Barn Owl, Purple Sandpiper and A Labrador

Today I went out to photograph a Purple Sandpiper, Great Crested Grebe and find a few more potential locations around Norfolk. I didn't find time in the end to photograph the Grebes due to my early morning encounter with a Barn Owl.

While out looking at potiental sites for photographing Marsh Harriers, I realised there was a Barn Owl hunting over the next field. So I took cover under a tractor, on the side of the field and watched the owl for about 20 minutes. I soon began to see its routine and behaviour: hunting up and down the reeds in the middle, then resting at the end of the field for a couple of minutes. I used this detail to get a closer encounter. When the owl was resting, I slowly moved and tucked myself into the reeds. After waiting a while the owl suddenly took off again and start heading along the reeds. This happened on a couple of occasions and allowed me to get these shots.

Barn Owl hunting

Barn Owl flying straight towards me

Barn Owl searching for food

Looked straight at me when my camera went off

Soaring Barn Owl

While this was all happening I suddenly caught sight of a Short Eared Owl in the next field hunting, but I couldn't leave because it would have scared the Barn Owl. This would mean it could be more cautious in the future, so I sat and watched.

After this unexpected encounter I went off to look for the Purple Sandpiper. I had seen it a week prior on a birding trip with Norfolk Birding. It didn't take long to find it again, hiding amongst a group of Turnstones. I positioned myself along the coastline and waited for the birds to come to me. The first time I did this, a Golden Labrador decided to jump on my back and scared off all the birds which was extremely annoying. Nevertheless I waited an hour and they returned and managed to get a few shots:

Purple Sandpiper eating

Purple Sandpiper portrait

Purple Sandpiper

Purple Sandpiper hiding

Purple Sandpiper preening

Turnstone eating

Keeping an eye on me

Turnstone

So overall not a bad day at all, shame I didn't get the Grebes, there'll be a next time. Don't forget to like my Facebook page or follow me on Twitter
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Tips:

• Always take time to study the bird or animal's behaviour. It will pay off in the long run.
• Check large groups of Waders because some of the time there will be a rarer species among them.
• With Waders, watch their route along the shore and position yourself further along.  Have patience and they will come to you.
• Always go on scouting days because locations change regularly.

Hope you enjoyed the blog,  more images to come soon.

Norfolk Broads - An Owl's Heaven

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Recently I have been trying to photograph Barn Owls. A month ago, I was told of a local location where one had been spotted daily. After spending a week and a half, most mornings and evenings, the Owl never turned up. It still hasn't been spotted and it has been 3 weeks now, so I feel something might have happened to it or hopefully it had just relocated.

During a visit to a wildlife reserve I met Norman Tottle, who is a Norfolk-based photographer who specialises in the landscape and wildlife of the Norfolk Broads. He told me to check out a number of different areas where he regularly finds Barn Owls.

So for the past few days I have been traveling to the Broads to photograph the Owls, early morning and evening. I knew the Norfolk Broads was well known for its wildlife, but didn't realise how bio-diverse it is. Currently, at one location you can spot daily: a Barn Owl, Short Eared Owl, Little Owls, Cranes, Marsh Harrier, Kestrel, Cettis Warblers, Great Crested Grebes, Herons and the elusive pigeon. Also Otters are sighted occasionally, so I am always on the lookout.

I felt as if I had won the lottery finally getting to see the owls and all the other species. For the last few days though, I have just been concentrating on the Barn Owl and Short Eared Owl. Here are a few of my pictures so far:

Barn Owl in flight - Norfolk

Barn Owl hovering - Norfolk

Short Eared Owl watching me - Norfolk

Random Heron - Norfolk

Barn Owl flying over the reeds - Norfolk

Barn Owl roaming - Norfolk

Short Eared Owl Flying low - Norfolk

Tips:

• Wear camouflage if you want a closer view.
• Speak to locals, they can guide you to the best areas.
• Best time to see Owls, is after a few days of rain, as they are out during the day to find food. They can't hunt very well in the rain, so they are normally hungry.

