I’m lucky to have access to Ian Howells Woodland Bird Hide. It’s a nice setup of bird feeders that’s not far from home. I offer to help him fill the feeders, which has proven to be quite a responsibility for him during winter as they need filling at-least 3 times a day.! It’s always worth having a good bird feeder setup to return to on snow days as everything just looks better in the snow. Because of the white bright snow, light is reflected to the underparts of the birds giving you better exposure possibilities in the camera. I was particularly happy with the Great Spotted Woodpecker images as I’ve been after a clean show of the male for a while. Watching him flumping around in the snow was quite amusing.

Before you get too excited, this is an old image at Newport Road Cardiff in January 2017. The reason I’m posting this image as it may just happen for us again this year with the closest sightings so far being Crickhowell and Chepstow. There certainly seems to be the odd small flock in Wales and fingers crossed I’ll get the opportunity again as they are stunning Birds and very photogenic.

The only advantage of being unemployed for four months in the year, is that I've got time to develop myself and finally start my own business. My choice to start this business was one made out of self pride, as I could well have signed on and claimed off the government, but I've been there before and during in that low period in my life, I found it extremely damaging to my mental health. Weekly visits to the Job Centre, being sent to interviews that had no relevance to me was really hard. I once attended an interview with only a nights notice from Job Seekers, only to find out during the interviewing process that the position was for a financial manager. I've had no experience in anything financial at the time, I didn't even have my GCSE Maths! Yet Job Seekers sent me on that interview, for the sake of ticking a few boxes on a sheet of paper. Never again.

Anyway, I just wanted to point out the importance of mental health issues and if you think you're experiencing some of your own, seek help. It's far more important than a few numbers in the bank account as this stays with you your entire life.

For now, the business is going to run under 'Gavin Vella Naturalist'. While i'll be selling physical products like Photography and Sound Recording, I'll also be offering my services for all sorts of training, from Wildlife ID, Bird/Song ID, Photography, Sound Recording and general wildlife guide tours.
I've already started training, my first session being for GWT which was an introductory course into Sound Recording. Getting that first one out of the way has really helped build my confidence and the feedback I got was also really helpful.

Keep an eye on this space, I'll be making my prices available soon and my one off signed prints will be located HERE once I've sorted the stock.

For now I'll leave you with some Winter wonderland pictures from south sebastopo's stretch of the brecon & mon Canal.

Blog Content

Snow Days

Time, Business & Mental Health