Competitions and Awards
Some of my experiences when entering photo competitions over the years.
During my Army Career I won many awards including Army Photographer of the Year, Best Overall Image and Best Operational Image all in the same year, 2013. I picked up awards in 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016 and 2018 in the annual competition until I became more of a manager and took less photos.
Why am I telling you this? Well entering regular competitions against your friends and colleagues gives you two things - a thick skin and an understanding of how it feels to not win when entering despite thinking you have the best images ever.
ABOVE Some of my winning Army images.
When I think of competitions I always say that its just someones opinion on whether that is a winning image or not. As long as your picture is technically correct, exposure, focus, white balance, well composed then everything after that comes down to personal choice and depending on the competition, whether it fits the theme or message the competition wishes to convey.
I was actually in the room for one of the judging panels for the competition to assist with laying out the portfolios, it came down to the last 4 portfolios two of which were mine. I thought surely I am going to at least get second, the two civilian judges from the photographic industry were both favouring my portfolio so it was looking good. Then along came the Brigadier for Army Media and Communications who had no photographic knowledge or understanding at all and proceeded to poo poo my portfolio and sway the other judges away from it. Now there are lots of things in this that could be discussed in detail but the point I’m trying to make is how much it comes down to the opinion of the people in the room on the day.
I’ve judged categories of the RAF Photographic Competition for a few years and have seen myself change my winning order just by looking the following day with fresh eyes.
I joined the Guild of Photographers in 2018 with the goal of achieving the Photographers Bar award, you enter the image of the month and are awarded Bronze, Silver or Gold. To gain the Bar you have to get enough points over the year, I think it was something like a Bronze 8 out of the 12 months, something like that. It was a good competition and its great to have a challenge to shoot for each month but I wasn’t really a fan of the amount of editing on some of the images so I left after my first year. You can see my certificate for achieving the bar in the image at the top, I think I have a pin badge somewhere too.
ABOVE This image featured in the Guild of Photographers Awards Book 2018
Now I have entered the British Wildlife Photography Awards for the past couple of years and had the email requesting high resolution and RAW images for the second round of judging. This stirs all sorts of emotions inside and starts the brain thinking “Oh maybe I am in with a shout” the worst part of this is the months long wait to find out you haven’t been successful! I did get an image in the BWPA book for the past two years so I at least knew I was on the right track photographically.
Last year I entered the Deer Photographer of the Year competition, the first one they have ran and in March received an email to say one of my images has been awarded Highly Commended which is my first award for any of my natural history imagery.
ABOVE My Highly Commended image in DPOTY
I’m really chuffed to receive this, sure its a highly commended but there were a lot of entries so to make it to the last few in the behaviour category is great. I did a Top Ten Deer images podcast with Andy Rouse last year which included this image, he said at the time its a competition winning image. I’ll put my certificate for the Highly Commended on the wall next to my other ones when it comes through.
DPOTY 2025 will be open for entries in September with a grand prize of £5000 so plenty of time to get out shooting.
If you are going to play the competition game then my advice is do not leave it to the last minute to sort you entries out. I’ve done that and while it is exciting racing a clock that will run out at 23.59 its not the best way to approach it. One other thing, if you don’t routinely caption your images then don’t forget you need to do this, again its no fun typing up a paragraph about an image you took 2 years ago and trying to remember the details of it whilst the clock ticks down.
Introducing the urban Red Foxes
“A Fox tries to make its home near good supplies of food”
ABOVE One of the foxes that lives in the cemetery.
Since November last year I’ve been working with some urban Red Foxes who live around a cemetery. The foxes are used to people with the comings and goings of visitors to the cemetery which makes them much easier to work with than their rural realtives.
There are three who I’ve spent the most time with, two male’s called dog foxes and one female known as a vixen. The vixen had four cubs this year with one of the dogs and from observing them I think the other dog might be related to them both too, he’s bigger and older looking so perhaps he is the father of one of them.
ABOVE Leo, Girl and Willow.
I’m not really one to give animals names, I think it implies ownership, these are wild foxes and no one should be able to claim them but having said that I needed a way to distinguish them from each other so I gave them names.
