Swan Activity - Rainton Meadows

An update on the Mute Swan's at Rainton Meadows nature reserve in Houghton-Le-Spring.

There were two nesting pairs this year - one on Pond One at Rainton Meadows and the other across the way at Joe's Pond. There were eighteen eggs in total but only sixteen of them hatched, as the cygnets could be seen at close quarters on the water. However, the nine cygnets from Pond One were later reduced to eight, with a bit of mystery surrounding the missing chick. Maybe a fox or some other predator was responsible, who knows.

Mind you, if it wasn't for the bag of bread I was carrying I probably wouldn't have got near both families to take my photo's. Aye, as I've said before - coaxing the birds with grub is a sure way to get them eating out of yer hand. Not literally though, as the parents are very aggressive and wouldn't think twice about giving you a dig!

The sun was setting at around 9.00pm when I took the sunset shots (shown here). A few minutes after the sun went down parts of the the sky turned red, giving the shot a bit of badly needed colour. By this time the bread was gone and so were my hopes of squeezing the last few shots from my opportunity. The swans were off.
That's all for now, Ash

Store section now open!

Hello again pop pickers!

First of all I'd like to explain why there has been a distinct lack of site updates and blog entries over the last few weeks. No, I haven't been travelling round India, sampling the hottest curries as I went. Mind you, the thought has crossed my mind on many an occasion, he he.

I recently invested in a large format Epson printer and I've been doing quite a lot of research into canvas printing. After aquiring all the necessary 'Tools' (canvas, stretcher bars, varnish, electric staple gun, etc) I quickly got to work and produced a few A2 canvases that exceeded all my expectations in the quality department. I was surprised at how quickly it took the printer to complete a job on A2 media as well, a little over five minutes! I'm running with genuine Epson K3 ink tanks that weigh in at 110ml each, so they should stretch a fair bit and they're anti-fade for something like 2,000 years, he he.

Once printed and varnished, I stretch each canvas over precision cut stretcher bars and staple it into place. The staples are then covered with special finshing tape. That's about it. The finished product is the dog's danglers, aye.

I'm looking forward to printing my first panoramic canvas job. Again it will be 17 in height and something outrageous like 7 feet in length!

Now that the background stuff is out the way I can now concentrate on updating my galleries and blog. I've got a stack full of new images to move from ye olde hard drive.

Liverpool and Chester this weekend folks. Might have a few nice photo's to share during next week, weather permitting of course. Until then, hang in there.

Ash

Church On The Hill, Washington Village

There is only one holy hill in Washington village and that is the one upon which the Holy Trinity Church stands. Also known as the 'Church On The Hill', it is situated right next to the Old Hall in Washington Village.

It was purely by chance that I got this shot as I had intended to visit the gardens of the Old Hall but it was closed on Wednesday's. A bit strange I thought, but never mind. It was a lovely day too, and at this point I thought I'd have to do a runner and return another day. I walked the short distance back to the car - yes, I'm a bit of a lazy bugger after putting in a night shift! Right next to the car were the steps to the church and I couldn't help but notice the floral display right in front of me. Time to 'Tap in' and see what I could get. I took a few low angle shots with the 'Live View' activated as I didn't fancy lying on the floor and composing through the viewfinder.

Quite pleased with the results. Infact, I think I'll send one in to Pip at Tyne Tees - she likes a flower or two.

That is all.

Ash

Sunderland Echo (x2)

Two more of my photo's were published in the Sunderland Echo newspaper earlier this week. I must have sent them in a while back because I've been busy with other things lately and I haven't sent in any recent images. Still, it was a nice surprise to see my photo of Washington Old Hall followed by the 'Swans At Sunset' a couple of nights later. Infact, the Swans were captured last summer and I'm quite sure the shot has already been published but those folk at the Echo must have thought it deserved another crack.

I've got stacks more shots to send in to the Echo, so now I've caught up with my website work I'll be submitting a batch in the next few days.

