Luke's Nature Diary

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Luke_Herts

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Luke
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Hi,
I said i would start this diary once i got my new lens. However, i have decided to keep the 100-400mm. So will start now.
Also i will be leaving for Fiji for a month in July so will update this thread with fish, bird and insect photos i'm sure.

So without being able to drive at the moment i am limited to scrounging lifts and cycling.

Last wednesday i cycled round the corner to a few country lanes on route to a place i found which has a couple of red kites.
I have been looking for a whitethroat for ages and was greeted by around 12 flying about the hedgerows and perching on the telephone wires. Also an added bonus of a yellowhammer.

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Bad red kite shot it turned up as i was leaving and didnt stay around for long either. The views i had of it the other day (no camera) were much better!!!


On wednesday i scrounged a lift to amwell nature reserve it was pretty quiet apart from lots of reed and sedge warblers, a few hobbies, cettis warbler.
The cettis was in a willow tree and flew out just as i focused on it.:razz:
Also saw my first ever cuckoo which flew right ove rour heads and too the furthest tree away it seemed which led to a terrible photo.

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This lapwing was dive bombing the juvenile heron who didn't know how ti react got a few shots but this was my favourite.
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Found this fella along withlots of his friends obviously feeding young i nthe neighbouring barn on the wednesday also.
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On the friday the sun was shining and i spent the morning by the pond in the garden where the newts were displaying to one another and laying eggs and there were a lot of damsels about.

1 This newt was just below the surface and as i took the photo it decided to pop out the water and blow a bubble which resulted in this.
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2 Trying damsel silhouettes but still havent got them 100%
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4 This pond skater wouldn't come close to the edge so i had to balance on the edge to get this one.
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Will update with more photos on sunday evening.
C&C welcome,
Thanks
Luke
 
Interesting stuff so far :D I really like number 10 though, it's something special! :)
 
An interesting concept.....its nice to hear a bit of a story with the shots.


I shall be following this.
 
Well weather has been shocking here every morning so havent been out for the owl or cuckoo yet. This morning woke up to a birght blue sky but was out last night and wasn't i nthe mood. Luckily clouded over within 1/2 hour so i don't feel to bad.
One gosling eye view shot for you though from a few weeks ago. The parents wer enot best pleased with me. Suppose its the old someones taking photos of my children!!! How dare they!!!

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Will try and get out soon for more shots.
 
A lovely series Luke... (y) ... some excellent shots and a great diary of your exploits too... :D ... my particular favourite so far is, like PC, number 10 (although number 9 seems to be missing... :shrug:) as it has a certain atmosphere that comes from a well composed and executed image... :clap:


Great entertainment value in these images too... ;)





:p
 
Well that was a giant flop!!! No owl and only real interesting bird was a cuckoo that flew off as i pulle dup on my bike. I jumped off followed to where it landed no where to be seen.:shrug:
Also managed to crash bike twice:LOL: with me flying over handle bars and doing a pirouette in the air to save camera and 100-400mm around my neck.:LOL:
Will upload some bonus shots in a bit.
 
Luke_Herts said:
Well that was a giant flop!!! No owl and only real interesting bird was a cuckoo that flew off as i pulle dup on my bike. I jumped off followed to where it landed no where to be seen.:shrug:
Also managed to crash bike twice:LOL: with me flying over handle bars and doing a pirouette in the air to save camera and 100-400mm around my neck.:LOL:
Will upload some bonus shots in a bit.
Click to expand...

Don't worry I went out this afternoon and got nothing, and like you nearly lost my camera due to poor bike skills :bonk:
 
You got your barn owl the other day though.:clap:
My poor bike skills were going to fast then hitting wet grass and tractor rut = :runaway: closest smiley i could get to falling.:LOL:

Right first two shots are off my phone lol. But wuite good quality considering.

Sign
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Self portrait (shadow is me)
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This lot of the 100-400mm.
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All rubbish but icant go out and not post a photo.
I am 6ft and the grass was reaching my chin. Good for hiding but not for cycling. I may head out very early tommorow morning depending on weather and me waking up. I go back to school monday though so need to fit in as much as possible.

Just a quick historical note this land is where most of saving private ryan and band of brothers was filmed. Also the old dehavilland hatfield aerodrome first jet plane etc. Search 'hatfield beales hotel' on google earth and zoom in. You wil lsee airstrip on the left. Zoom in and that is my local patch no airstrip there now really overgrown.
 