Leo is the older dog fox, he earned the name by having a lovely big bushy chest like a male lion so that’s why I chose it, girl is called girl for obvious reasons but the friendly vixen also gets used and finally we have Willow so called because he would always emerge from an area of willow trees. I initially thought he was a she until I observed him for a while and saw the obvious signs.
ABOVE Leo sitting proud and posing for me, he is striking with his bushy mane.
Each fox has its own character and personality, Leo likes to keep his distance but will happily sit upright and just stare back at me. He was initially wary of me but now looks at me with something more akin to curiosity than anything else.
ABOVE Girl sleeping under a Rhododendron bush in the spring sunshine.
ABOVE Girl taking a break from being a mum to get out the rain.
Girl was incredibly friendly up until she gave birth, once the cubs were out and her earth was known by others she became very wary of everyone, she still comes over to me but soon disappears again. To put how much she trusted me into context I followed her one day until she laid under a bush to have a snooze. I was able to approach her and take full frame photos of her asleep with my iphone. She knew I was there, she would open her eyes see it was me and go back to sleep.
ABOVE Willow sitting with me under a tree.
Willow is by far the boldest and most trusting of me, he is like a pet dog, it started raining one day when I was visiting so I moved under a tree to shelter, he followed me and laid down under the same tree, curled up and had a nap until the rain stopped, an amazing experience I was smiling from ear to ear.
ABOVE Willow from an unusual angle, his coat is showing signs of the summer moult.
I’ve got so many fox photos from the project I could do many more pages on them, this one was just an introduction to the three main ones I’ve worked with so far. I’ll do some more in time including this years cubs and more on the other foxes in the area.
I don’t think there is another animal that polarises opinion as much as a Fox, those who love them really do love them often spending a small fortune to feed them every night and worrying about ‘their’ foxes if they don’t make an appearance for a few nights.
Those who hate them treat them so incredibly badly blaming them for everything from killing livestock to cutting brake lines on cars, they are shot, snarred, hunted on horseback, dug out of their homes when young and ripped apart by packs of hounds. Although fox hunting is against the law there are loopholes that the hunting fraternity use to continue the ‘tradition’, how they can call themselves dog lovers and not see the similarities between foxes and dogs is beyond me.
There are many fox rescue charities across the country who are always looking for donations or Amazon goods from lists or release sites for cubs. One organisation that is dealing with the legalities of Fox Hunting is the League Against Cruel Sports who are working to change the loopholes to stop any hunts taking place.
Africa Adventures - Introduction
“I never knew of a morning in Africa when I woke up that I was not happy.”
ABOVE Nothing says Africa like an Elephant caked in red mud.
I’ve been to Kenya a number of times guiding photographers on Safaris with @wildmanrouse Andy Rouse. On one trip we started at the world famous Maasai Mara, then Lumo Community Conservancy, a day in Tsavo West and finally returning to the Mara. It was an amazing tour with so many encounters thanks to our Sunworld Safari Guides, I worked with Newton and Arnold, both talented photographers themselves but amazing ambassadors for the Kenyan wildlife.
ABOVE A Cape Buffalo, the largest of Africas bovids looking into the early light of sunrise.
ABOVE A Cheetah looking at a distant herd of Thompson’s Gazelles in the Maasai Mara.
I’ve been to Kenya a few times but this was the first time I would be doing Safari’s in the Mara, I had previously only been to Nairobi National Park and Lake Naivasha. This was my first time getting up close to the big cats, Lions, Cheetahs and Leopards but also the not so big Serval, a cat I have wanted to photograph for many years.
On our first drive after landing on the remote airstrip we went to a coalition of 4 brother Cheetah’s who were asleep in the grass. We didn’t have to wait long for them to wake up and give us some photo opportunities though, three of them climbed up on a termite mound which we were in prime position for photos thanks to Arnold’s driving with some tweaking from me.
ABOVE Three of the coalition of four brothers.
