Second Visit to the Red Squirrels Isle of Wight

We made a second visit to the Red Squirrel location that we enjoyed so much on our first day and were rewarded with beautiful light and equally beautiful subjects to photograph. My favourite image is with the light through the background trees

Death in the Woods

While photographing the beauty of Beech woods, I started getting interested in the different forms and bark textures of the beech trees and the shapes of the trees. Where the trees were towards the edge of the wood they reach out long branches towards the edges, in the centre of the wood they had long branchless trunks up to the sky and only well-established trees on the lower slopes had the traditional spreads. They also show two bark types - I haven't been able to find out anything about why and how. I was photographing the final stages of the tree's life when I came across this dead stoat - no evidence of how it died.

Sweden: Moose and Reindeer Hunt in Wonderful Light

Yesterday was spent from dawn to dusk (c 5 hours) looking for Moose and Reindeer near Jokkmokk. They are difficult to spot as they feed on twigs and young shoots in the forest and feed solitary much of the time. Their soft brown colouring camouflages them very well so that the first Moose image would make an excellent jigsaw.  Reindeer were easier to spot as they feed in the open digging down for lichen under the snow. The images chronicles the day from the bright golden rays in the morning and as Marcus made us lunch to the soft pastel and finally blue tones at the end of the light.

Havergate Hares

Great location for Hares - shame about the weather. It started raining as we left Orford Quay and got heavier as the day progressed. The Hares were fairly obliging to start with and even a bit of chasing and mating but soon all they wanted to do was shelter from the rain so we did the same.

Snowy Day in Toft

Overnight snow followed by a rosy dawn couldn't be ignored so I spent a couple of hours around Toft taking the coloured skies and my favourite trees.

As I was walking back, saw four hares playing in the rape field. They were so engrossed in play that I got relatively close though not close enough for a 70-200mm lens.

From the Bird Hide

A variety of the birds taken from the hide - Lesser Redpolls, Siskins, Chaffinches, Long-tailed Tits and Brambling.