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RSPB Minsmere

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After signing up to be a member of the RSPB, I decided to go to one of their well known reserves that I hadn't been to yet, Minsmere. I wanted to spend most of the day there, so I set off at 5am because it takes a hour and 10 from mine.

I decided to spend the whole day in one hide, as I am yet to do this. This meant that I didn't see much of the reserve but allowed me to document and record the same area all day. It ended up being a 10 hour shoot with no breaks and in 1 hide. This was a test of my patience as there were long periods with no activity.

View from the hide, 2 deer in the water and 1 on the path.

The key species I wanted to photograph were Bittern and Otters but both are elusive species.

I didn't see any otters but did end up seeing 4 bitterns. 2 flew straight past the hide and another one walked down a path next to the hide for about a minute, but was quiet a distance away from me. It wasn't until 3:30pm, 9 hours into my shoot that one flew into the reed beds but the lighting wasn't great for photography.

Other species I photographed and documented were:

4 Bitterns, 4 Marsh Harriers collecting reeds for nest material, 4 Red Deer, 2 Water Rail, 2 Cetti's Warblers, a Kingfisher, 2 Monkjack's, Mating Greylag Geese, Mating Coots, Reed Bunting, Squirrel and the rare Blue Tit.

So it wasn't a bad day really and I met some nice people as well. One being Norman Tottle who gave me a few locations and local knowledge around the area, which was good.

Here are a few of the images from the day.

Bittern flying over the water.

Water Rail flying into the reeds.

Marsh Harrier collecting reeds for its nest.

Red deer in the reeds.

Bittern flying over the reeds.

Cetti's Warbler displaying for mate.

Cetti's Warbler hiding in the reeds.

Bittern wading through the water.

Marsh Harrier soaring.

Red deer.

Red deer in the water.

Red Deer grazing.

During the day, 4 Red deer came into the water to cool down. It was a great experience even though it annoyed some twitchers who stormed off in angry. They then came and slept in front of the hide for the next hour. They were too close to photograph 90% of the time, but great to watch.

Tips:

• Patience pays off.
• Wear suncream in hides (My hands got burnt)
• Speak to people and you will pick up local knowledge and tips.

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Thanks for looking

RSPB Norfolk

After returning home from Cornwall,  I decided to go on a shoot in North Norfolk as the weather was great. I wanted to find Black Throated Divers and Black Necked Grebes, so I did a little research on recent sightings and came to the conclusion that I should head to Snettisham and Titchwell, which are both RSPB Reserves.  They had both had sightings in the past few weeks, so it was a long shot but was better then nothing.

I ended up not finding either of the birds I wanted to, which is normally the case with wildlife photography, but still had a great day and photographed a number of different species.

Key Species: Great Egret, Avocets, Skylark, Bar-Tailed Godwits, Shovelers, Barnacle Geese, Goldeneyes and a Common Lizard

Here are a few shots from today:

Barnacle Goose

Avocets Mating

Avocet Feeding

Skylark

Flock of around 1000 geese

Bar-Tailed Godwit wading

Shoveler Preening

Shovelers

Tips:

• Research locations to have more luck finding specific species (even though I didn't find them on this occasion)
• Make the most of locations and photograph all of the species
• Patience in the hides pay off for behaviour shots ie. Avocets mating

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And check out my website: www.wildlife-photos.co.uk

Carrick Roads - Floating Hide

For my final year project at Falmouth University, I am looking at the Carrick Roads, which is a flooded valley on the south coast of Cornwall. Last week I decided to create a floating hide, which enables me to photograph the species at water level.

I wasn't sure if the floating hide was actually going to float, let alone how close I was going to be able to get to the species. So I decided to give it a test run on a Little Grebe. They are known to be fairly skittish, so it was an ideal bird to try it out on.

Little Grebe.

Little Grebe Portrait.

