Leaping Salmon

 Hiding in the currents they wait

Now as some of you may be aware of I'm rather fond of fish, So much so I must be the UK's only fish twitcher! However there's one thing I've never witnessed and thats Atlantic Salmon leaping upstream so thought its about time I remedied this.

 Brown Trout leaping

I visited a fairly unknown site that has a steady run of Salmon as well as Brown Trout trying to get upstream. The Brownies would jump much higher then the Salmon but didn't have the strength to make it over the weir.

 Another unsuccessful leap

Brown Trout will jump to reach spawning grounds upstream with the Salmon and in some cases can hybridise with Atlantic Salmon though this is rare. It averaged 3 or 4 fish leaping a minute and although I've seen it on Autumnwatch every year nothing prepares you the actual site which put a smile on my face which would not dissipate.

 The mystery fish

At the time I thought this was quite a silvery fish to be jumping and wasn't till I got home that I realised it was a steelhead a searun rainbow trout which is a unusual fish for a river. Rainbows often find there way into rivers when they get washed in from fishing lakes or can be stocked by anglers but the anadromous form of the rainbow is a rarity in the UK.

Powering upstream

Brown Trout on its way to spawning grounds

Some of the fish almost look like they are taking flight and can really reach a good bit of height some going well over 6ft in the air. The remarkable journey these fish take is extraordinary with them growing up in the river and moving out to sea to feed up on shrimps and small fish before coming back from the northern atlantic ocean to spawn again.

Breaching the water the male has developed its pointed snout

Salmon in Scottish and Northern rivers can take up to 3 years to go back to sea while salmon in southern chalk streams will go after just one year because the warmth and extra food. Chalk stream salmon are under threat because they are at there temperature barrier for spawning so if the rivers increase in temperature they may disappear from them for good.

Hen salmon flung high into the air after leaping out of the rapids

Cock salmon making the leap

The sight of a huge Atlantic salmon breaching the rapids to go further upstream was something that will stick with me for a long time and always a nice change not squeezing into a wetsuit and having to get in a freezing river to photograph fish so i could get used to this kind of fish twitching!

BBC Wildlife Local Patch Reporter

Jack Perks

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

Peak District Wildlife & Landscapes

View towards Hathersage 

I'm mostly a underwater photographer so i don't get much chance to do landscapes but living about a hour from the Peak District i do sometimes venture into the landlubbers territory.

a fine example of a rugged nature photographer 

I wasn't here just for me i was guiding some students for Nottingham Trent University but did manage to snap a few shots for myself.

Morning Heather

Starting at 5am we got up to one oft he tors and set up the cameras to capture the sunrise. The heather is in full bloom this time of year so i knew i wanted to include this in my image for sure.

Meadow pipit perched on wire

As well as the heather there is the multitude of wildlife around the peaks though its not easily found or cooperative! Lots of fledgling meadow pipits followed us around the moors collecting insects with disturbed and trying to work out what we were.

Red Grouse Calling

One of my main targets for the weekend was the Red Grouse, This male is calling out to other grouse in the area.

Common Lizard

I did mange to get at least one scaly critter, the common lizards which are all along the paths on the longshaw estate and if your lucky you can see the green morph which is common in the peaks but rare elsewhere.


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

Cromford Canal Water Voles

Today saw me going after something cute and cuddly for change the water vole, the fastest declining mammal in the UK. Cromford Canal is a excellent site to see them and also holds a good population of rather friendly little grebes (above). I've never been to the canal and not seen a vole so the pressure was on not the break my record!

In some of the thicker areas of weeds i could hear a deep croaking sounds and found some common frogs which is unusual for the middle of the day but made for some up close images.

The canal is mostly unused so this means the water is very clear and you can see the pike swimming in the all the vegetation, i filmed this pike with my Underwater Camera (this is screen grab from the film). Theirs
 a good number of pike in the canal but you hardly see any other species of fish so its mystery what they eat! (though i did see one grab a frog)

In the end i was lucky enough to see four water voles along a 5 mile stretch of the canal but this one showed itself the best. They can draw quite a crowd and you often see groups of wildlife photographers on the banks after them so i try to go on weekdays when its less busy.

BBC Wildlife Local Patch Reporter
Jack Perks

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

Grayling & Pike in the Peak District

Grayling other wise known as the lady of the stream are a truly beautiful fish and a member of the trout family. One of the things I've started doing is trying to capture fish behaviour in this case males competing for the prime position and females.

This grayling bumped into the camera a few times! normally they can be quite a shy fish

This male had chased all others away and stayed in this area for a while

Grayling Fighting Video

Not to far away in Cromford Canal there are good numbers of pike

I was a bit unsure what they eat as the only other fish i saw was a brown trout which was actually bigger then the pike and attacked them!

The pike seemed to be gathering for breeding and the pike in the canal also seemed a bit smaller then there river cousins likely because of habitat size and food availability.

Hints -

- Take it slowly the fish are very spooky!
- Visibility is everything and you need it to get the clear shots
- Make sure you wash off after as there are plenty of nasty diseases in rivers like weils disease



www.jackperksphotography.com

Peak District Trout & Grayling!

Living so close to the peak district i thought it was about time i got over there did some photography! having been assisting with the BBC all week filming coarse fish i thought i'd keep up the piscatorial antics but go for brown trout and grayling two fish i have long been after to photograph but as of today never had a chance.

at first they proved a little shy but..

once they got used to my presence they were more then happy to pose for me!

to top it of i also saw kingfisher, dipper and rainbow trout though the brown trout proved a little camera shy.


Video of todays fish below

Peak District fish filmed underwater



bug thanks to Rob Cuss who took me there to get the shots!

www.jackperksphotography.co.uk