BBC Glos Radio Feature

If anyone is interested, I will be talking on BBC Radio Gloucestershire on Wednesday 3rd Feb from 8am.
It was recorded a few days ago and is dedicated to the wild boar in the Forest of Dean. The show will be available throughout the day by clicking the listen again link.

Click Here: BBC Radio Glos


Thanks

Rob

Snow Birds - 20th December 2009

Woke up to snow this morning, but I knew it would not be around for long so I took a trip up to my favourite spot for photographing birds, near Speech House.

Birds find it harder to locate their natural food when the weather is severe, so by taking some seeds and nuts out with you, you are effectively helping them through the hard times, as well as enticing them closer so you can have a better view!

When you leave, you leave with a feeling that you have helped something to survive the hard times and if you have never felt this, "then I advise you to give it a go" because it is one of the best feelings you can have.

Great Tit

Dunnock

Robin

Great Spotted Woodpecker

Robin

Thrush

If you like birds, click and watch the video below of them feeding in

slow-motion!

Rob

Birds of Prey

Here are a few pics of some Birds of Prey. Three are native and two are non-native to Britain! Do you know which is which?
Pics were taken at the International Centre for Birds of Prey at Newent, Gloucestershire.


White Tailed Sea Eagle.

Great Grey Owl.

Goshawk.

Verraux Eagle.

Red Kite.

Rob

BBC Glos Wildlife Feature

Click the link below, it will take you to a new deer feature, which I have written for the BBC Gloucestershire website.
Knocked Autumnwatch off the top spot, lol.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/local/gloucestershire/hi/people_and_places/nature/default.stm

BBC Made in England - Art from the Heart

As many of you reading this are probably aware, there is a literature festival being held over the next week at Cheltenham Town Hall.

The project I was involved in was organised and led by BBC Gloucestershire and the Arts Council England for Made in England.

I was one of 20 individuals selected from Gloucestershire to work with Marcus Moore and Ben Cavvana on a project called Art from the Heart, which saw each person select a place within the county that means a lot to them, photograph it from a unique perspective and write a poem about it.


I chose Woorgreen Lake in the Forest of Dean as this place means everything to me. As a boy I grew up around the forest and spent many weekends playing around this lake. As I grew older, my passion for wildlife and nature took over and Woorgreen Lake became my focal point for the forest.
There is another reason why this place means a lot to me. My parents introduced me to nature and wildlife at a very young age and if it were not for them, I may not be leading the life I am today. I have a great deal to thank them for and I will be forever grateful.

I will post links to the project and my photograph below, but here is my poem. It is supposed to symbolize how I can walk into our forest, stressed, angry and tired, but within a few moments I relax and become at one with nature and all my worries and stresses leave me.
I will always live in the Forest of Dean, I couldn't imagine my life without it and I want to thank Marcus and Ben for helping me share my passion.


Woorgreen Lake (Lost in Tranquillity)

As I Sit and watch with eyes glaring
Tensed and gnarled like an oak
The Buzzard soaring high “daring”
Looking through the water, I feel broke

I close my eyes and listen quietly
There are many places I have been
A passer by whispers politely
Asking what I have seen?

The walkers, the joggers, some think it’s a race
The beauty, it makes my heart ache
I could talk for hours about this place
From the snakes and the boar, to the deer and the drake


My inspiration and my rock (Woorgreen Lake)

In Pictures

http://news.bbc.co.uk/local/gloucestershire/hi/people_and_places/arts_and_culture/newsid_8294000/8294874.stm

Made in England - Art from the Heart
http://news.bbc.co.uk/local/gloucestershire/hi/people_and_places/arts_and_culture/newsid_8295000/8295212.stm

New Deer Pics & Video from the Forest of Dean

Well, the fallow deer rut is around the corner and the doe's are already grouping. Counted 19 in two groups on Monday 21st September.
I managed to get some pics of the one group. Here they are...

Click on the images for larger size.


This image has been cropped to highlight the tick on top of her left ear!


Two young doe's having a bit of fun. The dark one is melanistic.

Spotted me! Oh well never mind!

OK, this is not a deer, nor is it in the Forest of Dean! It's a grey heron I photographed on the river Avon earlier this month.

This is a rare treat! A pure white fallow buck, not a true albinistic fallow buck, but impressive none the less. I filmed him on Tuesday 22nd September.

I was quite a way off and I didn't want to scare him away by trying to get closer. 50x optical zoom pulled him in though.

The Forest of Dean and its Wildlife in Pictures

This pic vid has sound not music, check it out! Hope you like?

Please comment.

Selective Colour with a Twist!

If you are looking for something different, something to wake you up in the morning, you have found it!

Selective colour with a few surprises along the way.

Enjoy and don't forget to turn the VOLUME UP!

Thanks

Rob

Wild Boar Response Printed

Well the Review printed my response to the wild boar article from paper WE: 26th June 2009.
Hope you all agree with me, that our wildlife needs to be protected not destroyed?
By using a child as an example and by saying that the boar could have broken his legs, all this gentleman did was to incite more hatred towards the boar, as both comments were assumptions and the word assumption should not exist as it is relating to details, which are NOT fact!
The wild boar are always going to be controversial, but we can share our forests with them, without incident if we all remember they are wild animals and treat them with respect.
If a fallow buck in full antler or an adder was spotted by a member of the public, they would stop and stare and remember their memorable moment for years to come.
The fallow buck and the adder have more potential to kill a human than the wild boar, it's just that people are used to them and they are not often seen.
Over time and if managed correctly, this will happen to the boar, it just needs time.

I wonder how many dogs chase the deer around the forest, with the owners looking on and not giving a thought for the deer?

Rob

It's all in Your Imagination

Turn the volume up and enjoy!

The Listening Hare

This was taken on Sunday 15.03.09 near Corse. Sorry for the shaky footage, but it was hand held out the car window at 50x optical zoom. As you can see his (or her) ears picked up when we started talking about photographing it. Approx 10 seconds after this was taken it legged it at a very high speed through a nearby hedge.