Birds of the Bailiwick Book

A year in the making, it's finally here! The brand new 'Birds of the Bailiwick' field guide is now available to purchase. I'm extremely proud to have been involved in this project from the very beginning when the publisher Jill Vaudin contacted me asking if I would like to supply and source the photographs. I'm really pleased with just how good the finished book looks, the quality and finish is of a very high standard indeed.

There are 98 birds featured in the guide, all of which can be found throughout the Bailiwick. There's also a section in the book which lists many of our less common species and occasional visitors. The book also features a handy guide to all the hides and nature reserves to be found around the islands.

Exhibition, Kruger and a Greenshank

Typical, just as the local birding seems to be improving I'm off on my hols! Mind you I'm lucky enough to be going somewhere where the bird life is not exactly thin on the ground, nor the wildlife come to that! - as of Friday me and Helen leave for a couple of weeks exploring Kruger National Park in South Africa. We've never been to Kruger before but having read and heard so many wonderful stories about the park and the wildlife there we're very excited about finally going to see it for ourselves.

Before I leave I want to thank everybody who took the time to visit my exhibition which has been running for the last 3 weeks at the Guernsey Picture Framers and Gallery at Oatlands Village and which finishes at the end of this week. It's been a tremendous success and it's been a pleasure meeting and chatting with various visitors whenever I've been there. Sales of prints and canvas' have been really great, especially this last week which has seen me running back and forth daily to the gallery delivering prints. It's just a wonderful feeling to know that some of my work will not only be on display in houses locally and in the UK but also as far away as Australia and America.

For those of you who've not had chance to see the exhibition all being well I'll be doing another one next year. And although the exhibition will be no more I'll still have a selection of mounted prints for sale at Oatlands. Perfect Christmas gifts ;-)

Finally a big thanks goes out to Glen Irven who owns the gallery, not only a top bloke with an impeccable taste in music but a great framer, so you know where to go if you need something framed!

Before I bid you farewell I shall leave you good people with a few shots of a Greenshank which was fuelling up this weekend at the Rue des Bergers nature reserve.

Exhibition at Oatlands

The last few weeks I've been busily preparing for my first exhibition. I decided to do all of my own printing, mounting and framing although I didn't realise just how much work and time that would involve! Still, it was a great experience to see the process through from beginning to end and it was a fantastic feeling last night to finally see it all in place and on show ready for today's opening at Guernsey Picture Framers & Gallery at Oatlands Village. Along with my good friend Chris Bale who's also showing some of his excellent images we'd love it if you could find time to pop in to the gallery for a look. All the prints on show are for sale and the exhibition runs for the next weeks.

First Pelagic of 2010

One of the things I look forward to most in the local birding calendar is the pelagic trips. There's always that sense of excitement of not knowing quite what you might encounter out there on the open seas and of course for a lover of seabirds such as myself it's just fantastic to be out there watching them at such close range, it just doesn't get any better believe me.

So yesterday it was down to the fish quay for 8am to meet the rest of the gang and we were off for this seasons first of three pelagic trips! The weather was looking perfect, if not a little cloudy, but the winds that had been quite strong on the previous few days had settled down and they proceeded to drop even further as the day wore on. However those earlier winds had resulted in quite a swell so before setting off I'd popped a couple of sea-sickness tablets down, just in case. I was later wishing I hadn't! It was a few hours into the trip that I began to feel very light-headed and just a little bit nauseous - I presumed it was the beginning of being sea-sick so I popped another tablet down. In fact it wasn't sea-sickness but it was the tablets that were not agreeing with me. The effects seemed to get worse and during the middle of the trip I was feeling quite unwell and it was all I could do to keep my eyes open. Even my usual remedy of several Snickers Bars and Ginger Nut biscuits (thanks Bob) weren't helping. To show how bad I felt, we had a beautiful Sooty Shearwater bobbing around at the side of the boat and I couldn't even raise myself to grab a shot (see below). After a couple of hours the effects lessened slightly and I was able to rejoin the living. Just in time in fact to see my first Minke Whale, what a fantastic way to end the trip.

Anyway, in between passing in and out of consciousness I did in fact manage to grab a few shots.

The Fulmar, probably my favourite bird. To watch these amazing birds skimming majestically over the waves, at times just millimeters from the surface, is just awe-inspiring.


A rather pale looking Great Skua that had birders attention for a while.


This is the Sooty Shearwater that I couldn't drag myself off the deck for. Actually I did in the end manage to haul myself up but of course I'd left it too long and as soon as I'd raised my camera it took off. Still, this photo shows the impressive wingspan of the bird.


A Bonxie patrolling around the boat bullying the gulls.




A group of Common Terns including a few juveniles were around the boat for a time.


And thanks to Liz, the best eyes in the business, we spent a short but very exciting time chasing this Minke Whale.


The last we saw of it as it dived off in to the distance.


Only 3 weeks to go until the next trip, can't wait!

Upcoming Exhibition

Well here's the main reason that my memory cards have remained empty for the last few weeks and why my blog has remained wordless - yes folks, my first exhibition is about to open to you, the viewing public. The last couple of weeks my office has been a mini print works and the kitchen breakfast bar a framing conveyor belt!

