Nature – Page 4 – JustTheSam

Digging a Pond

31. March 2009 · Write a comment · Categories: Nature

Down at the WWA we're creating a new pond, which we hope will be a haven for dragonflies, amphibians and the like. This sort of endeavour clearly necessitates some fun toys, so we hired a JCB mini-digger. And I can report that it's great fun – I'm going to have to get one for the flat!

The controls are numerous but relatively easy to get the hang of. The most counter-intuitive bit is that the left-hand joystick uses left/right to tilt the bucket itself.

Nature!

26. March 2009 · Write a comment · Categories: Nature, Photography, Travel

First off, a pair of great diving beetles apparently mating. You can really see the difference between the male and the female – having completely different wing cases. These were on the surface of the pond in the Italian garden of The Lost Gardens of Heligan in Cornwall. I've never seen great diving beetles for real before so I was thrilled to see these. They are really quite big.

In another pond at Heligan, here's what I think is a toad, though it's hard to be sure. I think that the relatively warty skin and chunky build make it more toad-like. The original photo was really low contrast so I've zapped it way up and made it nearly monochrome for a slightly eery effect.

Finally, a Treecreeper, hopping its way up a tree quite high up and pushing my 400mm lens to its limits (this is a tight crop as it is). I'm disappointed I never got a better angle of it, but it was always moving or somehow obscured. I'm still quite chuffed as this is my first Treecreeper sighting and I was explicitly looking out for them at the time. This was on the RSPB reserve at West Sedgemoor in the woods.

Cornwall: Eden Project

20. March 2009 · Write a comment · Categories: Nature, Photography, Travel

One of the things in Cornwall that you have to visit by law is the Eden Project. It's quite pricey to get in (notably more than the Lost Gardens of Heligan for instance) and dare I say that rankled a bit. It's reputation precedes it, so it had a lot to live up to. To be honest it fell a little short, but that might be because we'd been to Heligan just two days before which had set a high bar, and our expectation were a bit unrealistically set from all the media coverage that it gets.

The two biomes are genuinely impressive and by far the best thing about the place. Set in an old quarry, they are sheltered from the elements and act as enormous greenhouses with the larger set housing a tropical climate and the other a cooler Mediterranean experience. It was a super-sunny day for March and the tropical biome was absolutely scorching. Sweat was dripping down every part of me. It was almost a chore, save for the extraordinary wealth of lush tropicana all around, including waterfalls, streams and millions of tiny ants. A member of staff told me that the ants and all the birdlife weren't really supposed to be there but there wasn't much they could do. I watched a robin catching a grasshopper, and another one eating a large cockroach! With those sorts of goods on offer I'm not surprised they wait to come through the sliding doors with the rest of the visitors.

Above on the right is a picture of WEEE Man (if I recall correctly) – a huge sculpture made of the electrical waste that the average person throws away in a lifetime. Those teeth are computer mice.

The Mediterranean biome was probably my favourite bit, as it was a pleasant place to be in absolutely every sense, though not quite as vast and absorbing as the tropics. One building is known as The Core and at the centre of it is a 75 tonne sculpture hewn from a single piece of rock – apparently the largest single stone ever quarried in the UK. It's an egg or pine-cone shaped sculpture with highly geometric qualities that represents a seed pod at the core of the whole endeavour. I kind of liked it, but the building it was in, full of educational stuff, didn't quite seem to gel.

Overall, if you're going to Cornwall you'd be mad not to visit the Eden project, but if it were much busier than it was in mid-March it might be a bit of a struggle. I think I'd recommend people go, but I'd even more strongly recommend they go to the Lost Gardens of Heligan nearby. More on that to come.

Rook vs Crow

19. March 2009 · Write a comment · Categories: Nature, Photography, Travel

I've always struggled to tell the difference between Rook, Crow and Raven, though I've had Jackdaws sorted for years (notably smaller – black cap above more slightly silvery head and neck). To remedy this situation I've really been trying to get to grips with the differences and positively identify large black birds over recent months. Here's what I'm fairly sure is a rook, on a feeder at the Lost Gardens of Heligan in Cornwall.

This is fairly classicly an adult rook by virtue of the grey area around the base of the bill, which itself is long and pointy compared to that of a carrion crow. That said, the head shape seems more typically crow-like to me (less of a crown) and in this example there's no evidence of the 'baggy trousers' that usually distinguishes a rook. As a result I'm left still fairly puzzled, but I'm going with my call that this is a rook. Furthermore, there were lots of them around all together and apparently this is a sign of rookedness.

Has Spring Sprung?

16. February 2009 · Write a comment · Categories: Nature, Photography

I nipped down to the local nature reserve today and it really felt like Spring had sprung. After the recent spell of miserable, cold weather, today was balmy and glorious with the smells of growing plants on the gentle breeze.

The wildlife was enjoying it too, with the resident kingfisher doing what he does best – fishing. One thing he doesn't usually do at all is come anywhere near me so I can get a really good photograph. Today though, he flew to a nearby branch and sat posed in the sun for 15 second or so. I can tell it was definitely a he as the bill is all black. This is my best shot yet of a kingfisher, by some margin.

Walking in a Winter Wonderland

06. February 2009 · Write a comment · Categories: Nature, Photography

The Watercress Wildlife Association (a local nature reserve in St Albans), after the fresh snow this morning.

I saw a little egret, but it flew away every time I came within sight of it. So this is the best I managed.

Long-tailed Tit and Brown Rat

18. January 2009 · Write a comment · Categories: Culture, Nature, Photography

Look at this little fella – isn't he cute! Taken this morning amid preparations for wassailing in the orchard.

I tried my luck standing in plain sight only 3 metres from the feeder, with honking great 400mm lens, and after about ten minutes stood motionless, the braver birds starter coming back. It's particularly nice to see long-tailed tits because they're so small and neat.

I also saw this less welcome visitor, on the ground underneath:

Random Photo: Another Autumn Wood

16. January 2009 · Write a comment · Categories: Nature, Photography, Travel

Another miscellaneous photo from a walk in Sherwood forest in the autumn, to remind us of days when the sky wasn't just dull and grey.

Random Photo: Leaf Drops

14. January 2009 · Write a comment · Categories: Nature, Photography

This is one of those occasions where I had accidentally left the ISO high having been shooting in the dark previously. So this was f8, 1/2000s at ISO 1600, quite unnecessarily!

Getting Twitchy

11. January 2009 · Write a comment · Categories: Nature, Photography

I was stumbling along in the gloom of another grey day at the WWA. And at 3:30pm it was starting to get dark. Very poor conditions for wildlife photography! Then I noticed a small blue bird on a branch and bingo, there was one of the kingfishers in a spot I'd never seen it before, and handy for me to rest my camera on the rail of a bridge only about 8m away. Here are the best couple of shots I got (the first was actually entirely handheld).

These are the best shots I've ever managed to get of kingfishers so I'm very pleased. They're a long way from decent by any professional standards (the things I see on TV or in magazines make me sick with envy and incredulity) but the opportunity was fleeting and the light dim, with my kit and technique straining at their very limits: 400mm, ISO 3200, f5.6, 1/100s. To top it all, the elusive water rail then walked along beneath it, though I didn't manage to get a shot of that, and still never have.

JustTheSam