Lincolnshire River Trust: The Witham Catchment

As a child I used to visit Grantham quite a bit to see my great grandparents and I always looked forward to seeing the River Witham in Wyndham Park, along with all the fish and ducks, which really set me on a path to becoming a professional wildlife photographer. So when the Lincolnshire Rivers Trust hired me to film the Witham from source to sea I jumped at the chance at seeing my childhood haunt!

The idea was to produce a film of the Witham catchment showing groups and locals’ opinions of the river and highlighting issues as well as wildlife. As part of the Catchment Based Approach, funded by DEFRA, the Lincolnshire Rivers Trust host the Witham Partnership, which is trying to protect, enhance and restore the catchment.

Upper Reaches: Grantham 

Firstly I joined the Grantham Rivercare Group who had organised a clear up day taking rubbish out of the river, it was fantastic to see locals so interested in their river and I wish more rivers had groups like this.

Duck passes over brown trout

Not wanting to leave the wildlife out i was pleased to find a few fish to film in what was quite a urban setting.

Chub 

Dace, Chub, Roach and Brown Trout! 

 Jake with a male and female

Further up the river nearer to its source we met Jake Reeds of the Environment Agency who was looking for White Clawed Crayfish (under licence). This gave me an opportunity I've waited a long time for…filming/photographing these incredible crustaceans in an English river.

White clawed crayfish are critically threatened

I've been coming to the Witham for years and didn't even know these little guys were in it (lots of water voles too!) which is partly why the trust wanted me to make this film, to show of its wildlife as well as interviewing locals and groups on their views of the river.

Middle Reaches: Lincoln

The Brayford Pool has plenty below the surface

After interviewing the Environment Agency, Sea Cadets and the leader of Lincoln City Council, I went on to film some of Lincoln's wildlife. The Brayford Pool is an area often over looked and I even had a member of the public say the classic line "There's nothing in there”. Well I hope he sees this blog, because we found a massive abundance of roach, perch, rudd and a hungry pike.

Lauren Tewson the Director of LRT and members of the angling match at Tattershall

I also caught the end of an angling match near Tattershall Bridge, plenty of fish were caught including a large tench, and a good mixture of bream, perch, dace and roach.

Lower Reaches: Boston

 Kingfisher looking for a meal

Boston was the biggest surprise for me as it seemed to have a wealth of bird life, including this quite bold kingfisher which was quite happy to let me snap away. It was fantastic watching it catching fish in such an industrial setting.

 Bitten off more then it can chew

Another good fishermen is the cormorant, though maybe not quite so graceful. I watched a group of five and they were expert hunters, it was interesting to note that their success rate for catching fish was very high, about every 3 or so dives resulted in a fish like this huge eel!

 Because they're effective hunters they're not too popular with anglers.

This cormorant even caught a pike, which was in the brackish end of the river, so shows they can tolerate some saline water.

The mudflats provide great feeding for waders

The end of my journey brought me to the mudflats were the Witham goes into the Haven and that empties into the Wash. It’s incredible to see a river change as you go through its reaches and I would recommend anyone to do it in order to see a variety of wildlife and habitats. The finished film will be out before the end of the year and online for everyone to see.

BBC Wildlife Local Patch Reporter

Jack Perks

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

Fairham Fishes

I decided to go down my local patch for a look at some of the smaller fish living in the river which often get over looked by people in favour of the larger ones such as pike or chub. They are a integral part of the ecosystem and feed many species of wildlife such as kingfishers who gladly gulp down thee minnows!

This is a bullhead or millers thumb (so called as its resemblance to a millers thumb) they are bottom dwelling fish looking a bit like a goby. They spend all their lives under rocks and come out at night to feed and can be quite aggressive predators takings anything that fits into its mouth! Despite this they are caring parents and guard the eggs until they hatch.

One of my favourite fish the humble gudgeon, like miniature barbel they filter the riverbed looking for food and like all small fish are a good indicator of clean water. Some fisheries have started stocking gudgeon as they have the habit of feeding on parasites of larger fish like leeches and lice.

It may look like a cross between the previous two fish but the stone loach is a stunning addition to any river system, like the bullhead they often hide in the day under rocks and come out at night. Females can lay up to 10,000 eggs in spring and prefer fast cleaning flowing rivers while its rare cousin the spined loach likes muddier slow flowing rivers.

I did manage to film a slightly bigger fish also while down at the river.

BBC Wildlife Local Patch Reporter
Jack Perks

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

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

Nottingham Shoot: Day Four

I started the morning looking for small freshwater fish mainly stone loach and the rarer cousin the spined loach a fish you can only find in the east of england. the loach were proving very elusive however a few Bullheads, Minnows and Sticklebacks did show up giving me something to photograph.

Bullhead

Where Fairham brook meets the River Trent a prime habitat for many species of fish.

i then went out after the kingfisher once again but before i could put the Gopro on the branch but he beat me to it an was already there. I waited for him to leave and attached it but he did not return and this was as close as i got to him.

Tomorrow i have a bit of a dilema to either carry on with the kingfisher or go to a different site for other species not sure at the moment!

Hints -

Know you location i now know where the kingfisher lands and where he is most likely to feed this is a big help when im trying to photograph him

Nottingham Shoot: Day one

Kingfishers & Grebes

as part of the freshwater fish project im also looking at there predators and with the shear abundance of wetland predators near my home i traveled from Cornwall to Nottingham. I got shots first at Fairham Brook a 2 minute walk from my house its has a pair of kingfishers i know well. i put a perch up and sure enough they went on it straight away however once they spotted me were straight of so later in the week i'll do a early shoot and wait in a hide for them. Mallards were feeding in the snow around me while i waited.

                                                             Female Mallard in snow

                              Shame about the twigs over him but good to see him out and about

Afterwards i turned my attention to another fish eating river bird, Great crested grebes. They quite abundant in Nottingham and are in most lakes, rivers and canals here. I chose to get shots along the West Bridgeford stretch of the River Trent as it has a regular pathway so the grebes are quite used to people and enabled me to use a 300mm to get shots. I think a bit closer to them would of worked better like a 500mm or longer but they did come close.

                                                       a hint of the snowfall from last week

                            Rain can really enhance a image so dont be discourage to go out in it

Hints - 
- Go out in the rain can be very rewarding
- Be patient and persistant 
- Know your location and what is going to be there