Along with my good friend and talented photographer Chris Bale we'll be showing off some of our favourite images. There will be framed prints of various sizes along with canvas prints and smaller mounted prints, all personally signed and available to purchase. So you know that empty looking wall in your living room that you've been meaning to buy a framed print for?, well now's your chance to put it to good use.

The exhibition runs for 3 weeks from Saturday 14th August.

Shetland fruit shortage starts to bite

If you're ever fortunate enough to visit the Shetland Islands and find yourself staying at the Sumburgh Hotel, don't order the Fruit Salad! (unless that is, you're particularly fond of apples).

The Canon 800mm f/5.6 Macro

Ok, so you might have to stand a bit further back from your subject than normal but this image shows that just because I don't own a 'proper' macro lens doesn't mean I can't take the odd close up :) This was taken handheld too! This beautiful creature is a Scarce Swallowtail (Iphiclides podalirius) and was taken during my recent visit to La Brenne in France.



So the next time you're out and about and you see something that just might make a great photo, don't walk away thinking what might have been if I only had the 'correct' lens. Why not instead at least have a go with what you do have available, and who knows you might actually come away with not only a photo that you weren't expecting but also something a little different than the norm, what a bonus!

Rabbit, Rabbit...

Well, what a mucky old night it's been here in Guernsey, so I thought other than devouring a family bag of Minstrels what better way to cheer ones self up but to process some rabbit photos, that's right you heard me, rabbits!

A few weeks a go whilst in the hide at La Claire Mare nature reserve, sitting patiently waiting for something exciting to happen, I happened to notice that the resident rabbits were having to leap over a small area of water to get to and from the grassy island in the centre of the pond. And so I thought, what better way to test Canon's new 1D Mark IV's auto-focusing capabilities then to see if it could cope with a few flying bunnies, much to the amusement of the
Guernsey Bird Nerd who happened to be sitting next to me at the time. I'm guessing that me singing under my breath the brilliant 'Rabbit' by Chas 'n' Dave didn't help my cause much!

Anyway, here's one of my first attempts, although initially looking ok on the back of the camera it was unfortunately out of focus, but you get the idea of what I was trying to get.



Before this time I hadn't really had chance to test out one of the new features of the latest batch of Canon bodies, namely auto iso. I quickly realised that for situations such as this where the light was diminishing quickly and the rabbits were moving from areas of shade into sunlight, by putting the camera into TV mode and setting the shutter speed to somewhere in the region of 1/3200 or 1/4000 (those rabbits don't hang around!) and letting the auto iso do its thing I could concentrate on capturing the action without having to worry too much about the light. I've since become a very big fan of the auto iso feature.

Another attempt but yet again just out of focus. Because I'm working here with such a long focal length, all of these were taken using the Canon 800mm f/5.6L IS lens, at its widest aperture and at a relatively short distance, the depth of field is very shallow. And so trying to gauge where the rabbit will leap and trying to maintain focus on or around the rabbits head is far from easy.



At last, a sharp one! Would have been nice to get the rabbit at the height of its jump but it's things like this that keeps me going back for another go.



A couple more of a rabbit taking more of a run across rather than a leap!





This one is probably the best of my attempts, nice and sharp and shows the rabbit off nicely in mid-leap.



Moving away from the leaping rabbits of Claire Mare to some rather more relaxed rabbits. Here's a couple of shots taken whilst I was lay prone in the middle of a field waiting for a certain Ring Ouzel to come within range.





And so to end this rabbit themed evening how about a couple of photos of the rather splendid Lièvre d'Europe, or if you prefer, the European Hare. These were taken on my recent visit to France (more of that in my next post). I'd never seen a hare before and so catching my first sight of one bounding across a field one evening as the sun was setting was a wonderful experience.

This one we came across whilst out driving one afternoon...



...and this one, well this one will always remind me that nature photography shouldn't always be taken too seriously. I guess you had to be there to see the funny side but try and picture if you will, 3 bird photographers out in the car looking for shrikes, hoopoe's and the like, definitely not prepared for hare photography!

So when this young hare showed up in front of us it quickly resulted in the disappearance of any photographic professionalism that might have been in that car a few seconds earlier - any passers by would have looked on bemused as the car was reversed and then moved forward at various angles whilst various large lenses were thrust through every available window in an effort to capture the hare which was not moving at the lightening pace you'd expect but more of a casual amble!

After the laughter had subsided and the hare had disappeared into a nearby hedge we looked at the results mainly to find shots of the car interior or the surrounding hedgerow.

Having said all that it turns out that I must have been doing something right as I did manage to get one decent shot. I actually think it's one of my favourite shots from the trip. Good times!

Wot no Bee-eaters?

Just returned home after spending a wonderful week in France in the company of these fine gentlemen. That's yours truly on the left with the legendary Barry Wells in the centre and along side him the Bird Nerd himself, Mr Chris Bale.

We were treated to lots of superb birding but unfortunately the Bee-eaters that Mr Well's had promised us failed to show - or had they!?