Nature
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Back to Nature
June wasn’t exactly ideal for insect photography up here in Saddleworth. The temperatures were high, but so were the winds and finding a calm day was a real struggle. So, I decided to return to photographing small birds in the garden for a couple of days. I started to feed the birds a few years ago. At first, the food wasn’t taken…for two reasons, I think. First, the feeders were not sited in the right place and second, the birds didn’t much like the food mix I was offering. I now feed almost entirely sunflower hearts, which I buy in bulk at half the price of the local supermarket and…
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Exotic Insects
In the past I’ve had the idea that I might keep some exotic insects to photograph. Probably I don’t have the dedication to set that up and to keep them alive…so I was very pleased to be invited by a colleague and friend to photograph his insects at his home. It wasn’t as easy as you might think…they don’t keep still…the locusts are inclined to jump off their perch and happily bound along the floor. The mantises were curious and moved their heads and antennae a lot…and one started to groom itself when I was in the middle of photographing it. The insects were lit with a combination of natural…
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RSPB Big Garden Birdwatch 2023
Birds in the Garden As I sit here, writing at my computer, my feeders are once again attracting wild birds but, so far, not in the same numbers that I saw them last year, when they could be spotted waiting their turn in the bushes and trees in the garden. Right through the winter, so far, I have seen far fewer birds than last year and more singletons that don’t seem to be paired up yet. In fact, I have rarely needed to replenish the feeders. I am wondering if this is another symptom of the decline in our garden birds, or is it because, last summer, I stopped putting…
