Jan 2021
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Jan 2021

Since the December lockdown, I have been photographing even closer to home than I was before. On one hand it has been incredibly frustrating as before Covid I was travelling all over the country and photographing a diverse range of Landscapes, wildlife and nature and did not know where I was going to be photographing from from week to week, which I loved.

Though on the other hand it has been exciting to re-discover local haunts and the amount of wildlife that we have very close to home.

During the first two weeks of January I spent a few of days in one of my local woods, The first day, there was a hard frost on the ground, though unsurprisingly there was far less in the wood where it always tends to be cooler in summer and warmer in winter.

Although the sun was only just starting to rise the jays were already squawking and I could hear the little birds tweeting before we got into the woods.

 

The morning winter light was very beautiful and brought out the colour of all the birds so well. Here is one of my favourite Jay photos from that shoot.

I was very happy to see a group of Long tailed Tits, as I hadn’t seen any locally recently

 

The Robins and Blackbirds were being very territorial chasing away all the other little birds,

The Tits and finches, perched on branches in the background which allowed me to photograph them with some of the beautiful woodland landscape around them

The Tits and finches, perched on branches in the background which allowed me to photograph them with some of the beautiful woodland landscape around them

 

They would come closer whenever there was a break from the Blackbirds and Robins. At one point, I must have counted about 16 Robins, such pretty little birds, who appear to have no fear.

There were two pairs of Red Squirrels, who were hilarious to watch.

They were not bothered by me at all, and would stop and sit very close to us every so often, as if they are checking me out and then get back to whatever they are doing, chasing each other, or eating or just having a rest.

The last two weeks, when it wasn’t raining we went to a local pond where I have photographed a pair of Swans for the last 9 years. I have enjoyed watching, feeding and photographing them on a regular basis. They have always come and gone at different times of year, but seem to be based there for about 9 months a year and I still don’t know if is it the same pair that comes back.

At about this time every year the pond freezes which they don’t seem to like. As we have fed them over the years, in the winter as soon as they see us they fly across the pond towards to us. It is an amazing thing to experience, it is not only the beauty of the patterns that their wings make as they move up and down, but also the noise of the wind going through their wings.

It is a wonderful thing to watch, and although I have experienced this countless times, it always leaves me feeling exhilarated.

 

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