Loss of habitat (Part 2)

The continuing story of my project to get an image of a singing Skylark in flight with the heavy machinery that is destroying it's home in the background. (Click here for part 1)

I've been back several mornings to try for this shot with varying amounts of success but ultimately I haven't got the shot I want. The Skylarks are very tricky, you have to be in the right place at the right time as they lift into the air very quickly and are too high, for the shot I want, before you know it. I quite often catch them perching up on vegetation and singing which would be the next best thing to the shot I really want. When I do catch them in flight they are invariably in the wrong place or too high to get the background I'm after.

Perched Skylark

Above is one of the perched Skylark images which I quite like but the orange fence in the background obscures the excavator behind it so you can't really see what it is.

Skylark in flight

Above is a Skylark in flight, a few more meters to the right and slightly lower and I might have had my shot.

Meadow Pipit

I'm quite pleased with the above image. Yes it's a Meadow Pipit and it's perched but everything else is good.  There are a couple of Meadow Pipits in this area and they are regularly perching on the fence with the machinery in the background. This one is even singing and I managed to get quite close to it.

I've seen the Skylarks bringing food back in the last week so they presumably have young in the nest. Will this be the last year here?

Loss of habitat

No I'm not wild about the loss of habitat for some of our favourite species and when it's happening on my local patch it's even more frustrating.

For a few years now a housing development has been going up between Great Denham and Bedford. This has been eating into the meadows which hold breeding Skylarks, Meadow Pipits and in recent years Lapwings. These species are red and amber listed so why are we building on this area?

As the building work spreads we have lost the breeding Lapwings this year and there is less and less area for the Skylarks and Meadow Pipits, especially as this year the land owner has decided to cut some areas of the remaining meadows on a weekly basis! I think this is for the forthcoming country park which is part of this development. Great a country park you might say and I agree to some extent as at least it saves a bit of the land for wildlife. The problem is it looks like this country park will be more of a park, with sports pitches, than a country park. They've already ploughed a large area, seeded it and planted a few trees around the edge. As much as I like trees and woodland we already have large areas of Bedfordshire being turned into forest, what we don't have is lots of wild flower meadows and the associated species, so why change it? The new managed grass areas need to be cut once a week to keep the grass "nice" which must be costing quite a bit. In these times of austerity why not just leave it and cut it for hay once a year?

Anyway (steps down from his soap box) while I was walking across the meadows yesterday I thought of an idea for a photograph in which a singing Skylark would be pictured against the backdrop of the building work. I went back this morning and had my first attempt but the Skylarks weren't playing ball, then a Meadow Pipit "parachuted" in on a song flight and settled on the fence marking the boundary of the building work.

Meadow Pipit

I quite like this next one where the bird is looking out over the building site but I really needed to be closer to the bird and further from the digger.

Meadow Pipit

I tried to get a bit closer to the Pipit but it took off again on another song flight and I nearly walked off until I saw it come down further along the fence, on one of the posts so I thought I'd try again.

Meadow Pipit

Unfortunately it didn't hang about long and I lucked into this shot as it took off, it's not the greatest posture but it's close to what I was looking for, just the wrong species, not singing, too far away and too close to the background!  

Meadow Pipit

Anyway I'll be back to try again, I found a better location to shoot from, it just needs a Skylark to take off from the right spot and it'll all be good. I know, I don't want much do I?

Incidentally that digger in the background is currently stripping the area where the Lapwings nested last year, it almost makes you weep.

The last from the badger sett

Sadly this will be the last from the badger sett for a while. I found the following clip on the camera from last week and consider myself very lucky that I had a camera to collect today:


It's a real shame as I had the most badgers in one clip that I have had at the sett, 4, in a nice clip where they were all grooming. They couldn't have lined up better if I had asked them! There was also some more close personal attention for the camera this week, but by the badgers this time:


A Muntjac also decided that the camera needed a clean up:



I returned to the sett today to collect the camera before the group of morons paid a return visit so here are a couple more badger clips and a male Muntjac with a missing antler from last night to finish off with:



Pretty gutted that I have had to remove the camera from the sett, I considered getting a big chain and padlock but suspect cretins like those would probably just smash it if they couldn't have it. I'll have a word with some of the people I know to see if I can find another sett that is a bit less accessible to the public.

