Watching You, Watching Me

Over the last week I have revisited my Red Squirrel site in the North West coastal region of the UK. It was nice to be back as I hadn’t been back all year due to work. I managed to capture these most adorable mammals in better light, and capturing their cheeky nature. This whole area is managed by the wildlife trust who keeps an eye on the population of Red Squirrels that were almost wiped out 3 years ago. Numbers are slowly increasing with the hard work and dedication of the local trust and volunteers.

They are doing well and its testament to the hard work by the trust and its volunteers. Using respect and great care in your own approach with fieldcraft you will be able to have a window into the subject’s world. Watching you, watching me approach and the care of the subject should come well before any images.

A little supplementary food is put out by the trust but mostly these red’s forage for food on the forest floors, your first indication they are around is the sudden claw sounds as they chase each other around the tree trunks. Once on the ground though they are quick, real quick, darting all over the place. I waited and had a few wonderful close up moments captured with my long lens here.

I hope to carry on photographing these beautiful and enduring animals over the coming months, closer to home in the glorious winter sunshine I have been working on  Short Eared Owls. They have arrived at their winter feeding grounds now in several places I visit. They come down from altitude to feed during the winter months around low lying moorland and marshland. I have been lucky enough to have some good sighting over the last couple of weeks of these beautiful owls.

I make no secret on my of my great passion and love for owls, they are so beautiful to watch as they go about their lives. From the days when I was made to wear my knitted woolly hat that my mum had made for me, before I ventured out,  Owls have always fascinated me.  I cannot put into words why I love this species of bird so much, I’ve grown up with them, consider them an integral part of my life.

Bright yellow eyes that look at first glance as though they are frowning if they look at your directly. With their pale faces acting to enhance their most striking of features, those bright eyes.  Such stunning birds to watch and again I had some nice encounters over the last several days.

I hope to follow on from last year’s images and photograph these beautiful owls along with Barn Owls I am working on also, all being well. Below is a few images I have managed to capture so far of a male Barn Owl hunting in the freezing cold.

I offer One to Ones in all of those locations and some places have both owls, for more details please see the following link. I am hoping the cold weather of the last two winters doesn’t happen this year as along with the Barn Owls many Short eared Owls died due to being unable to feed and break through the frozen ground that at times was covered in snow for days even weeks at a time making the whole process of finding food a real contest of pure survival.

I will be concentrating my efforts in the sites I have known for many years over the next several months and I hope to capture a few more images and spend some time filming and watching these beautiful owls. I will update my blog on how I get on during that time and fingers crossed the weather doesn’t hinder them, many thanks.