Sunday 4 December 2016

Waning...

And so we come to the last blog of 2016 - (although the review of December will be in January...); it has been an interesting year with some eventful happenings (falling in a river for a start) and one that has seen subtle changes in my photography - mostly technical. I have remained true to my goal of recording Britain's wildlife, especially concentrating on the common place - trying to draw people's attention to the things they can easily see, everyday. In addition I have also been inspired to document the changing seasons in Fenland - that area of low lying land south and west of the Wash here in the UK. Now, most of it is arable farmland; intensively managed and flat. Historically it was wetland - a myriad of pools, reed and sedge beds and scattered pockets of willow and alder carr woodland.  I am fortunate to live less than a mile from some old Fenland habitats so this will continue to be my main subject - the landscape and it's wildlife...

Weather plays a big part in a natural history photographer's day to day existence - I reserve the right to complain about the weather whenever I feel it necessary. With this in mind we had a poor month weather-wise here with many days of dank, dreary skies and poor light. The end of the month did however give us a run of glory with hoar frosts and beautiful blue skies... The near-by washland flooded for the first time in mid November, which lead to an influx of migratory swans and wildfowl. It is a delight to drive past this every morning on the school run...

As always I have been updating Facebook - my page here... ; Flickr - link here... and should you wish, you can buy my images from Picfair or from Dreamstime.

Like I said, the weather hasn't been special for most of the month... but here are a few images for you to start with...













As you can see the light isn't too good, but hey, that's the way it looked! Moody...




Even in frost ragwort continues to flower...










One sharp frost gave me the light in the early morning to capture some late season images from the garden...


The frosty day also gave me an opportunity for some brightly lit landscapes around the village - just tucked away from the main drag we have some rising ground with mature trees...











A local church created this amazing display for Armistice Day...



Now you will see this landscape throughout the year; just round the corner from my house is this delightful tree sitting perfectly in the landscape. I am looking to record this view during the year to see how the seasons affect the view...so this I suppose is a classic autumnal view with the leaves turning against an unsettled sky... (look out for it later)...




The "Super moon" gave me this early morning shot in mid month, and below is the first decent sunrise of the autumn...




However, the few days of frost at the end of the month was the real gem... some great light over the flooded Fenland...





Lone Turkey oak in arable farmland...



Grey heron, feeding on a flooded track - incidentally this is my favourite walk...now the haunt of water birds...





Puddle-ice...




Common reed in winter light




Back-lit teasel...




Flooded fence-line...




Sunset



Mature willow...





Could be the Taiga...




I am always drawn to lone trees...

A few bird images from late in the month...a subject I don't shoot that often, but one I hope to capture more of during this coming winter. The creation of a feeding station and hide in my garden will hopefully help here!



Peregrine falcon...




Kestrel





Robin




Blackbird eating a hawthorn berry




Pheasant in frost



Great crested grebe in winter plumage.

My final image of this blog is a landscape... remember the one from earlier with the large tree? Well here it is again, in a frost...





And that about wraps it up for November... hope you like the blog.

Have a great Christmas and a happy holiday to you all out there; let's try and make 2017 a better year for everyone...

Love and peace...

TTFN