Back to the Badger Sett

Last week I finally got around to putting the trail camera back up at the Badger sett and this morning I collected the card and checked out the results. On my first visit a noticed a lot of new earth works around the sett including a new hole out along one of the well used trails. One of the original holes appeared to have collapsed but there was obvious signs of activity around the main holes where I have had the camera before. This time I chose a new part of the sett where there was some fresh sign of digging. The Badger here seems to have taken a shine to the camera!





You will have noticed that I finished off with a short clip of a Fox which stopped briefly as it passed through.

Not sure if this is the best place for the camera, the vegetation cuts down the view a bit, but I'll give it another week and see how it goes. Might try that new hole along the trail next week to see what is happening there.

Crazy flights and Alaskan lights

I got back from Alaska on Sunday morning having been away for 10 days in search of the Aurora Borealis or Northern Lights. I travelled with Astronomy Tours to Chena Hot Springs, a trip I had previously done in 1999, the previous Solar maximum. The tour was led by Dr. John Mason who gave presentations about the Aurora Borealis on 3 evenings at Chena Hot Springs. This is the 4th tour I have been on with John and he never fails to impress with his knowledge and enthusiasm. The tour group was quite small, just 17 including the local representative, Joseph, who was also a great asset to the tour.

First stop was Anchorage after 20+ hours of travelling including stops at Houston and Seattle. Houston! This was the one negative point of the tour, why Houston? Nobody could answer that one. In 1999 we stopped in Minneapolis, which seemed a more sensible option. Anyway we reached Anchorage just after midnight local time and went straight to bed. In Anchorage the temperature was surprisingly warm, on or just above freezing, and I was surprised at the lack of laying snow compared to 1999.

After a day in Anchorage we travelled to Fairbanks by train, more about that in another post, and then on to Chena Hot Springs the following day. We settled in for 4 nights of Aurora watching and the weather played ball by clearing, and remaining clear for the reminder of the trip. Of course the clear conditions also led to a drop in temperature which ranged from -8C during the day to -22C at night. Fortunately conditions were still until the last night when a gusty wind provided a wicked wind chill!

Aiming to photograph the Aurora I took my Canon 50D DSLR and EF-S 17-85mm lens with my old 20D body as a back up. Sadly I ran into technical issues the first three nights which limited my photography. I can only think these problems were caused by the cold because the 50D was fine during the day but locked up the first 3 nights with an Err50 on the second night. My backup body also locked up, lasting even less time than the 50D. I tried various things including removing the external battery pack and the external shutter release but always ended up having a problem. On the last night I wrapped the body in a fleece and it was working right up to the point where a big gust of wind blew my tripod over! The camera and lens survived and were still working but I gave up as the Aurora was very weak up to that point and the wind chill was beginning to work its way through my multiple layers of clothing. Unfortunately this proved to be a mistake as about 3/4hr later the best display of the trip sprung into life and I missed it!

Back to the first night, which was fairly quiet with a green auroral glow above the hillside, developing some rays later with a little movement in a faint curtain.

Orion over Chena Hot Springs

The green auroral glow shows above the hill.

Night 2 and I managed to get some reasonable images despite a fairly quiet Aurora with the oval again positioned some way north of us. We had set up on the runway with hills to both sides so we could see the glow which developed into some nice rays and a colourful curtain.

  
I combined the few frames I got, before the camera gave up, into the following timelapse, short and sweet:


The following night I went up the hill on the south side of the runway and found a position with good views to the north. The extra elevation allowed me to view the arc stretching from east to west. This remained mostly green with quite a lot of movement and rays. Again my camera gave up just before the display really got going but I managed enough frames for the following time lapse:


I also managed a few stills after this, having reset my camera and changed the battery:

Having moved down to the runway I managed to grab a few more frames before the camera died again, this being the best of those:

The final night I was back down on the runway as the wind was bitter and I felt it would be worse up on the hill. As I mentioned the display was very quiet early on and around 01:15 I gave up and went to bed, as did several others of the group. A little later the display really got going with the oval having expanded to be directly over head and those hardy souls who remained outside were treated to a very good display, including an auroral corona, for about 20-30 minutes. Had I gone back out I would probably have missed most of the action by the time I had got all of my layers back on. Its not a place to nip outside in inadequate clothing!

The following day we headed back to Fairbanks where we visited the ice carving championships which was amazing. On our final day in Alaska we watched the latest leg of the GCI Open North American Sled Dog championships. Conveniently this started in the road at the back of our hotel! More to come from those two events in a later blog entry.

That evening we began the long journey home, reaching Heathrow early Sunday morning after 4 flights!

