Joined up with midlands naturalist Adam L. Canning for a trip over to Hilbre Island, Cheshire yesterday for a winter fix of waders and sea ducks. A total of 7hrs was spent on the island with Adam, resulting in a number of notable species: Purple Sandpiper, Common Scoter, Rock Pipit, Brent Goose (ssp. hota), Common Eider and an unseasonable Northern Gannet to name but a few.
The perfect lighting gave way for some ample photographic opportunities of the wintering Purple Sandpipers on the island, I’ve uploaded several onto the blog. Hopefully you’ll be able to make out the purple iridescence which gives them their name.
A few years ago I made a series of short videos which were featured on the Reader’s Digest Magazine website, entitled Wildlife Monthly.
Each month I produced 3 videos around a minute or more, detailing flora and fauna (mainly fauna) for you to look out for; be it in your garden, local park / reserve or further afield.
Below I have included the videos from my May edition(s).
More info: The course is ran by B’ham Metropolitan College at the Botanical Gardens – the course involves; boundary habitat conservation, ecological surveys and techniques, ecology of trees, woods and forests, game management and environmental studies.
For day three, I caught up on Springwatch and UNSPRUNG episodes that I’ve missed, plus I’ve put together a short video of my highlights at RSPB Minsmere (below) featuring:
I travelled near enough 4 hours from the West Midlands to Suffolk, so I could visit RSPB Minsmere, and also be in the BBC Springwatch Unsprung audience! Some of you will know, it’s a reserve right on the East Coast of England! And is a host to a variety of habits, wildlife and of course, BBC Springwatch! 😃 I came over on the Wednesday night and stayed in near by Leiston, at the Field End Guest House.
I often wax-lyrical (to friends and family) about reserves that have a variety of habitats, I absolutely love them, because they are so enriching to explore and will be home to many different species of wildlife, which is fantastic to observe and have encounters with.
RSPB Minsmere certainly deserves it’s national recognition! I will definitely be visiting again in the near future! I arrived on the reserve at 10.30AM.
I was very happy to be there!
I love a good Log Pile and what an amazing extensive one this is!Top Nature of the Day:
That’s the Bittern Hide in the distance said Orchid Observing the Stone-Curlew (in the distance) Sand Martin colony Sea ThriftAt 5.00PM it was time to load the car up and get ready for Springwatch UNSPRUNG!
Cueing up for Unsprung with Gary Waiting to be let into the Studio! To see me on UNSPRUNG click here!
I should hopefully be making a series of short videos very soon, for Big Centre TV. The series will be entitled Wild West (Midlands) and it will showcase the greenspaces, wildlife and naturalists that are in and around the West Midlands.
To introduce me to their audience they asked me to come in on the 24th for a live studio interview, to discuss what families in the West Midlands can get up to this Easter Holiday, surveys and seasonal wildlife.
This month I’ve decided to focus on some wildlife that takes a backseat, and is often overlooked – Reptiles and Amphibians! 🐍 🐸
ARG UK have teamed up with Amphibian and Reptile Conservation; to bring us a Record Pool of our water loving and sun loving friends! In the video below I interview Underwater Cameraman, Jack Perks – to give us some tips and the lowdown on this nationwide survey.
“The Annual Rutland Romp!” ?? I’m referring to the British Birdwatching Fair, the Birdfair of course! 🙂 Last week was my 5th time at the fair (I’ve been going every year since 2010). It’s on for 3 days over a weekend in mid August, and has been on every year for more than 25 years! I love that it’s not just people from all over Britain visiting Rutland Water, but people from all over the world that migrate to England’s smallest county for this annual and eventful occasion too!
Birdfair 2010 – Me and Simon King OBE
Over the years – despite its name – Birdfair has evolved to not just be about birds and aiding their conservation, but wildlife and conservation overall. I often refer to it as a wildlife festival before telling people the name of it. It is an amazing place to meet and be surrounded by like-minded passionate people, and rub shoulders with TV personalities 😉 There are talks from wildlife TV presenters, naturalists, conservationists and filmmakers, as well as authors and photographers too. I could only do two days of the fair and arrived on Saturday, with my wildlife photographer friend, James Burman – who has taken some stunning pictures. We camped at Rutland Water Camping, on the lovely Hambleton Peninsula – where we saw Foxes and a Badger 🙂
Chris Packham’s talk was brilliant – in short; it was about cutting the crap regarding what dangers children might face outdoors, and to let them experience and enjoy nature in all its glory! Chris featured three young wildlife enthusiasts, who in turn talked about their experiences and passion for nature, and what they have been up to. I realised they each represented a region of England: Josie Hewitt – The South, Connor Coombes – The North and Georgia Locock – The Midlands. All of their talks were very good, and insightful 🙂 I’m hoping this is a progressive change, as it’s really nice hearing from a diverse range of people on stage in the Events Marquee. Connor with his Cumbrian accent and Georgia with her West Midlands accent (similar to my own), I couldn’t help but be moved, it was refreshing and humbling!
