly without any time for themselves.  Among the families I have been watching are pied flycatcher, redstart and peregrine, three of the more famous residents of the Forest of Dean.  One particularly difficult parent (but usually inquisitive) was a whitethroat who managed to elude me for many hours of chasing around some scrub here in the Forest.  I gave up with just 2 images as a record (see warbler gallery).  I will be back for him later perhaps?

 I have just uploaded some images of another bird I discovered on a nest during a drive through mid Wales in late May.  The whinchat is a small and sprightly little bird I have wanted to photograph ever since I photographed them badly in Oban a few years ago.  No nest photos (I think the worry for the parents would be too much had I approached the nest deep in some moorland grass), but by keeping a distance and observing their dedication was really enjoying.  I only visited them twice for a couple of hours each time before I left them to it.  Below is the male keeping his eye on me.  Check out the other images in the Wheatear & Chat gallery.

Also close by was a Wheatear nest.  This was during a workshop I was running so didn't have much time to get my own photos but I did get some great shots of the male on a post (check it out in the same gallery above).  Well actually, my client got the photo for me as I was on the wrong side of the car!!  Thanks Alison!!

I have now been to this part of Wales a few times this year, each time on a Workshop Day out to include the red kites at Gigrin farm.  Workshop bookings have been up for me this year with most of May and June fully booked.  I have had a great time meeting and chatting with so many great folk and hope that those I gave projects too will contact me when successful so I can visit them.  I have been really pleased with the images we have been getting.   I used to get nervous with these workshops but I now realise that anyone who wants to learn about wildlife photography are almost always charming and good company and thankfully understanding if a particular location doesn't get the desired result or weather forecast!  Its's a useful lesson, when target species don't show or we miss that all important shot.  All part of the joys and frustrations of wildlife photography.  I do still have spaces left in July and August for workshops if anyone is interested.  Send me an email if you want to photograph red kites, wheatears, swallows etc on one of my Welsh workshops.  Please go to my Workshops page to find out more.

Anyway, must go now to catch up with my redstart family.  I have a friend who has asked to film them so I want to make sure they are still there and haven't fledged yet (they will fledge very very soon).  Afterwards, I need to tend to my youngster and give the mother a much needed rest!  Parents!

wild boar piglets 10 June 2010

_____________________________________________________

11:02:10 - European Antics

At the moment I am having a long "working" holiday in the South of Spain staying with my 4 months old baby Indigo, her mum and her grandparents.  Indigo is just incredibly adorable and can't wait to show her the beauty of the world around her.

The weather is quite cold and at times very wet and far fom being a desert, as predicted by the global warming evangelists, the place is overflowing with water and full reservoirs!  In between the rain, one of my favourite places to visit is Gibraltar where there is quite a concentration of wildlife, especially the "apes".  Although Indigo hasn't yet met these sometimes cuddly, sometimes aggressive inhabitants of the "Rock", she will do soon and I will surely get the pictures up on the website (more ape images here).

 Barbary Macaque 19

The wildlife at the moment is justifiably quiet and I've done a few walks to look for promising sites for orchids and birds in the near future.  I recently ventured into the mountains as there is quite a lot of snow about hoping some of the rarer birds have moved to lower altitudes.  One such mountain above Marbella stands at just over 1,200m high, and I was very lucky (inspired?) to search for and then find a pair of Alpine Accentor, an elusive bird I've wanted to find for a few years now.

 Alpine Accentor 05 snow 2

I have also got some nice black redstart photos, a task that took quite a few days of baiting and setting up.  I was lucky because the day after my best effort was the day the bird left!  We wildlife photographers do need a lot of luck sometimes!  I  am optimistic that the wildlife will pick up soon and end my recent drought of photos to post on my website.  After all, I'll soon be making my first visit to the Coto Donana, a treat I've been saving for myself for many years.

_____________________________________________________

30:11:09 - Severn Estuary

I was recently asked by the Wildlife Trusts to send them some photos of the Severn Estuary and its wildlife.  Reasonably they thought I may have some on file as it is a local patch of mine.  But until now I've never really been a fan of landscape photography.  But these days I have the bug and took 2 days to challenge myself in the recent storms and floods to get some nice photos for the Trust. I had to concentrate on a very small bit of estuary close to home given the deadline.  It looked bleak and impossible in the weather outside, but I think I got a nice "snapshot" of the pre-barrage estuary.  I think they also show how life goes on regardless of weather or man, and that bad weather can even bring surprises.  It is great what can be achieved with the right motivation.

A Pomarine Skua rests on migration during the storms of late November 2009. (more here).

A lonely Oystercatcher picks a meal from the muds.