The Silent Majority

No riots, no histrionics, no banner headlines that other disgruntled groups of our society display when they feel aggrieved. Only a quiet inward deep-seated rage that ordinary people up and down the land held that expressed itself in the form of letters to MPs, emails, phone calls and petition filling to complain about the outrageous decision by DEFRA to sanction the destruction of buzzard nests.
Amazingly, within a week all that quiet diplomacy resulted in the decision being overturned.
Everyone who reacted with the smallest voice can be justifiably proud, for those small noises accumulated to a massive crescendo that punctured the eardrums of our Mandarins.

The Common Buzzard ...Wild and Free

A word of caution, the Countryside Alliance is none too pleased with the outcome, so expect a counter attack by fair means or FOWL.

Fortitude

One Good Tern........as they say

Over the past few days the heatwave has kept me close to home, not wishing to travel too far in the heat of the day. I have confined my photography to late afternoons but even then the light has been too strong and the contrast too much for my liking, even so I had to try and do something.

Common Tern

Common Tern

Black Tern

Having purchased a 400mm lens I thought to try it out on a pair of common terns that have recently arrived at Yarrow Valley Park and a trip to Southport on Saturday three black terns twisted and turned and skimmed the waters relentlessly. The problem with Marshside as anyone who knows the place is that you face straight into the sun until very late in the day and to add to my woes a stiff easterly breeze had the terns hovering away from for ninety nine percent of the time...still I gave the lens a good try out and managed to pull out a couple of shots.

Fortitude

Starting to see Red

The top of my hit list too photograph this season is the redstart along with pied flycatcher. I don't wish to travel to the likes of Gilfach Farm where the photographer is pretty much guaranteed sightings of these beautiful species, if for no other reason than the cost of that liquid gold.....PETROL!!!
But in my case their's another reason, and that is they occur only eight miles from my home on the West Pennines. In past seasons I have been successful locating and photographing the pied flycatcher .....my latest effort at the bottom.... but the redstart has always eluded me, even though it's call could be heard around one certain area.
 This year I have made half a dozen visits and seen fleeting glimpses of the bird, so last week I put in a concerted effort and finally managed to pin it down. When I say pin it down it isn't exactly sitting out in the open, it is flitting about the heavily leafed trees and that gives awkward views for the photographer, that said I have managed a long shot, heavily cropped snap presented here, whether I will improve on that, it remains to be seen. But whether or not I do, it is eminently more satisfying tracking and finding your own material than joining the masses on the merry-go-round.

The Common Redstart

The Pied Flycatcher

Fortitude

Flights of Fancy

A couple of flight shots from last week......first I managed to get reasonably close to a cuckoo, but where on earth is a blue sky when you need one

......second was a female orange tip flirting about a meadow feeding on cuckoo flowers.......

I wonder if two cuckoos make a summer.

Fortitude

Golden Days

It's always a bit sad returning from holiday, but at least I have stacks of images to sort through to remind me of the long tranquil days in Coquetdale. Unfortunately I haven't had much time to process them in earnest as events in the garden have kept me busy. No, not mowing the lawn (meadow) or tiding the borders, nothing as mundane as that, it's just that my resident goldcrest have been extremely active and for once on show. Normally they feed at the very top of my silver birch, but as they are nest building they are coming out into the open seeking nest material and of course feeding on the abundance of aphids.

                                               
                                                   No need for insecticide with these hovers about.

                                                        Collecting cobwebs for the nest.

Two jays nesting close by come to devour my nuts, oops! sorry, the nuts I lay out for them, but they have to play second fiddle to the goldies at the moment as I fear these Golden Days will be over all to quickly.
Fortitude

Fighting Godwits

During the recent fine spell of weather I managed a brief visit to Marshside. I timed my visit for the last couple of hours of golden evening light, even so the light was still strong and contrast on the birds was still extreme.
The treat for the evenings entertainment happened as two black tailed godwits decided on an altercation right in front of the viewing screen.

Fortitude 

Coals to Newcastle

The quietness of the morning was shattered by the rattle of the letter box and the thud and shuffle letters landing behind the front door onto the floor. In days gone by when I ran my own business my heart would sink as another load of bills, reminders, and demands and final demands for payment of this and that arrived at the household. Gingerly I would open them, " We wish to inform you that your account has been placed on STOP subject to payment of (HOW MUCH?) which is now three month overdue, further more our solicitors have been advised............... etc. etc. I would scramble through the letters in the vein hope that someone had actually paid me. Thankfully those days are long gone, so now when the post is delivered, after sifting through the junk every so often a rather nice letter arrives.
Today Thursday March 8th was one of those days.
To start at the beginning I must take you back to June 2011 when out of the blue I received a phone call from a print designer, he sounded a bit hairy fairy and quite frankly I thought he was smoking something, but the gist of his call was that he required a few images of a Dartford warbler and he had seen just what he was looking for on my web site. The job was for the National Trust, and he assured me he would be back in touch. Well you know I waited and waited, and waited some more then I forgot all about it, then in November 2011 I received a phone call from the National Trust in Swindon, "I believe Peter has been in touch with you about some photos of the Dartford warbler, well we are ready to go to press and are really desperate for them, deadlines and all that, could you sort us out pronto, such dynamism I thought.

Well that was that, until the post arrived this morning where together the junk mail I received a copy of a small fold up pamphlet of the outdoor guide to Dunwich Heath. I must say that it is very well produced and my photos of the Dartford warbler are contained within it. Strange to think though that the N.T. don't have stock photos of its most popular resident bird with forty breeding pairs on site.


The photos were taken when a lone male ventured to one of it's more northerly points in England.....so for these to be used for Dunwich Heath is rather like taking coal to Newcastle, but there again I'm not complaining.

The two images used in the pamphlet.
 Fortitude