Overall the trip was really good with a great bunch of like minded people. The Aurora was a little disappointing when compared to 1999 but we were lucky to be there during a CME impact for that visit so the displays were incredible. Despite the unfavourable conditions this time we still had good displays each night, improving night on night so no complaints. The train journey was new compared to our previous trip and the scenery was superb despite the unfavourable weather. The ice carving championship was also spectacular and the dog sledding championships was a bonus at the end of the trip.

I doubt we will go back to Chena Hot Springs, it has expanded beyond all recognition since '99 and the extra activity makes it less than favourable for aurora photography. The best location is up the hill on the south side of the runway which gives good views to the north. The runway is a popular location at night but vehicle activity makes for frustration when trying long exposure photography.

I was frustrated by technical issues during my attempts to photograph the Aurora which I can only assume were caused by the extreme temperatures. Err50 indicates an electronics problem but that only showed itself on the second night. I stopped using the external battery pack after that but still had the lock up issues. The lock up issues may have been due to the batteries in the cold conditions but changing batteries only resulted in a few more frames before the camera locked up again. Both bodies were failing in similar ways with the 20D lasting even less time than the 50D. I also stopped using the remote shutter release for a while as that was a non Canon item so i thought it might be an issue. The only other linking factor was the lens which may have been a problem as it is at the low end of the Canon range.

Hopefully by the next trip to somewhere with these extreme cold temperatures I will have invested in a better wide angle lens. That said many people were using low end bodies and lenses and had no problems which was rather frustrating for me!      

News from the sett

This last couple of weeks at the Badger sett has seen quite a lot of interest in the camera. The best 2 clips follow:

Recent weeks has seen a lot of charging about by the Badgers. There seems to be a bit of a territorial dispute going on. This last week it turned into a war:

The rats were also present on and off and a Fox, see clip below, made regular visits over the 2 weeks.

Strange Bedfellows

Some more footage from the Badger sett last week and after the first Brown Rat the previous week there were plenty of clips last week with several even going down into the sett. Looks like they may be living side by side with the Badgers!

I moved the camera last week to get a much lower perspective and it worked out really well with one of the Badgers showing some interest in the camera and giving us all a good view while doing so.

There was also another first for the camera when a Bat flew past. Not sure about the species.

And finally those Brown Rats, one coming close to the camera and then a brief shot as one disappears down into the sett.

Grey Squirrel, Rabbit and Fox were also caught on camera last week.

Latest from the Badger Sett

It's been a while since I had the camera up at the Badger sett so last week I went over and positioned the camera to look down one of the holes. Happy to say there was a lot of activity.
The first section of the video shows a couple of the Badgers meeting up and scent marking each other. There are some weird vocalisations from one or both of them as well.
The next section shows what looks like an intruder being seen off. There was lots of this sort of thing going on, not sure if there is one or more new kids on the block so will have to keep an eye on things to see if I can work it out.
This hole looks quite small compared to some around the sett so I was interested to see how easily a Badger fit down there, as the clip shows, it looks a bit of a squeeze.
Having said that the final part shows a Badger taking new bedding down the hole backwards with no problem at all.

Other animals that visited the sett this week were 2 Muntjac deer (female and male), a Brown Hare and a Brown Rat:

Starling Roost - Willington GP

Paid another visit to the Starling roost at Willington Gravel Pits yesterday and the numbers were better with the full flock remaining in the air together until they all finally dropped into the reeds together. There was also the bonus of a couple of Sparrowhawks hunting the flock which created some brilliant movement and shapes. The only let down was the cloudy sky which didn't relent until the end of the show.

The numbers were good, reaching c5000, which meant I had to switch to the wide angle set up to get them all in the frame.

Sparrowhawk below the flock

Sparrowhawk below the flock

The cloud relents a little allowing a little colour into the sky

Aigas Autumn 2012

Aigas Autumn 2012, a set on Flickr.

Here are the photo's from my recent trip to the Aigas Field Centre in Scotland. I attended the Nature Photography Masterclass with Laurie Campbell. Thanks to all the staff at Aigas and especially Laurie for his patience throughout the week.If you want to improve your nature photography skills then I heartily recommend you look at the new dates for 2013.

It's great to be fully focussed on photography for the week and I picked up lots of tips on areas such as macro and flash which I haven't done a lot of in the past.

Check out this link for details http://www.aigas.co.uk/programmes_by_date.asp