Standing up for Nature
Oscar writes: While in the Doñana National Park we spent some time around the marshes by the visitor centre looking for some of the birds the area is known for, such as the White-headed Duck. One bird we saw many of was the Purple Herons, which were everywhere! This one flew past at close range,…
Tim writes: In 1897 two German Ornithologists (Ernst Hartert and Otto Kleinschmidt) were looking through a series of Marsh Tits in the British Museum when they spotted a couple of Willow Tits that had been wrongly labelled. The same year some fresh specimens were collected in Coalfell Wood, Finchley and three years later Willow…
Oscar writes: This is another one taken on the marsh at El Rocío. I’d been hoping to get a chance to photograph some of the Spoonbills that were feeding in the middle of the marsh, and had noticed that in the evenings they often fed near the edge where I could sit and wait. So,…
Tim writes: I took this photograph at Bretton Lakes in West Yorkshire in late January. It was a warm, muggy, winter’s day, but the previous few days had been really cold and the lakes had frozen over. But the warmer weather had melted much of the ice and a layer of melt water lay on…
Oscar writes: While we were staying in Doñana we spent an evening on a heathland where I was hoping to photograph subalpine warblers. Unfortunately I had no success with those, but did manage some photos of a Woodchat Shrike perched in the brambles as we were on our way out. Nikon D800, Nikon 400mm f.2.8…
Tim writes: Hudsonian Godwit is quite a scarce North American shorebird and is classed as near-threatened by IUCN. It breeds only in five well scattered areas ranging from northern Alaska to the shores of Hudson Bay. It winters in southern South America but has regular stopover sites in North America, including southern Alaska where…
Oscar writes: For the second part of our stay we were in El Rocío, in the Doñana National Park. On our first evening I lay down in the grass by the edge of the marsh, and before long a flock of Glossy Ibises came down to feed. Nikon D800, Nikon 400mm f/2.8 VR lens, Nikon…
Tim writes: For much of the 20th Century nobody had been able to find a nest of Marbled Murrelet. By the mid twentieth century the National Audubon Society was even offering $100 reward for the finder of the first documented nest as all other nests of North American birds had been found by this…
Oscar writes: This is another photo from my time in Spain. During our first 3 days we were staying in Extremadura, near Trujillo, so spent an evening at the bullring on the edge of the town to watch the Lesser Kestrels that breed there. Here’s one of the males as it flew over my head….
Tim writes: Sometimes whale blows look photogenic, sometimes they do not. When I was in Alaska I spotted that the perfect situation arose for taking whale blows so I seized the opportunity. These circumstances were no wind, early morning backlighting, plus a dark background to accentuate the blow. And here is the result on a…