In various other marquees you can find hundreds of stands selling and promoting the latest products for wildlife enthusiasts – gadgets and clothing, scopes to sculptures, binoculars to bird food and eGuides to eco-holidays! 😀 I mainly go to the festival to catch up with old friends and make new ones, and to share it all with them! ❤
Birdfair 2015 – Me & James Burman (Alex & Gordon looking at the Birdfair programme) 🙂
Birdfair 2015 – Christine Hall and Me 😀
Since my 2nd time, I have met up with my friend Christine Hall, a great wildlife camerawoman, photographer and conservationist. It’s possible you’ve seen her video of a Red Squirrel on a previous series of Autumnwatch, it was slipping down a post whilst trying to get peanuts from a bird-feeder, and you may have recently seen her in the Springwatch Unsprung audience 😉
It was really good meeting Yusuf Akhtar, Victoria House and a mixture of AFON and NGB members (to name a few); Alexandra Hoadley, Ryan Clark, Susan Jones, Josie Hewitt, James Common, Georgia Locock, Drew Lyness, Billy Stockwell, Sorrel Lyall, Tom Mason and James O’Neill. Plus it was really nice catching up with Peter Cooper, Jack Perks, Josh Jaggard and Matt Collis 🙂
Birdfair 2011 – Mike Dilger, Bill Oddie OBE and Me!
Birdfair 2015 – Me with Kate MacRae
Every year at the Bushnell stand I chat to WildlifeKate quite a lot, we came to realise we’ve never had a photo taken together, so the picture above is the only one ever for now 😛
Birdfair 2015 – Mike Dilger and Me
Mike Dilger and I chat quite a lot too, this year he bumped into me – in the Art Marquee – James and I happened to be getting to know the illustrator of his new book, Darren Woodhead – a wonderful artist. Mike’s new book is being released next year!
Simon King’s talk this year – as well as hearing about his recent wildlife filmmaking – contained a much needed reminder; a bit more needs to be done to conserve the natural world. We were made aware that nature is losing places in the dictionary! Words like Snowdrop are being taken out and replaced with the likes of “selfie” and “blog”. So I was pleased that towards the end of his talk we were informed about the Simon King Wildlife Project, which is a new charity assisting in the prevention of the degradation of the natural world, globally. The project intends to safeguard habitats, reclaim land for nature and engage people with wild creatures and wild places, which in turn will help keep the natural world intact! 🙂
Before my entry comes to an end – wildlife I observed around the reserve:
If you saw my last entry in June, then you know I spent a week in the amazing Lake District! This post is for the last 4 days of 30 Days Wild/June. For those who don’t know – I stayed in a place called Little Langdale with 4 of my friends, who are some of the best people and I’m truly thankful for knowing them 😀 I’m sharing with you iPhone pictures of my wild-and-natural highlights.
Day 27
We looked and ambled around one of our nearest towns, Ambleside – before heading to our home for the week! It had all the shops we would need 🙂
A lovely view from Ambleside’s recreation ground. Atmospheric clouds!
A few minutes before I took this photo, I saw my first ever Dipper down there! 😀 This is the River Rothay.
We had to walk up a pathway to get to our Little Langdale cottage, we had our very own tarn and everything! 😀
Taken a little way down the pathway, but it was just our wee garden & a field that separated us from Little Langdale Tarn (the lake) ❤
Mary, Scott, Nick, Charlotte & our cottage, High Hallgarth! ❤
The view from my bedroom window for the week ❤
Taken from our garden area, we were surrounded by hills & mountains.
Day 28
We awoke to a downpour… Despite the rain we decided to explore and visit our tarn first! 🙂 Later we found out tarn meant something completely different to our friend Mary (the redheaded lass), in Barnsley it means town! 😛
Even with unpleasant weather, it is fantastic! I loved seeing our Tarn each day!
On the way over to our very local lake, we came across a variety of nature. My friend Scott (the blonde chap) is excellent at spotting small members of the animal kingdom, and allowing me time to document his finds! 🙂
Chimney Sweeper (Moth)
There’s only one Orchid in this picture, but they were everywhere we went, with some fields/meadows brimming with them! Like the field we passed through on our way to the tarn.
We didn’t quite expect to find our selves in boggy conditions, and couldn’t make it down to the Little Langdale Tarn! So we decided to change course, move away from the tarn and get our exploration of Little Langdale underway!
We passed through this wood. Charlotte & Scott leading the way 🙂
We were getting closer to a known part of Little Langdale, Slater’s Bridge! Which relatively, is a short walk from High Hallgarth.
A Common Toad – which was on the path just before the bridge! 🙂
We passed over Slater’s Bridge.
Taken looking back at Slater’s Bridge.
High Hallgarth is the small white spec above the cottage you can just make out.
The last day of 30 Days Wild! We went on a Ten Lakes Spectacular Tour! My highlights/things I managed to take pictures of:
The tour bus! Kindly modelled by Nick 🙂 Behind Nick is Chris, our jovial Mancunian tour guide and his assistant for the day, Tess. (By the way, that’s not a ghost in the window, that’s a patiently waiting Charlotte) 😉
It felt almost as if I was in a scene of a film, Jurassic Park for example 😉
Derwentwater is near Keswick. It was funny feeling like I was in a film and then disembarking to a recently arrived Film Crew! They were setting up for a remake of Swallows and Amazons, I hear it’s a BBC Films production.
Purple Sandpiper (Calidris maritima) 
Purple Sandpiper (Calidris maritima) 
Purple Sandpiper (Calidris maritima) 
Purple Sandpiper (Calidris maritima) 
Purple Sandpiper (Calidris maritima) 
Common Scoter (Melanitta nigra) 
Common Eider (Somateria mollissima) 
Canned Wildlife 
You must be logged in to post a comment.