The Mara as it is commonly known attracts large numbers of visitors each year, some photographers others just tourists but each usually arrives with their own ideas of what they will see and what Africa will be like.As a photo guide its my job to manage some of those expectations and ensure the photographers in my vehicle leave with lasting memories and great photos.
Being a photo guide is a dream job but it is also hard work, a lot happens in the front of the vehicle when an animal is sighted, the Kenyan safari guide is looking at where he can position the vehicle. The photo guide, me, is looking at where the best light is coming from and where the cleanest photos will be taken, together we get into the best position, then I suggest settings for the clients so they can get the shot, once everyone is shooting I’m already thinking of the next position, if the animal moves what is its likely direction of travel, is there a waterhole close by that it is likely to head to.
Together we discuss options and what to do if the animal moves, sometimes we gamble and anticipate what the animal is going to do so we can be in position, occasionally clients won’t understand why we are moving away from the animal but there isn’t any point taking 400 shots of the animal sitting doing nothing.
ABOVE The speed of a Cheetah at full acceleration is amazing, from a gentle trot to 30mph in a blink of an eye.
The Cheetah’s in the Mara were very good to us, on our second day we gambled on changing position from where everyone else was which paid off, the Cheetah ran straight past us at full speed. I shoot with Sony kit so it locked and tracked the cat no problem, the only thing that let me down was myself, I couldn’t initially find it in the viewfinder as it was moving so fast.
Once a predator makes a kill its pretty gruesome and doesn’t make for great images, I’ll usually allow everyone to grab a few frames to support the story but its not something to spend time watching, the only caveat to that would be if there were other predators close by who may try to take the kill, then its definitely worth staying on them.
ABOVE A pair of cheetahs on a kill they had just made, we didn’t catch the sprint on this one just the aftermath.
There is so much to write and say about any safari that I’m going to break them down into smaller bite size blogs, next up will be the majestic Elephant.
Dawn Ghosts
A project with some Barn Owls in Gloucestershire.
“When the owl sings, the night is silent”
In May of 2021 after lockdown restrictions were lifted I was eager to get out with my camera and find a new project. I moved to Gloucester with work the previous year but hadn’t been able to explore yet. I move every 2 or 3 years so have to begin from scratch finding a new patch for photography, as a result I’ve become a dab hand at researching online and finding new places.
During one research session I found a site that is quite well known for Short-eared Owls called the Hawling, I had missed out on Shorties the previous winter due to the restrictions so I was eager to have a look at this new location ahead of them arriving from Scandinavia in the winter.
The Hawling, if you have never been, is two fields surrounded by a stone wall with agricultural land on all sides and a small pine plantation to the north. The farmer who owns the fields leaves them to grow throughout the year to encourage the mice and voles and in turn the owls that live there.
There are many places to park a car on the verge around the south and east of the fields so shooting from the comfort of a vehicle is an option but I much prefer to get out and be mobile. The northern edge of the fields are also accessible albeit with a short walk from the road.
When I first arrived there was another photographer there and after chatting for a while she told me that it was a good place for Barn Owls too this was good news as I haven’t had a good Barn Owl site since I moved from Suffolk years ago.
ABOVE A pair of Barn Owls quartering the rough grassland.
Over the coming weeks I returned a few hours before sunset to see if the owls would show and sure enough they did, sometimes two at a time. Watching them hunt and fly back with prey I was able to work out where they were nesting so I could get in a good position to capture them on the flight back with food.
ABOVE An icon of summer, a backlit hovering Barn Owl.
I eventually worked out through long term observing that there were three regular Barn Owls hunting, two who nested in the closest farm and one from a little further away. The farmer feeds the closest pair throughout the winter to help them out.
As the seasons changed so did the behaviour, as the grass grew into summer the owls favoured perch hunting, sitting on posts and walls listening for rustling of grass and in-audible squeaks from voles in the field.
ABOVE I stalked this owl for 100 metres using the tall grass of the verge to hide.
I always prefered sunrise to photograph the Barn Owls, the site is well known and gets busy at sunset if the owls are regularly hunting but in the mornings I only ever saw one other person, a chap called Bob who lives locally and has been photographing there for years.
