Tuesday 23 November 2010

Love gulls

Lots of people hate Gulls. They can be messy and aggressive, but they're just doing what nature wants them to do.

I was with my Dad early one morning last week when we stopped to photograph these Black-headed Gulls. (Dad was looking for a Mediterranean Gull but didn't find it).

I think they look great and are brilliant to practice your photography on. We threw out some bread and these guys came to us.

You do have to watch out for poo though - once my Mum got a load on her when she was throwing bread and my Dad was photographing the birds.



Sunday 17 October 2010

Deer mayhem

My family and I went on an outing to Tatton Park yesterday to see the Red Deer rutting. Sadly they weren't rutting, but I still got some great pictures of the males with their impressive antlers.

Not such impressive antlers - but they will be bigger next year when he has grown a bit more.


This stag was lying quite close to the path and roaring. We could hear the roar from a long distance away and the roar of another stag replying.


Sunday 10 October 2010

It is hot out!

We went out looking for fungi today. It is a great time of year to find it and after the heavy rains last week we had hoped to get lucky.

My dad made me put on a hoodie and coat as we left the house, but it turned out to be really hot. The temperature gauge in the car said it was 19 degrees centigrade.

We did spot fungi and my dad took lots of images, but we also came across a small bush with a few flowers left which some Red Admiral and Comma butterflies were making the most of.

You can see from the pictures that lots of the flowers are already dead and the butterflies will soon have nothing left to feed on.




Saturday 4 September 2010

Very early

For the last couple of days my Dad has been waking me up early (at sunrise) to go out with the cameras. I asked him to. It is hard getting up that early but there is no one around at that time and the light is very good for taking photographs.

We saw a few Hares, but mostly they were running in the distance or under cover. But this one let me take a few pictures before running away.


Then we saw this Kestrel. It was on the floor when we saw it but flew up into the trees and was looking down at the ground probably searchingfor breakfast. It flew down after a while and started to eat worms but it was hidden from us and I couldn't get any clear views.

Monday 30 August 2010

This evening.

This morning was a bit disappointing but my Dad said we could go out this evening, so we did. Just before the sun went down the Hares started to come out and move about. It was great and we saw this little one, which my Dad reckons is probably only a few weeks old.


This one might be its Mum or Dad. It is nice to know that there a new Hares about and hopefully I can continue to photograph them for a long time to come.

Black & White Nature

This morning my Dad and I went out to a local site to see if we could get any photographs of Hares. However, there were none about and we only saw Magpies and Pied Wagtails.



I'm going to go out this evening again when it is a bit cooler to see if we can spot some Hares. If we do I'll try and post them here quickly.

Saturday 21 August 2010

Butterfly face!

I was recently on a trip to Scotland when we stopped the car because we saw some dark butterflies. When we got closer we realised that they were Scotch Argus:


The butterflies got used to us and were soon landing on us. I think they liked the salt in our sweat.


One even enjoyed landing on my face!

Saturday 17 July 2010

Six-spotted magic

Last weekend I found lots of insects and butterflies at the New Ferry Butterfly Park on the Wirral.

Certain species like different plants, for instance the Six-spotted Burnett loves this Scabious (I looked that up in my Dad's wildflower book). The Six-spotted Burnett is a moth that flies during the day and isn't nocturnal.

I think this one was quite old because you can see through its wings.


Sunday 4 July 2010

Pond plants

It has taken us almost a month to build the pond and fill it with water. Now we are starting to put plants in and are trying to use only things that grow in Britain. I hope the plants attract more insects and animals.

When we were buying the plants we saw a Damselfly laying her eggs on some of the leafs. I hope the eggs have come with the plants to our pond and that next year we have Damselflies on our pond, that would be cool.

Sunday 13 June 2010

Pond building

Yesterday we started to build a new pond in our back garden. We cleared out a space with lots of rocks to move. We are making a deep bit and a shallow bit, but the ground is very hard and there are lots of tree roots. Dad used a pick axe and we still didn't get very far. I had a go with the pick axe but it was too heavy for me.

Ponds are great for wildlife and I really hope we get some frogs and maybe some dragon flies.

Friday 11 June 2010

Mistle Thrush

I took this photo of a Mistle Thrush at the weekend. I wanted to catch it pulling a worm out of the ground but I didn't do it. It was just collecting things from the grass.

Tuesday 8 June 2010

Baldy

My Dad and I saw a Pied Wagtail feeding some chicks at the weekend. Dad got excited when he saw it because he thought it was a strange colour bird, but when we got a close look it was bald.

Monday 7 June 2010

Weird Kestrel

Yesterday when I was out photographing Hares with my Dad we saw a Kestrel chasing a butterfly. It was diving and swooping at the butterfly. It followed it for a long time and out of sight. Anyone seen anything like this or have any ideas what was happening?

Sunday 6 June 2010

Brown Hares

This morning I went with my Dad to a secret location to photograph Brown Hares. My Dad loves Brown Hares and I like them too. They are quite hard to photograph and the camera with a big lens on is a bit heavy for me to hold so I had to lean it on things.




Saturday 5 June 2010

Scotland's wildlife

Last week I was on a photography trip with my Dad to Scotland. We saw lots of Red Squirrels and I got some good photographs. Here is one:


Welcome to my new blog!

Welcome to my new blog.

My name is Martin and I am 10 years old. I am going to use this blog to post my photographs of nature and information about where to find interesting wildlife.

I go out photographing with my Dad who is a professional wildlife photographer. He lets me use his camera and lenses and is a good teacher. His website is www.drumimages.co.uk

When I grow up I want to be a professional photographer like my Dad. I am saving up for a new camera and hope it will get me lots of good photographs.

I like all sorts of wildlife but my favourite creature is the Peregrine Falcon. I have seen some really interesting things like Dragonflies mating, an Adder on a beach, Swallows laying eggs and Ospreys fishing in a loch.