Category Archives: Wildlife

Samples of wildlife photography

Sunny Day at Watts Bank

A beautiful sunny winter’s day, and for the first time in a while I was able to enjoy it at lunchtime. All these shots were taken within 15 metres of my office (I was feeling lazy, but it worked out well). And it’s fitting to have some of our local workplace wildlife featured in a week when the University of Brighton was ranked 2nd in the national People and Planet University league.

The day started with a lively chiffchaff singing just outside my window. I didn’t manage a good photo of that, but later on when I was able to get outside I spent some time watching a squirrel in the same tree.

Grey squirrel at Watts Bank, University of Brighton

Grey squirrel at Watts Bank, University of Brighton

Grey squirrel at Watts Bank, University of Brighton

Grey squirrel at Watts Bank, University of Brighton

I was distracted from the squirrel by a kestrel flying in low across the car park. It hovered for a while and then perched at the top of the tallest building on the campus. It remained in the vicinity for much of the rest of the day, and I’m hopeful that it’s considering taking up residence here. That would be nice!

kestrel

Kestrel flying over Watts Bank

Kestrel hovering

Kestrel hovering

kestrel

Kestrel on the edge of Watts Bank (yes I messed up the settings as it dropped so quickly… but I like the effect)

kestrel

The same kestrel high on the Watts Building

Camera note: all photos taken with the Canon 7D Mark II and EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS II USM lens.

Also posted in Bird of Prey, Kestrel, squirrel Tagged , , , |

Heron in Autumn Light

When the mornings are clear this has to be one of my favourite times of the year. The light is great early in teh morning (but ‘early’ is late enough to be comfortable). The sun was up today and so I took a slightly circuitous route to work, stopping off at my old Falmer Pond haunt to see what was around. I was rewarded with a fine grey heron.

Grey heron at Falmer Pond, East Sussex

Grey heron at Falmer Pond, East Sussex

Grey heron in flight

Grey heron in flight

Grey heron perching

Grey heron perching

The fox is still around in the garden… and still playing the keep-your-distance game. I’ve stopped trying to get any closer. He’s happy, and that’s good enough for me.

The fox in the garden

The fox in the garden

Camera note: heron photos taken with the Canon 7D Mark II and EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS II USM lens. The fox was photographed with the EF 200mm f/2.8L II USM lens.

Also posted in Foxes, water birds Tagged , |

Sunday Summary

Another irregular catch-up post, partly because most days I’ve simply been photographing our fox during his nightly visits (and most of those photographs are pretty much indistinguishable from each other). There are some occasional other subjects and this Sunday Summary pulls some of them together (themelessly) 😉 Oh, there is some worthwhile fox action at the, so do keep reading.

sunset

This is a sunset taken from our garden. The i-360 is just visible in the centre, peeping over the horizon.

sunrise

This was taken a few days later and is just after sunrise, looking across the South Downs

The only bird in this set is this rather fine buzzard, photographed over Falmer Village last week.

Buzzard over Falmer Village

Buzzard over Falmer Village

As well as foxes, the garden is frequented by badgers. They’ve been rather more elusive lately, but I did grab a few images of one towards the end of the week.

Badger

Badger

Badger

Badger

This third shot utilizes various Photoshop filters, but was taken the same night as the others.

Badger through a fine art filter

Badger through a fine art filter

Now to the fox… a couple of photos first, but them some cool video…

fox

Fox prowling

fox

Camera avoidance 😉

And now for the video… I’ve caught similar clips once or twice in the past, but this one is easily the best yet.

Camera note: daytime photos taken with the Canon 7D Mark II and EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS II USM lens. Badgers and foxes were taken with the EF 200mm f/2.8L II USM and the EF70-300mm 4.5-5.6 DO IS lenses

Also posted in Badger, Bird of Prey, Foxes, sunrise, Sunset Tagged , , , , |