I always look for patterns in behaviour with regular visits to better place myself to get photos, watching the owls at sunrise they were regularly perching along the road verge, flying from one post to another, this made them predictable so I was able to get really close sometimes.
ABOVE This was taken in the first rays of sunlight peeking over the horizon.
Since the owls had become predictable I was able to use the light better making the most of my time visiting, it can be incredibly tiring getting up at four in the morning to be in position for sunrise then doing a full days work. Often I would head back out for sunset Roe Deer and Hare too, for most of the summer I was like a zombie if I had been out three times that week.
ABOVE A stunning atmospheric morning at sunrise, these are the conditions I love to photograph in.
Once the winter nights drew in I stopped visiting the owls as there wasn’t enough time from finishing work to get there and the light was generally poor on the days I could visit.
I did pop down periodically to check if any Short Eared Owls had arrived from December onwards, the site was amazing for them in previous years. There were three in the fields over the winter of 21-22 but they rarely came out before sunset, I only saw one of them on one visit.
ABOVE The only Shortie sighting I had over the winter.
Spring sprung and the nights were longer so I began visiting again to see if the Barn Owls had made it through the winter but 2022 was not a great vole year so I rarely saw them, I didn’t visit as much as I had in the previous year.
On the occasions I did visit I got some new shots despite it being a much more challenging year for them.
ABOVE A composite of 4 images showing the hover to drop of a Barn Owl.
My first visit in 2023 was in April, three regular owls were still quartering the field but one of them was much darker in colour than in previous years, the creamy brown colouring was more pronounced.
ABOVE My first visit in 2023 was off to a good start
ABOVE The really dark coloured individual almost glowing with the sun on its back.
I only visited 4 times this year as what started out as a great season soon dried up with no owl activity from the end of April, I think this is due to a certain large raptor moving into the area. I have read that Buzzards hunt Barn Owls on Salisbury Plain which has had the effect that none of them come out until after dark, although there are plenty of Buzzards in the area the raptor I saw regularly would definitely scare me into only coming out when it wasn’t about.
I don’t know for certain that this is what happened but for most of April three Barn Owls were still out hunting four hours after sunrise which was great for me but obviously meant that it wasn’t a good year for voles, they weren’t catching enough voles throughout the night so had to hunt longer.
The natural world is a delicate balance of gaining energy through eating versus losing energy through hunting so who knows maybe they succumbed to hunger. I have in the past found a dead Buzzard in a tree which I sent for a post mortem with the results coming back that it had zero body fat and died of starvation so it does happen.
ABOVE A shot I had planned in my head for three years finally happened, damn those little twigs and cluttered backgound.
The morning I took the image above was one of my most memorable, the owls were in fine form flying too close to me to focus sometimes and they seemed to go eveywhere I wanted them to.
I was hunkered down low against a wall which had a lovely pool of light created by the shadows from the rising sun, as I looked at it I thought how amazing it would be if an owl flew through that magical pool of light, ten minutes later I was smiling from ear to ear after an owl did exactly that.
ABOVE The pinnacle shot of my time photographing these Barn Owls
My final series of shots of the Dawn Ghosts was on a misty morning towards the end of April, the forecast was to be good but when I got there there was a low mist that didn’t look like it would burn off anytime soon.
I went up to the fields anyway thinking there might at least be some deer there but to my surprise the owls were out hunting again.
I had another great morning shooting wide photos to show the mood and atmosphere of the morning, the light was lovely and diffused but still bright enough to get good photos.
ABOVE Some of my favourite Barn Owl images they have a painterly feeling with the mist.
ABOVE A couple of misty close up shots to accompany the atmospheric wide ones.
Photographing these Barn Owls taught me the value of persistence and observation. So many times I see photographers chasing after the animals they try to photograph and getting the same shots everytime, there’s a lot to be said for sitting back and just watching what the animal does. I guess that is a circumstance of the world we live in now where everything is on demand, I’m no better in some aspects, I would rather spend £10 more to have something the next day than wait three days to save a tenner.
