Looking forward to Spring!

Can't wait for Spring to arrive and the days to start getting longer! :D This will be my first official spring being able to drive so I'm going to try my best to make is my most productive spring ever. I have lots on my species list to document and study so should make for an interesting one for photography. Below is a Male Bearded Tit and 1 particular species I intend on photographing just before Spring arrives where I find they are most active fighting off other Males and pairing up. This shot was taken at Newport Wetlands RSPB Nature Reserve in what ended up being 1 successful trip out of 100 failed visits! They are not easy to spot amongst the miles of Reed Bed on the reserve and even harder to photograph. 

Life Line

If it wasn't for Llandegfedd's Feeding Station this winter, I'd be pretty depressed with all this bad weather! If it's not raining, it's dark and if it's not dark, it's windy! Sat inside a hide is the best way to go when the weather is bad and to be fair, it has got me out of the house more often knowing that I have a dry hide to take refuge in. 

Long-tailed Tit are so much fun!

These birds are so entertaining! We're so lucky to get these in are Gardens and if you're yet to get them, put out Fat Balls or Suit Blocks of any kind and I'm sure it won't be long before you start to get them, especially if you have a lot of hedges and cover. Long-tailed Tits don't like to fly out in the open for long distances so key to these is to make a connection between your Garden and the next woodland. That said, if the weather is cold and harsh enough, you may get them anyway. I'll continue to photograph these till my camera gives up. 

Key to their success is the way in which they commute on their day to day activities. They are among the very few species that survive thanks to sticking to a group but not just any random group, they survive with their own family. Evidence of this can be seen in the picture below taken a couple years ago on the top of my street. 

This is the first years brood of 2014. Sticking together means more eyes to look out for predators and in this case, the chicks even help the parents feed their next brood of chicks which will drastically increase their chances of survival. You'll often hear the birds way before you see them and this is another sign that they are group orientated because they are constantly communicating which each other with a broad variety of different calls to which each individual has to learn. This communication doesn't always work to their advantage though as it can give away their position to predators and top predator of these birds is the Sparrowhawk. 

Female GSW

Female Great Spotted Woodpeckers are slightly bigger than the males and since yesterday I showcased the Male, I thought I'd give you a close up of the female so that you can see the differences for yourself. Note the back of the head does not have a Red patch? That's the main difference between the 2. Males use this Red patch to display to other males but why is it on the back of the head and not the front? Well, if you think of their general activities, they are usually face forward on a tree trunk which means the back of the bird is viewed more than the front, which would explain why that Red patch is on the back so that other males can see how dominant they are. This also helps attract females on the scene and the larger, more vibrant the red patch, the more chance he has to mate with her. That said, the male has to do a lot more than that to impress a female and their drumming skills play a huge part in their success. It's not about speed, but about matching the frequency of the drum (log) by hitting the log at the right speed. For instance, they can knock at 10-40 beats per second but they need to match that to the frequency of the log so the log resonates fully. The more resonance, the more projection which will result in larger territories and more chance of keeping a female. Despite their back reputation for drilling nest boxes, I do really love Woodpeckers. 

Great Spotted Woodpecker

It's about time! I've been trying to get a half decent shot of a woodpecker for a while and today was the day, for whatever reason. A male and female showed well throughout the day eating both the peanuts on the feeders and the fat balls. Took a bit of temptation to get them on this log however, which actually has a funny story to it. I made a small mess feeder to go on the other side of the log out of sight but that feeder didn't last long as it took all of 3 seconds for the Squirrel to bite through the cable tie and run off with it. I chased him in the hope he would drop it but nope.. he just carried on and brought it up the tree with him. Little bugger! Took me all of 15 minutes to make that feeder lol. Next time it will be squirrel proof with a little trip to B&Q in the morning for some metal cable ties lol. 

Llandegfedd Reservoir Caddis Fly Larvae / Teal

Spent the morning with great company at the feeding station today in what ended up being a fabulous sunny day! It really felt like spring and sounded like it too with Greater Spotted Woodpeckers drilling away in the trees and plenty of birds in full song. Below I've included a short video of 2 of my favourite sightings from todays visit. 1 of which I've never seen before and that was a huge gathering of Caddis Fly Larvae, like to be Limnephilus marmoratus but not entirely sure just yet. Another great gathering at Green Pool Hide with 100+ Teal 10 Wigeon and 2 Snipe. The local Peregrine Falcones were showing well today also along with a single Male Goosander. Lots of plants emerging with Celandine popping up everywhere and plenty of Snowdrops too. Particular favourite for me is seeing the Lords and Ladies plant emerge in their spiral fashion as the leaves unfold in what's quite an interesting plant. 

Smallest Bird in the UK

Many people believe that the smallest bird in the Uk is a Wren, but it's common knowledge in the birding community that the Goldcrest is the smallest bird. There is however another species of similar size in the Uk and that is the rarer Firecrest, which in some cases have been known to be even smaller than the Goldcrest. Truth is though, they are both pretty much the same size and any particular individual bird has the potential of being smaller or bigger than the other. You may not see these birds that often but that doesn't reflect on their distribution as they are very common in the Uk and can be found on a variety of habitats, including your Garden. You just have to keep a keen eye out for them as they are very small and often flitter around in thick coniferous trees. 

Unsharp Masking

Every now and again, you learn something new out of pure chance. This is certainly one of those cases! Till today, I've considered myself pretty good at editing my images but after finding a new tool in Photoshop, I've realised that I've been doing things the hard way!. Just out of curiosity today I tried a feature called 'Unsharp Mask' and what a difference it made to my images! When used correctly, it can extract the right type of detail in your image by adding more contrast to individual pixels via a ratio you provide. Basically, it gives the impression of sharpness without actually sharpening the image too much. I've added an example below: On the left is the un-edited foggy image and on the right I've applied only a heavy Unsharp Mask. The image isn't actually any sharper than the one on the left, it's just deepened the blacks and tightened the whites giving you the impression of overall contrast which makes the image much more pleasant to the eye. 

As you can see, it really made a huge difference to this photograph which I considered not using at all because it was so foggy at the time. Safe to say, fog won't be keeping me indoors anymore! 

Red Deer Battle Scars

Males Red Deer actually shed their antlers each year and then re-grow them just in time for the rutting season. I particularly like this shot because it shows the detail in the scratches on the antlers which show just how ferocious their fights can be. 

Short-eared Owl Extended

Short-eared Owl Extended

Todays location was totally unplanned but I intended on getting somewhere really early... It ended up being Rumney for the Shorties but what I wasn't intending to get was a Barn AND Short-eared Owl in one shot!.. Now, some would call this shot a 'failed' shot and others 'arty'.. personally though, I don't care, it has a Barn Owl and Short-eared Owl in it! haha. In my defence, this was 6:00am and the Sun hadn't even come out yet.. 

After the morning session I decided to travel to Lydney to re-find a nature reserve called Nagshead. That trip was an epic fail however as the post code was wrong and I got lost... So I ended up coming straight back for an evening session on the Owls again. 

When I arrived back at the same site, it seemed that everyone was making the most of good weather as 7 photographers were spread out in the fields. Luckily my little spot was free so I tucked myself up, got the camo on and hunkered down for another few hours. Every single photographer in the area gave up after what seemed like a complete no show from the Owls.. that was until, everyone else had gone! Because literally as soon as they all left, I counted 11 Shorties hunting the very spots they were setup by. This goes to show that you must always have patience! Me included as I did move from my original spot and it meant missing a perched opportunity. I still had a great time with the Owls and with better light today, I was able to get slightly sharper flight shots even as the light faded. 

Sparrowhawk