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Great narrative and some really good shots :clap: Keep it up(y)
 
Well i flopped on keeping this up to date didn' t i.
Catch up time.
So back from a month in fiji (15th july- 17th august) helping on corals for conservation project. www.coralsforconservation.com
Also it was on bbc2 on friday.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b009jsjv/Wild_The_Coral_Gardener/

Had a great time and can't wait to go back next year, will be heading to papua new guinea too i think.
First encounter with a sea snake i didnt know whether to swim away or get photos. BUT i decided to put my life on the line for you guys.
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However the experts among you can see that is no sea snake it is an imitating eel. so i was a bit disspointed but no sooner had i swam maybe 20 metres look who decided to come over.
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Loads of cool stuff on the reefs.
Lots of trying to keep steady and about a gallon of saltwater down my throat resulted in this.
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A dive down off the drop off got me this.
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Now for the land.
eating breakfast one morning i looked up to find this. Grabbed the camera and snapped this many coloured fruit dove.
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I got taken round the village i was staying in by the farm manager and we found a few birds. Here is just a few.
Vainkoro Flycatcher, these were super tame and would come in the kitchen every morning to eat up the moths on the ceiling.
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This fiji goshawk was resident in the area with his mate who i also got a few shots of. they were very approachable just like the flycatchers.
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These were everywhere on the telephone wires but i finally found a naturally placed one. The locals called them penguinbirds but they are really fiji woodswallows.
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Cane toads have managed to get to fiji. I had the pleasure of sharing more than a few showers with them at the farm as they seemed to climb up the drainpipe into the shower room.
I found this small fella in the lemon orchard.
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While looking for something to do the workers at the farm came and found me to tell me there were some birds having a wash in the stream so i ran down with my camera to find these red munias bathing.
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I had to spend a couple of days in the capital Suva and found this giant honeyeater who made the coolest noise feasting on the banana flowers nectar in the garden of the house.
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Suva is built on a rainforest and small sections remain. However although most of the foliage has gone the rain hasn't i found this out!!!
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enjoy!!
 
A great set Luke (y) looks like you had a whale of a time, let me know when you are returning I will stow away in your suitcase :D
 
Cheers was very good and i hope to go back soon!!

so on to england.
The weekend afte ri got back i thought i best get back into english animals and birds so headed down to tring reservoirs.
I was greeted with 26 black terns and 3 greenshanks.

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A special bird or 2 at the reservoirs were these two whooper swans which are feral but i still like them.

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On the way home we headed through ashridge estate to find some deer. And deer we found.

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Well continuing on i cycled over to one of my local patches that had turned up a lot of good stuff while i was away including med gull, dunlin, common sands etc.
I was searching for wheatears and couldn't find any. However i did find some whinchats, 3 in fact.

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I continued my search for wheatears yesterday after work. As i cycled away from a field i had been scanning i saw two birds which at first glimpse i thought were wagtails then realised they weren't for some reason i thought they were whinchats which i was happy with but a bit disspointed they weren't wheatears.

It wasn't until last night i started thinking they looked different to my last whinchats and then this morning someone pointed out they were wheatears!!! :)


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Comments please.:D
 
Thanks, i managed to arrange me being allowed into a local trout fishery to do photography. There are tales of corncrake, barn owl and migrating bittern all seen here.
I heard kingfisher and just did a general recce of the place.

Just a few photos of the little grebe family.
'Die fish, dieeee!!'
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Bonus dragon shot
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It would be great if people gave some more comments. :)
 
Great shots Luke, nice one on getting permission to use the fishery looking forward to more images :)
 
Great sets and stories keep it up. I like the deer shot the one in front is very dark.
 
Luke_Herts said:
by the end of the weekend i hope to update with at least one species of owl. :)
Click to expand...

Well i went out today so i could accomplish this. The 2 owl species were barn and little.

Barn owl was the main target and i though i was guaranteed a sighting as i know where it roosts now. I was wrong so no photo .... yet.
I was doing abandoned building shots and came across it on thursday with my 10-20mm and no photo :(. Before anyone says it is a nest site. It isn't i know where the nest site is and leave it well alone.

So next the little owls. i had a small chance of seeing them after a tip off by someone. i looked in the site to not find them either but when i looked in the corner of the barn there was a little owl perched at either end. One flew into a neighbouring tree also.

Here are the photos with two added cow shots.



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