Cheers, Ash

Wildlife Photography

Following my recent blog entry 'The Nesting Season', I'm back with an update in the shape of more wildlife photography.

Recent wanderings in my locality brought me a few photo opportunities in the company of Mute Swans. I'd left the compulsory loaf of bread at home by mistake so I wasn't too hopeful of any close-up shots, especially as I didn't have my 'Lure'. Never mind, you've gotta be optimistic.

I'd stumbled across 4 Mute Swan nests when I was out with my son Christopher, and as usual, the hen was sitting. Naturally the birds become quite aggressive if you push your luck and get too close to the nest site. Over the years I've had quite a lot of experience photographing Mute Swans at the nest site so I know my limits - wouldn't fancy being pecked in the face off one o' them buggers!

It's been around three weeks now since the nest discoveries so it shouldn't be too long now before each clutch of eggs hatch. That's when the fun will begin. Obviously, as experience tells me, the best shots of cygnets are most definately during those first few days, when they look very photogenic at such a small size. I have a few photo's of day old chicks on my website but I'm hoping to get plenty more in the next week or so. Hopefully all eggs will hatch successfully and the nest robbers will be kept at bay, well, for at least another year!

As hatching draws nearer here are a few more shots that I took last weekend. They were all taken at ONE of the nest sites but I hope to visit the other three this coming weekend, so there might be more news in the pipeline by Sunday night. Looks like I'll be parting with some pennies to buy a loaf of the owld Warburton's Toastie, eh. A small price to pay if I'm gonna get some good close-up's. Anyway, hope you like the latest shots. I'm liking the reflection one quite a lot. See ya later...

Ash

Too Much Telly?

Aye, Mr Corr has been monpolizing the Tyne Tees TV weather slot lately. Well, that's according to someone who sent me the two images shown here (you know who you are!) he he.

I've been forwarding my recent photo's to Pip Thomson via email and she's included twelve of my shots up to now in 2010. The other weather girl, Alex Watson, stand's in for Pip now and again, especially on weekends.

I have changed the text in the second image. Aye, it was a bit naughty.

Click on an image to enlarge. I wonder if I get any more sent through???

Ash

The Nesting Season

It's been a while since I took any nature photo's, mainly due to the long cold winter we had recently. It was nice to get back into it this week at a local location which I will simply call 'The Pond' - for reasons I will touch on later in this post.

My son Christopher, aged 9, loves a bit of nature. Ya know, frogs, spiders, fish and the like. He was dying to get round the pond with his net and jar to catch a few tadpoles, so off we went on this calm summer's night. It was nice and peaceful and we only passed a handful of people on our journey which lasted a couple of hours.
It didn't take the little fella long to get into his stride as he brought up atleast 30 tadpoles with hid first scoop of the net, which brought a big smile from him shortly afterwards. As he sat at the waters edge I nipped into nearby reeds to photograph a coot's nest which contains both eggs and chicks. The chicks could have only been a day old and were ready to take their maiden voyage on the pond as I snapped away. I grabbed half a dozen quick shots before leaving the nest site and returning to the little fella and his jar of taddies.

We then walked around the whole site, passing many nests in the reeds as we went. It's a great place to visit and photograph but you always encounter the odd 'Bad Egg' or two on your travels.
By this I mean the regular knbob-head who has nothing better to do with his time other than rob nests and even shoot the nesting birds as they sit. It's a problem that seems to have tailed off over the years but not entirely, as a male swan was shot in the neck a couple of weeks ago and the hen then deserted the nest in search of it's mate. Quite sickening really. Only last year a Peregrine Falcon laid a clutch of eggs at Houghton Quarry but was later found dead after being poisoned by the preverbial knob-head. God knows how many years it's been since a Peregrine nested in Houghton! So, without really knowing which locals could be reading this blog entry I will avoid naming the location where I took these photographs for the safety of the birds and their eggs, especially when I came across a Mute Swan with a massive clutch of 10 eggs! More on that one later...

That's all for now,

Ash & Christopher