I mention earlier in this blog about getting a post mortem on a Buzzard, if you find a dead raptor contact the Predatory Bird Monitoring Scheme to report it, they are not accepting dead birds at the moment due to bird flu but when I found the Buzzard they were. I took the bird home and kept it in the freezer until the package they send me arrived. Its very straight forward, seal the bird in a bag with a little absorbent sachet they provide and stick that in the box and send it back using the pre-paid details, once they have done the post mortem they send you a report on the bird.
Red Deer Top Ten
I recently did a podcast with Wildmanrouse for his Wildbunch Community on my top ten Red Deer rut images, it was really difficult to choose my favourite ten, I knew a few that would be in there but not all ten.
I really enjoyed choosing them and it’s something I’m going to do more of, I found images I had forgotten about or didn’t notice when I first edited the pictures. I have a press photography background which is all about fast turnaround from a job, a habit I still have but rarely go back into the folder again unless its to re-edit an image. There’s no good reason to turn photos around quickly for my wildlife imagery but some habits are hard to break.
So below are my Red Deer top ten in reverse order, this is slightly different to the order we did on the blog, Wildmanrouse put my images in the order he thought they should be, I agree mostly but I love a subtle fine art style image so it moves higher.
Number 10 - A magnificent stag bellowing shot straight on to the camera, I was looking for some symmetry to the head and wanted the focus to be the mouth area. I’ve got full width antler shots and tighter crops too but wanted this one to be all about the face.
Number 9 - The rut usually starts with the younger bucks warming up by clashing with each other, this youngster was shot at sunrise backlit to get some rim lighting around the still velvety antlers. The velvet coats the antlers to protect them while they grow during the year, beneath the fuzz are many blood vessels that help the new antlers to harden up.
Number 8 - Another few backlit youngsters with the sun rising behind.
Number 7 - This was a magical morning for atmosphere, I found these two stags in a wooded area and watched them parallel walking to size each other up. I was hoping they would fight and move into the pool of light behind but they didn’t do anything after a bit of walking perhaps because neither had any hinds with them so there was nothing to fight over.
Number 6 - This image is all about the weather, we don’t get snow very often in the UK anymore so it helps to have a go to place to make the most of it, the Red Deer are one of my go to areas. I went tight on the head of this stag to show the frost on the antlers and to show him feeding on the tree buds.
Number 5 - Another atmospheric shot taken in my favourite valley area, the sun rises down the valley and gives me my most atmospheric images. These two stags were tussling against each other, not quite the full on rutting that will happen as autumn gets underway. I shot this vertical to use the trees to frame the stags.
Number 4 - I’m always looking for something different and noticed the highlights on the frames that protect the trees so I framed up with them close to the lens to get some interesting bokeh orbs. I love the fire like steam from the stags breath in this shot.
Number 3 - I just love the depth in this image, the layers of the rolling hills behind the stag. I followed the stag as it made its way from right to left waiting for it to walk into position with the sun behind.
Number 2 - This was number 3 in the podcast but I’ve pushed it up to 2 as I love minimalist shots with very subtle detail, this is probably the only deer shot I would print out and put on my wall.
Number 1 - This shot says power to me, the stag is pumped up with testosterone, steaming from the breath and urine on the ground, the leg position is all about power too. It makes me think of a big bull in a spanish bullfighting arena, not something I have seen but can imagine they would look like this
So that’s my top ten Red Deer images to date, its funny choosing images that you enjoy, sometimes it’s the backstory to how you captured them that makes them more memorable to yourself rather than them being the strongest photographically but surely that is what photography was intended for, to record a memory rather than create art.
I’m not sure what I will do for my next top ten - decisions, decisions!
Africa Adventure - Elephants
“The question is, are we happy to suppose that our grandchildren may never be able to see an elephant except in a picture book?”
Elephants are amazing animals. I’ve not always thought that though, I did appreciate they’re size and intelligence but could take them or leave them, that all changed in one encounter at a waterhole in Lumo Conservancy.