As you can see, the hide has worked really well and got me much closer to the subject and allowed a very low angle which has created a very shallow depth of field.

After this success I was eager to try it out again but the weather had been too windy until today. So today I went to a familiar part of the Carrick Roads allowing me to give the hide a proper try out. My first sighting was of a Cormorant drying off on a buoy. I ended up hovering around the cormorant for about 10 minutes getting so close that my lens couldn't focus at times. As this was a test run I wanted to get close up profile shots of species. Here are a few of the Cormorant.

Cormorant drying off.

Full frame of a cormorants head.

After about 10 minutes a local fishing boat came up behind me, with some very confused people on board. I heard them approaching and questioning what on earth the contraption in front of them was. They thought I was some type of rubbish that had been thrown over board from a boat until they got within 5m of me and realised that I was a person dressed in camouflage inside a floating hide. They were still very confused.

Anyway I carried on with my shoot but sadly the boat had scared off the Cormorant. I moved on looking for the next subject to photograph but was struggling to find anything, until I saw a flash of blue in the distance on the other side. I quickly paddled across and sure enough it was a Kingfisher. These birds too are very skittish when it comes to people, so it was a real test of how well my hide would disguise me . To my amazement I got closer then I have ever been to one of these stunning birds. All of the images shown here are full frame.

Kingfisher sitting on it's perch.

Kingfisher sitting on a pile of seaweed fishing.

Me testing out how close I could get to it.

I followed the Kingfisher around for about 30 minutes, until it suddenly dived about a metre in front of me, caught a fish but then was immediately chased off by another Kingfisher that appeared out of nowhere. Fantastic to witness.

Tips:

• Make a floating hide, they can work so well.
• Don't be scared to try something new.
• Stay with your subject for as long as possible.

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Morning Of Waxwings

For a while now I have been looking out for Waxwings (Bombycilla garrulus) around Norfolk, with no success. But last night, I found a location via Twitter and decided to see if they were still there today. I was surprised when I found out that the sighting was in the middle of a suburb of Norwich called Costessey in a small park.

I arrived about 9am with my mum as she was interested in seeing them as well and to my amazement, I found around 25 of them straight away in a single tree. I was buzzing with excitement. This was my first ever sighting of Waxwings and they didn't disappoint. You can easily identify them, by their crest on the head. I was also surprised at how tame they were, rarely did they fly off even when I got within five metres.

Waxwing's crest.

The majority of the time they rested in the tree together, preening and sleeping. Every five minutes or so, one would move closer to the neighbouring berry-laden tree to have a look. After inspecting the tree, it would quickly fly onto it, followed immediately by the rest of the flock.

Resting in the tree together.

A lone Waxwing inspecting the berry tree.

This scene was repeated every ten minutes or so, the birds only staying on the berry tree for around a minute or so at a time. This was plenty of time to get most of the shots I wanted.

Waxwing eating a berry.

Inspecting the berries.

Perched on the berries.

They stayed in the same place for about an hour before all flying off for a post-breakfast rest. I have been told that they have been here for the past week and have already stripped three trees of berries, with help from the blackbirds, of course. There are now only two trees with berries on and I cannot see them lasting too long, so get down there as soon as possible if you want to see them yourself. I returned later on and they had returned, but this time I only saw them for ten minutes before they all flew off. I did, however, get a few more shots of them.

Posing with its berry.

About to fly back to the tree with its food.

Catching the falling berry.

Watching the berry tree.

Tips

• Use Twitter, it's a great place to get information on locations.
• Arrive early in the morning, it is usually better light and you are more likely to find them.
• Research the call of the bird you are looking for. You are more likely to hear a Waxwing before you see it.

Camera: Nikon D7000
Lenses: 300mm, 300mm with a 2X convertor

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Cheers for reading and I hope you have enjoyed seeing these as much as I did today. Heading back to Cornwall on Sunday, so I might have to go visit the Waxwings again tomorrow!!

Feel free to follow me on my blog and on Twitter:  Josh_Jaggard