Kingfisher: The Blue Flash

So this week I'm on my local patch looking for something above water for a change (shock horror!), the Kingfisher. I've never really been into birding but theirs just something about that electric blue flashing by that has always fascinated me with kingfishers. 

Rather then go with a long lens to start with i opted for a wide angle lens with a remote trigger and this was my first shot. Not my favourite image but a start, out of shot I'm hiding in the bushes with netting all over me.

I then changed to a 50mm lens so by no means a long lens but just to see how that looks with the kingfisher which again i quite liked. They quickly got used to the camera and the shutter going off and enabled me to get some more unusual images.

I switched to a more traditional long lens in the end but still tried to add elements of its environment into the images. Kingfishers with a black beak tend to be males while females have a bit of orange on them. the line down a kingfishers back also indicates age the shorter it being the older the bird.

Short Video of them

BBC Wildlife Local Patch Reporter
Jack Perks

@JackPerksPhoto
Facebook: Jack Perks Photography
Website: www.jackperksphotography.com

Norfolk: A Wildlife Paradise

So last week saw me venturing to Norfolk (I know I seem to be going further and further from my patch but bear with me, kingfishers and foxes will be blogged soon just minutes from my house!). The reason I went was for these eel-like proto fish, the Brook Lamprey, and mainly to film them spawning.

Well, it was a success. In fact myself and my guide and good friend Josh Jaggard found them spawning on the first day and as any wildlife photographer will tell you it doesn't normally happen straight away so this freed up alot of time to do some fun shoots on other species.

I had diffculty picking images as we saw so many species like muntjacs, barn owls, little owls, hen harriers, adders and newts but have cherry picked my favourites. This is the first time I've photographed a brown hare and was from the hide at Cley Marshes so it was even more of a surprise when it came running by chasing a female. I missed the money shot of it mounting the female hare but Josh captured it nicely. 

Another day saw me go to RSPB Titchwell, the birders' Mecca for Norfolk and it didn't disappoint with incredibly close-up views of a snipe. I found the hides great for photography with close-ups of water fowl and avocets and the local birders very friendly and willing to let me know the hotspots for wildlife.

My last day saw me looking for adders but instead finding its larger cousin' the grass snake. They are our only snake to lay eggs and actively live in aquatic habitats. One way to tell them apart from an adder is that the pupil is round while a adder has a slit-eye.

This little one was found on the beach of all places and was very cold so I picked him up gently and took him to the dunes and found out one of its defence mechanisims can be quite smelly! They spray a foul liquid over predators (and wildlife photographers) which I can tell you takes a while to go.

Another large adult snake on the dunes on a glorious day in Norfolk and a brillant way to end my trip.

BBC Wildlife Local Patch Reporter
Jack Perks

@JackPerksPhoto
Facebook: Jack Perks Photography
Website: www.jackperksphotography.com