A group arrived at the waterhole to drink in the late morning heat, as they approached I could see the way they formed around the younger elephants protecting them in an impenetrable ring. The group began drinking and spraying muddy water on themselves in the shallow edge, with one youngster plunging straight in to the middle.
ABOVE The herd arrive at the waterhole.
ABOVE The herd drinking at the waterhole.
Watching the Elephants at the waterhole was fantastic, they youngest one was fully submerged at one point with just the trunk visible. The waterhole is artificial so they were perfectly safe from any waterborne predators like crocodiles.
Once they finished drinking they were making their way out of the waterhole when the smallest one got stuck below a banking, this is what amazed me about them, the adults all crowded round to help the little one get over the banking. I didn’t hear any communication between them all, perhaps it was low frequency belly sounds that they used, whatever it was I was amazed at how they worked together as a family unit.
ABOVE The youngster struggling to get over the bank then helped by all the adults.
Once the Elephants had rescued the youngster they disappeared over the horizon and we headed back to escape the heat of the midday but planned to return to the waterhole again in better light for sunset.
We came back after a nice lunch at the great Lions Bluff Lodge we were staying at before any Elephants had arrived but we didn’t have to wait long, another herd were on their way and these had been in an area of red sand that is so synonymous with Africa.
ABOVE Nothing says Africa better than a parade of Elephants covered in red mud.
ABOVE Even the youngsters were caked in red mud, accentuated by the low sun of late afternoon.
This herd didn’t drink for very long so we decided to move ahead of them to intercept them in good light, I took my jeep to shoot some backlit dusty elephants.
ABOVE A parade of Elephants silhouetted by the setting sun.
On our last day at Lumo we headed to Tsavo West in the hopes of finding some big tusker bull elephants, we found a couple of bulls that didn’t have magnificent tusks but were still impressive nonetheless.
We watched them for a while as they made their way off into the distance so we did the same in search of more.
ABOVE I’m fairly certain these are both bull Elephants!
ABOVE We found another herd on the plains heading towards us so we waited for them in a low spot.
This herd was heading straight for us so we parked in a depression to allow us to get a much lower angle of view, Elephants are powerful animals so shooting them low angle accentuates that power.
One of the youngsters in the herd was very intrigued by us, flaring his ears and mock charging us as he made his way by our vehicle.
ABOVE Small elephant syndrome from this youngster.
ABOVE Watching a herd advancing across the plains in a wide line was a real treat.
We found another big herd of almost 20 individuals coming across the plains towards a waterhole, it was amazing to watch them with the young elephants under the legs of the adults or sandwiched between two for protection. I can really understand the family dynamic of Elephants now that I have seen it, they are an amazing animal and should be protected at all costs.
There are many great charities and organisations that work to save Elephants, one I had the chance to visit on a different Kenya trip is the Sheldrick Wildlife Trust where young wildborn orphaned Elephants are raised by their surrogate keepers and rehabilitated back into the wild. The keepers sleep with the Elephants at night to comfort them and keep the bond going, its an amazing organisation and well worth a visit if you are in Nairobi or you can make a donation or adopt a young Elephant to support these magnificent animals.
Next up in the Africa series is the magnificent Lion.
ABOVE A pair of wildborn orphans at the Sheldrick Wildlife Trust in 2013.
Great Crested Grebes
In 2022 I photographed some Great Crested Grebes Podiceps cristatus on an urban lake near my home. At the time I wasn’t able to put a lot of time into them with only three visits, other projects and life got in the way as is often the case with wildlife photography.
I work away from home Monday to Friday so my time is limited to two days a week, that and the unpredictable British weather makes it more difficult to give home projects the time they deserve. This year I’ve visited ten times so far and have a lot more to show for it visually but also in my knowledge of Grebe behaviour.
The reason this one lake is so productive is the concentration of Grebes, at least 5 pairs, and the layout of the lake. The main part is very wide with a few inlets and bays dotted around its almost 4.5 mile perimeter. One of the inlets narrows to about 7 metres before opening up again to a larger bay.
The area is popular with dog walkers, runners and anglers so the Grebes are quite used to people on the inlet however the main lake ones are a bit more wary, the narrowness along with the proximity to people make the inlet Grebes great for photography.
