N Spiers Photography » Wildlife

ITS A MONSTER!!! well not exactly.

Neil — Fri, 11 Jun 2010 18:36:51 +0000

Quick lunch break and headed for my daily jaunt to the Lea Marsh area near all the Car Garages around Preston Docklands way. Mate Eric from work tagged along to show him the Whitethroat that I was sort of teasing by mimicking its call hahahaha. Anyway walked quite far saw quite a bit and then out of the corner of my eye I saw the mother of all Caterpillars!!!! Black, Orange, bristling with hairs… looked like something from the movie … I cant dam well remember the name AARRGGHHH!!!

Anyway fired off a few shots as suddenly got a strange interest in Moths and Butterflies (going be harder ID’ing instead of birds!!!!) and headed back to work to find out what the hell it was. After only 10 minutes there it was staring me in the face.. a Drinker Moth Caterpillar, quite common alledgly but first time I’ve seen one, 3 inches in length and weird looking!!!

Tools of the trade

Neil — Tue, 01 Jun 2010 08:39:09 +0000

Taken at Barton Grange Garden Centre. Proves that taking your camera with you EVERYWHERE works. There was a falconry display on, as much as I did not agree with the birds being placed on a stand an shown off I just had to get a photo of one of my favourite birds… the Barn Owl.

As much as I appreciated everyone shoving a camera in the poor birds face I decided to go for a different angle and take a shot of one of the birds tools of the trade… its talons. On converting to black and white I got an image that I am very proud of.

Brown Rat @ Preston Docks

Neil — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 18:54:07 +0000

After getting bored of seeing nothing worth taking a photo of all of a sudden 5 brown rats scurried across the Car Park @ Lockside Road but this one decided the bin was to good to leave!!

Red Breasted Merganser @ Fairhaven Lake

Neil — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 18:44:01 +0000

Taken on a blustery morning at Fairhaven Lake, St Annes, Lancashire.

Red Squirrel @ Dodd Wood

Neil — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 18:19:44 +0000

Red Squirrel @ Dodd Wood

Neil — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 18:19:01 +0000

Red Squirrel @ Dodd Wood

Neil — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 18:18:06 +0000

On the trail of Red Squirrels

Neil — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 18:13:25 +0000

Decided on Thursday of last week that myself and Liz would go on a trail for Red Squirrels. After 2 days research and some very helpful information from a Cumbrian bird watcher, we decided that Whinlatter Park in Keswick and Dodd Wood at the foot of Skiddaw would be the 2 best places to try get a few shots of these quickly declining gorgeous animals.

Liz being the star that she is packed up the biggest lunch I have seen, infact this also included breakfast. Breakfast!!! I hear you shout, yep that was because at 8:30am we were on the road to the Lake District, therefore breakfast on the move. At 10:30am we arrived at the Whinlatter Park Visitors Centre, quick look around at the books and Christmas decorations… YES CHRISTMAS DECORATIONS, plus watched the live camera link of squirrels on feeders for a few minutes. We then purchased the Squirrel Scurry Trail map from the visitors centre and off we hiked. I did not get my hopes up for seeing one single Red Squirrel here and I was right, nothing. Back to the visitors centre it was then, so Liz could buy… wait for it…. some christmas decorations, then into the car, hot brew, pork pie and off we headed to Dodd Wood.

Once at Dodd Wood I was really starting to get concerned, I thought because the weather was so bad that we had no chance of seeing any Red Squirrels but got my boots back on and headed to the Osprey Viewpoint where there is a feeding station. 15 minutes later and sitting on a seriously wet bed of moss I got what we had come for RED SQUIRRELS!!!! Every 10 minutes they would vanish, only to reappear once again so that they could grab more acorns. Was chuffed to pieces as this is what we had both come for and got some lovely shots, below.

Larger images can be found here

All in all a wonderful day and think I will now set myself more challenges of finding certain animals that are difficult to find!!!

Jay @ Marton Mere, Blackpool

Neil — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 20:22:57 +0000

Taken from the Feeding Station Hide @ Marton Mere, Nature Reserve in Blackpool. 14/10/2009

Cormorant

Neil — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 19:48:52 +0000

Taken @ Preston Docklands, 14th October 2009