Back into winter..

As the weather has done a bit of a U-turn this week I thought I'd post some last snowy winter images. This will be my last post for some time as I will be headed to Indonesia tomorrow, so my next post in a few weeks should contain some unusual species.

Back at the beginning of February I did a short trip up to the Cairngorms which mostly consisted of battling the elements - it seemed like there was a three day blizzard at the time, however this didn't stop me from tracking down some of the usual moorland suspects, red grouse in particular.

Areas of moorland in Scotland are managed for Red grouse as they are a popular quarry for those who enjoy hunting - this makes them very easy to locate. Black grouse and Capercaillie however require a little more luck and planning and unfortunately the weather foiled my attempts to see and photograph these other two grouse species this time, I'll be back!

This chap seemed very keen.. Bit cold for that!

nom nom nom...

I hope you enjoy these images, hopefully by the time I return spring will have properly set in and some more of my favourite subjects will have returned from wintering grounds and emerged from hibernation.

Early adders

March is a good time in the UK to observe adders (Vipera berus), if you know where to look it is possible to see many individuals within a small area as they emerge from communal hibernacula and bask. I happen to know some such spots and made the most of the last two days of sunshine. Due to the current temperatures being reasonably low and the adders very recent emergence from hibernation, they are much less flighty than in the summer months and therefore more easily photographed.

Male adders are the first to emerge, eager to begin the mating season and pass their genes to future generations. All these photos show males. The first two pictures show typical basking spots - areas where the adders benefit both from sunshine and cover should they need to make a quick get away. 

Tasting the air - no doubt wandering what on earth the strange creature looking at it is!
The below image has to be my favourite of the batch.

Just in case anyone is wondering I did not handle or manipulate these snakes in any way - these shots were all taken in situ as I found the snakes. If you intend to photograph snakes please be sensible and do not cause the snakes or yourself any avoidable stress...

Garden goldcrests

I have a few spruce trees around my garden and so luckily goldcrests (Regulus regulus) are quite frequent - more frequently heard than seen anyhow.

Whilst doing some chores in the garden earlier this week I noticed a very confident and typically super active male feeding on the lawn under one of the spruce trees. He seemed to be picking off aphids as can be seen in the crop below.

Goldcrests do breed in the UK in large numbers but our resident population is swollen by up to 2-3 million birds from the continent (mostly Scandinavia) over the cold winter months. 

For the first image below I simply lay on the lawn and got a little cold and wet, within 2 minutes the bird was making regular forays in my direction - thankfully it gave me plenty of opportunities as this species moves so fast that very fast shutter speeds are needed to stop action. The white blur in front of the bird is a remnant patch of snow.

These next two images show the bird in a more typical scene, amongst evergreen leaves. 

This species is very endearing and great to be able to watch in the back yard - for those of you that have coniferous trees growing nearby listen out for high pitched individual notes and a very fast moving small bird, they are great to watch, I have noticed a few squabbles recently.

A belated happy New Year to my readers!