ABOVE One of the inlet Grebes shot through the reeds at sunrise.
ABOVE A pre sunrise shot of a Grebe shaking the water off.
ABOVE A pair greeting each other with head shakes, the pre cursor to a weed dance as seen below.
One pair of Grebes were ahead of the others in courtship and nest building, with both birds sharing in the incubation of the eggs. Fortunately the other inlet pair were still on the courtship phase of their paring up and it was close enough to get some images.
The climax to the Grebe courtship display, after raising their crests and performing a series of head bobs and shakes both birds swim down to grab some weed and emerge with it in their beak, swimming towards each other. Once they meet they both raise their bodies up, breast to breast, treading water to keep vertical paddling against each other to stay up.
The head bobbing is fairly common and amazing to watch but the weed dance really is spectacular to witness and more so when it happens in good light not far from where I was laying in the reeds.
ABOVE One of the adult Grebes with its head tucked in to go to sleep on the water.
I don’t know what Grebes do at night time but during the day they take a lot of little naps on the water. Generally they can be asleep for up to an hour although they still seem to be aware if amy other birds come into their territory.
They sometimes stay in the sleeping position while swimming towards a threat, the only giveaway is the ruby red eyes are open. If they are being very protective of the area they will call out and swim towards the other Grebe laying flat to the water, if that doesn’t discourage the intruder then they will paddle fly towards them usually resulting in the other bird doing the same in the opposite direction but occasionally a fight happens.
Once the pair have set up a territory they build a nest of floating sticks anchored to the reeds, usually in the least accessible area for photography. I watched many pairs build nests and even raise chicks in them but when I returned the following week the nest would be empty and there were no signs of either bird or one adult continuously calling for its mate. It was challenging to get any mating photos as they were either in the reeds or too far away but I was lucky on a couple of occasions.
ABOVE Newly born ‘humbugs’ on one of the parents backs as the other adult brings a fish in.
By chance one of the pairs nested on a reed bed that was accessible with a very slow methodical creep along the edge of the inlet. I would move one step at a time alway watching to look for a negative reaction from the adult. It took almost 15 minutes to get into position with clear view into the nest. I spent a couple of fantastic hours with two chicks and both adults at the nest.
The adults would swap over parenting duties after around an hour, returning regularly with a fish or sometimes a feather to feed the chicks. I was curious about the feather feeding so looked into when I got home.
There’s a number of reasons for the ingestion of feathers, firstly to slow down the digestion so that tough shells on crustaceans like shrimp or crayfish is held for longer in the digestive tract to break them down more, feathers also assist with producing a pellet to regurgitate the undigested parts and finally it is believed that by producing pellets it helps protect the stomach from parasites.
ABOVE One of the adults giving a chick a feather to eat.
ABOVE It’s amazing the size of fish the parents would try to feed, if the chicks didn’t eat it after a few attempts then the adult would swallow it instead.
I returned the following day expecting the birds to still be at the nest but they were gone, the only Grebe close by was an adult, I watched it for a while expecting the chicks to emerge from the reeds but they never appeared. The lone adult was contact calling for a mate constantly so I can only assume something predated the other adult and chicks during the night. There are large Pike and Otters on the lake so perhaps they were taken by one of those.
Luckily another pair on the main lake had managed to raise three chicks so I was able to work with this other family.
ABOVE The new family I was photographing all out on the main lake area.
ABOVE The final image I took of the chicks before winding up the project, an almost adult independent Great Crested Grebe.
Photographing these Grebes taught me a lot about there behaviour and family life, usually a shy timid species it was great to make the most of them being more tolerant of humans, a lot of wildlife photography is like that, finding an animal and making the most of the opportunity presented.
You can read more about the Great Crested Grebe at the British Trust for Ornithology website, although not currently of concern it wouldn’t take much to damage the Grebe numbers especially with the recent news of raw sewage being dispersed into many of the waterways around the country, if you want to support the BTO who record masses of data every year then consider donating to them in money or time, they have some great volunteering opportunities to help them out and they are a great reason to get some fresh air.
