Standing up for Nature
Oscar writes: Blue-and-Yellow Macaws: One of my favourite things about where I was staying in the lowland Amazon (at Los Amigos Biological Research Station) was their 60m tower. Every evening groups of macaws would fly past. Here are two Blue-and-Yellow Macaws flying to roost. Nikon D300s, Nikon 600mm f4 AFS-II
Oscar writes: Scarlet-bellied Mountain-Tanager: This was taken in the cloud forest of Peru, at Wayqecha Biological Research Station. Mixed species flocks would regularly pass very close by my room, so I spent a couple of hours standing just outside waiting. This Scarlet-bellied Mountain-Tanager perched out in the open for me. Nikon D300s, Nikon 600mm f4…
Oscar writes: Hoatzin were one of the most common birds around the oxbow lakes in the lowlands. They would perch on the bushes surrounding the lake in small groups, and usually allowed a fair close approach before clumsily flying off. Nikon D300s, Nikon 200-400mm f4 VR
Oscar writes: Bluish-fronted Jacamar: Bluish-fronted Jacamars were fairly common in the lowlands and I saw them most days around the station buildings. Luckily this one perched out in the open and gave me a nice clean background. It would sit on this branch before shooting up to snatch flies from the air and returning to…
Oscar writes: Great Thrush: I took this from just outside my room at Wayqecha Biological Research Station in Peru, just outside Manu National Park. Great Thrushes were one of the most common birds up there and were regularly seen around the buildings. I had been hoping that something would land on this lichen-encrusted branch, so…
Oscar writes: Outside where I was staying at Minsmere we had some birdfeeders, where two of the regular birds were a pair of pheasants. I lay down on the ground to get the diffuse foreground and background, and to give a more intimate perspective. Nikon D800, Nikon 600mm f4 AFS-II
Oscar writes: I came across this adult on the beach at Minsmere. It was running along the top of a ridge so I got ahead of it and took this as it came past me. Nikon D800, Nikon 600mm f4 AFS-II, Nikon 1.4x TC
Oscar writes: While I was at Minsmere I spent a lot of time in the Bittern hide trying to photograph Hobbies. They spent a large part of the middle of the day hunting for dragonflies over the reedbeds, and so I was delighted to catch one as it stalled slightly, with the light around its…
Oscar writes: I’ve just got back to London after spending three weeks staying at RSPB Minsmere in Suffolk. It’s probably my favourite nature reserve in the UK so I was very pleased to be able to spend three weeks there, photographing almost every day. As I’m sure plenty of you will have seen on Springwatch,…
Oscar writes: I took this at the start of 2013 when we had snow in London. Luckily it fell on a weekend so I could spend all my time trying to find the foxes to photograph. On this morning it took me a couple of hours before I came across one, but after that it…