Top Ten Wildlife Experiences of 2014

Well 2014 is coming to a end and what a amazing year its been for me traveling all over the UK to document various species.

From these 10 trips alone I've traveled 3840 miles ! (from Nottingham and back)

Heres a rough recap of some of my best wildlife moments of 2014

10. Water Voles

In spring I visited the water voles in Derbyshire to try and build up a portfolio of images of them and is still something I'm working on now. 70% of voles dies during the winter and few live longer then a year so its a tough life for a vole not counting merciless mink or horrendous habitat destruction. One of my goals for 2015 is to film and photograph the voles underwater and have a couple of sites lined up for this.

9. Cornish Jelly

A trip I was looking forward to all year was returning to Cornwall to photograph Blue Sharks in Penzance however the weather was not on my side and due to high winds the boat trip was called off. Not wanting to waste a opportunity I snorkelled around the coastline at Falmouth and found this stunning Compass Jellyfish which had been washed in from the storms, it wasn't til after I discovered they are mildly venomous!  

8. Richmond Park Deer Rut

Richmond is a national hotspot of the red deer rut and can often lead to legions of wildlife photographers visiting the park to photograph the clashing stags, while I was in the area talking to a local scuba club about underwater photography I decided to visit the park early to get some shots of the deer. They weren't quite rutting but very close to it with lots of chasing and parallel walking.

7. Leaping Salmon

When you think of Salmon you typically think of Scotland but I was pleasantly surprised to find a site less then a hour from my home! This population of salmon is the most inland group traveling up the Humber to reach the Dove in Derbyshire.

BBC NEWS PIECE

6. Peak District 

With the peaks being about a hour away I knew I wanted to do more work in the park this year, not just in rivers but more landscapes and wildlife also. The heather this august was breath taking and coupled with a sunrise it meant I even managed to get a half decent landscape shot.

5. White Clawed Crayfish

One of the great things with wildlife is it can always find a way to surprise you, while working for the Lincolnshire Rivers Trust they told me about a good population of white clawed crayfish in the River Witham a river I'd visited since a child but had no idea the crayfish were living in it. Within a few minutes of searching with a licensed surveyor we found 5 of them! With the crayfish plague wiping out a lot of them it was great to see a healthy population so close to were I live.

4. Powan of Loch Lomond

I suspect a lot of you reading this would of never of heard of a Powan or European Whitefish, its a rare glacial fish similar to arctic charr that are a left over from the last ice age. Due to climate change, invasive species and siltation the Powan have had a bit of a ruffe time. Normally they live deep down in the Lochs but visited some captive reared Powan at SCENE which are being studied and released back into the loch.

3. French Adventure 

While filming for angling series 'Mr Crabtree goes fishing' I was tasked with underwater, time lapse, stills, some interviews and wildlife and I have to say France was a herpetologists dream! Reptiles are a big love of mine and saw whip snakes, viperine water snake, wall lizards and this stunning green lizard having a yawn.

2. Sea Lamprey

These really are a weird looking 'fish' I knew I wanted to photograph one of these fish for a while but they only enter rivers in early summer and even then only hang around for a few days so was a spur of the moment sort of thing when I heard they were around. I had a farmer in Sussex, wildlife trust member in Wales and river keeper in Hampshire looking for them and ultimately the river keeper got in touch first!

1. Puffins Underwater

I'm not overly a birder but have a great interest in all natural history particularly some of the iconic species like kingfisher, bittern and in this case the puffin. I did some research into areas to get underwater footage of puffins and the farnes was top of my list. I can tell you it was incredibly hard and didn't manage any high quality stills just footage on the GoPro (see below) but was amazing to see a species like this flying underwater and something I'll be working on next year for sure along with other water birds.  

BBC Wildlife Local Patch Reporter

Jack Perks

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

Toad in the hole (or brook)

Tolerating dryer conditions, you can find toads further from water than frogs

 Following on from last week's common frogs, I'm looking at their warty cousins, the common toads. Though I have found them in my garden they've never bred in my pond and instead prefer to breed in Fairham Brook, a stone's throw away from my house and, unlike the frogs, don't seem to mind running water.

Lone male waits for a partner

Partly due to their toxic skin and areas of the river that are slow-moving the toad tadpoles can do quite well in the brook. Lone males arrive first and any movement sets them off and can be seen grabbing fish sometimes! In fact when I took this image the toad tried to grab the camera.

Females can be twice as big as males

Toads can have long lives (up to 50 years) and Spring is the only time of year they enter the water so I have a small window to get underwater images of them so have to make the most of it. 

They move mainly at night to the ponds

They have very strong homing instincts and will cross roads and barriers to get back to their pond of origin, this can mean they come into difficulties on roads and some groups set up toad patrols to collect toads and move them across the roads, something I hope to tag along to.

BBC Wildlife Local Patch Reporter
Jack Perks

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

Welcome To My Patch

Myself snorkeling for zander

So firstly let me introduce myself, my name is Jack Perks a Nottingham based wildlife photographer covering all wildlife but a special interest in our freshwater species, which often leads me into underwater photography. I've always had interest in nature long before photography came into my life and I’ve been lucky for the most part of my life living in the local area and exploring parts people often over look.

Map of the area i'm mainly be sticking to

Here’s the area I’m focusing on part of the Trent Valley on the Nottinghamshire/Derbyshire boarder and the three main water courses that I’ll be exploring will be Fairham Brook, Nottingham Canal & The River Trent all very different waterways with unique wildlife as well as finding wildlife closer to home in my own garden. Fairham Brook is a small stream, which despite its urban location holds an amazing amount of wildlife. Nottingham Canal is still in use mainly for pleasure boats and siting’s of kingfisher are not uncommon, Finally the mighty River Trent the third largest river in the country, home to over 30 species of fish and recently otter siting’s something I’ll be chasing up.

European Eels can be found thoughout the River Trent

I’ll be covering a different species each week and describing ways I’ve photographed it as well as some taxonomy of the subject.

J

www.jackperksphotography.com