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An individual, of no great importance, who is unable to see the natural world as a place for competition. I catch fish, watch birds, derive immense pleasure from simply looking at butterflies, moths, bumble-bees, etc - without the need for rules! I am Dylan and this is my blog - if my opinions offend? Don't bother logging on again - simple!

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Friday, 22 April 2022

Garden photography lessons

Common Buzzards continue to trickle, North, over the Newlands Farm area allowing me to enjoy the spectacle of raptor migration from the comfort of my back garden. The plumage variation is incredible and unmatched in any other species (maybe Common Pheasant apart?) that I'm familiar with. Now that I'm retired, it might be worth attempting to learn some basic digital camera skills, thus improving upon the poor quality of my record shots. Still, as photography is just a bi-product of my angling, those images which appear on this blog are perfectly suited for the purpose. The National Geographic magazine they ain't!



As darkness falls then it's all change. On goes the 125w MV moth trap plus the Hedgehog and Fox food is placed out in close proximity to my study doorway. Moths have been quite hard going, thus far into the year, but the Hedgehogs are back in good numbers and the "hand fed" Fox project is coming along nicely. Still not actually got the end result, yet the larger animal is extremely confident and will come within a couple of yards of where I'm standing - camera in hand! Not obtained "that shot", which I so desire, I'm certainly getting bloody close! 


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2 comments:

  1. Ric26 April 2022 at 07:28

    Buzzards Dyl! Even now I can remember the 'Wow! I wish I'd seen that', moment when a lad at school fifty years back described how he and his dad had observed one such raptor passing overhead one windy autumn day. It only took another thirty odd years for me to get my own local Buzzard, being hassled by a flock of crows low across my parents garden. Not happy, any of them.
    Come to think of it, my parents garden seemed a relative magnet for birds of prey. I saw a Kestrel snatch a sparrow off of the lawn. A Sparrowhawk eating a victim on the lawn. Buzzard, Red Kite and most surprising, a Merlin.

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    1. Dylan Wrathall26 April 2022 at 16:30

      Hi Ric, I remember those times very well. As a kid/adolescent my only encounters with Buzzards would be whilst on family holidays in Cornwall and/or Wales. To be fair, I don't recall seeing Buzzards at Tring, during the Tench years, although I do have vivid memories of Osprey and Marsh Harrier from those halcyon days. When I moved to Kent, in 1993, they were still a very scarce county bird yet, in thirty years, how things have changed. I now see them in their hundreds during, both Sring & Autumn, migration.
      Hoping all is well with you and the family - stay safe - Dyl

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