Africa Adventure - Lion
Photographs of lions from Kenya taken during many Safari trips.
“My soul is among lions”
-The Bible
Lions are surely at the top of most peoples list when they think of African animals. They have captivated peoples imaginations for as long as there has been civilisations, movies have portrayed them as monsters, cartoons have shown them as friendly characters and documentaries have shown us a glimpse into their social lives.
There is something very chilling about making eye contact with a Lion, whether through the lens of a camera or the naked eye, the power and grace of these magnificent cats is spellbinding.
ABOVE A Lioness leads the pride on a hunt.
During a recent safari I was fortunate to witness a hunt and kill by a pride on a Buffalo. We followed them as they moved across open ground up hill to look over the other side.
Just over the crest were three Buffalo oblivious to the dangers behind them, seeing what might happen we positioned on the far side of the Buffalo so we could see the lions coming.
Watching 20+ lions organise into a hunt was mesmerising, looking at the pride it looked like they were all together then suddenly a head would peak over the horizon off to the left - the lions were flanking the buffalo.
ABOVE The lions try to separate a Buffalo from the others.
The Lions were very overt in their actions moving towards the Buffalo causing them to turn and face the lions and charge forward.
As the Buffalo moved in other members of the pride would harass them causing confusion in an attempt to separate one. Suddenly the Buffalo were running and so were we albeit on 4 wheels, I was stood out the top of the 4x4 as they headed towards some bushes.
As we headed towards the other side of the small copse of bushes three lions had separated one of the Buffalo and were jumping on its back, we were moving too fast for me to grab any shots so we carried on to the other side.
In the blink of an eye the male lion came out of nowhere and made his move on the Buffalo, clamping his mouth over the Buffalo’s nose and mouth to begin the long process of suffocating it.
ABOVE The male trying to bring the Buffalo down.
ABOVE The male at the front whilst Lionesses pounce from the rear.
The male had the Buffalo clamped in position using his back legs to stop the Buffalo’s front legs from stepping on him all the while the Lionesses and youngsters were nipping the Buffalo and trying to bring it down.
This turned into a war of attrition - who would tire first - we found a tiny gap through the bushes to look down on the scene from where we saw and heard the Buffalo’s final moments. As the Buffalo fell James my guide said it’s all over.
The male stayed clamped on the Buffalo as we heard it struggling for air until it finally succumbed and died right infront of us, all the while being bitten by the other members of the prd
ABOVE The final moments as the Buffalo succumbed to the pride.
With the Buffalo dead the pride began to feed, there was a lot of sorting out the pecking order with growls and snarls at each other as they vied for position on the kill.
We were in a tough position but had clear views onto a couple of the lions, I was focussed on one lioness who was challenging another, ears and lips back, blood around the mouth when suddenly she snarled at another right in front of me.
ABOVE The less cute side of lion behaviour.
Its easy to look at lions and see the similarities of behaviour with domestic cats, I have 5 at home which makes anticipating the lions behaviour slightly easier but that similarity ends the moment their is food.
The pride has it’s own order of importance which is regularly re-enforced through snarls and swipes during meals.
ABOVE Unlike domestic cats that run at the first drops of rain Lions embrace wet weather for hunting.
After watching the hunt we found three lionesses that were sitting out during some of the heaviest rain I’ve ever seen, being from Scotland that is saying something.
Not exactly lovers of the rain some lions use it strategically to aid them in hunting, the reduced visibility making them harder to see and hear by their prey.
Eventually this shower got too heavy for the lions who scarpered off to the nearest bush to shelter but we did find the three of them again sleeping in the open under stormy skies. As the clouds rolled in and the drops began to fall the lions stirred from their slumber and gave us an incredible 15 minutes of walking.
The final image in this walk was taken well after sunset at 10000 ISO, there wasn’t much light left but as the lions moved off the road they began stalking some distance Topi, you can see the alertness in the eyes and the ears are forward ready to go into action. We left them after this shot and headed back to camp for a warm shower.