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David's Blog
It's been such a long time since my last blog (over a year ago). Incredibly lazy of me!! After my trip to Slovakia, Feb 2014 I have visited Isle of Mull a couple of times and got some White tailed Eagle and Otter pictures.
I was so lucky to be invited out to Hungary to do some photography there for a week (Oct 2014) it was truly amazing and I got my first kingfisher picture! So this year? (2015) Haven't really done anything, I'm having a little baby girl later this year so I haven't done much travelling/photography. What is new is that I am available to do dogs in action photo's for their owners. Please look on the canine in action page for further details. I am also in progress of updating and recreating my website so please bare with me for about another 3 weeks. Until next time (not over a year I promise!)
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So todays the last day with the expedition. Went out with Astrid's group. Overall we didnt find much, some old lynx prints, found some bear prints on a hunters storage box and some fresh wolf scat. Also found a weather balloon that we took back to be returned. On arriving back Milosh group seen and photographed a bear which was cool.
Tomorrow morning we take the 3 and half hour train journey back to Bratislava where some of us will explore the city more and have our last meal together. Went with Peter's group which was going up a mountain that isnt surveyed often and in bear territory. After 1st kilometre we found what we believe to be wild cat prints and scat (to be confirmed) After an hour we came across bear tracks and found a bear skull. Cos this skull was on the track we decided to investigate the area thoroughly of which we found a much larger and more complete bear skull of which I wanted to have a further look round and found a vertebrae. As this was partly in the soil we decided to dig around this area and found it's tail bone, hips, some bones from the neck and found many ribs, all to the bear skull we found. After spending about 45mins digging around we had filled a big bag with bones and couldn't locate anymore so we moved on. Moving up hill we found a wolf track that soon ended. We carried on upwards of which this mountain was very steep and hard to ascend. We had fantastic views over the mountain range. We soon came across another bear track of which we followed. After a very steep ascent we made it to the ridge of the mountain near known bear dens. We cracked on walking up to the summit and found an old bear track. We made it to the summit but unfortunately it was cloudy so we had no views. We decended down from the summit. Of which was very steep and slippery and we had underestimated and had a couple of falls. We followed a road and found bear scratches on a tree, quite fresh and while here we heard a big crack of a tree above us out of sight and we packed up and moved very fast making a lot of noise as it could be a bear. as we quickly moved down the road we found a wolf track and more fresh bear scratchings on several trees but we didnt stoo as we heard more movement in the trees above us. When we did the debrief we unveiled our bear bones and oearnt tat these would be used for educational purposes at the forestry commission. Had my first tetratea which was an experience lol. Anyway off to bed as im really tired.
each morning starts at 5:30am English time. I went with milosh group. We headed into wolf territory. Quickly found wolf pack track near a feeding station. In Slovakia they set up feeding stations and then hunting cabins nearby to shoot the deer/wolf and bear. We recorded this data then moved on. We came into a clearing and watched a golden eagle sitting on a rock then fly up into a tree sunbathing. We then found another wolf pack track which we followed for kilometres. We ended up trekking through the woods were the pack split up as they do to hunt but unfortunately the tracks were all over the place and we couldn't follow anymore. At this point I hit my knee into a tree and injured myself. We left the woods to have lunch in the sun.
After lunch we moved on down the logging road, found more wolf tracks and Milosh had an ipod with speakers and played wolf howling but we didn't here anything back. Then headed back to the car. At the debriefing we found out another group had found a bear skull and the two skulls found yesterday were confirmed but the forestry director as young bear skulls. So today I went out with Tomas, we first visited Milos's cabin where he and Tomas embarked on a fascinating two year journey of raising two lynx kittens to then release into the wild. Watching this documentary on Sunday was amazing. After visiting the cabin we then went out to the research area and started our trek. We came across two old lynx tracks in the snow. We then hiked up Dvorisko which is 1600m high. We had a fantastic 360 view over most of the mountain range. Up near us is a wolf's den. On the peak we saw a golden eagle flying. We started descending for lunch and came across an old bear print. The rest of the journey we didn't come across any more tracks we did see some pigs near the end haha. We walked 16km and needed a Slovakian hit chocolate. Returned to base and inputted the data and uploaded photo's. other teams found 2 lynx skulls, 1 group found a bear den.
Up at 7:30am have breakfast and then sort out gear and then run through what we learnt yesterday. After the morning session we left for the valley to trek through. We came across 3 lynx tracks, a wolf pack track and a bear track. We also found two old wolf scats and took samples of a fresh bear scat. We also watched a pair of golden eagles. Great first day out in the field. Got back to the chalet and debriefed. downloaded the GPS info and put the data from the sheets onto computer and uploaded our photos. Can't wait for tomorrow!
Another early start which somes up this week. Left the hotel and went to the station for the 3hour journey to svosov. Arrived and meet the expedition leaders and they drove us to the chalet. At the chalet will sorted our gear out and met all the other people then the rest of the day was spent learning about wolf's, lynx, Wildcats and bears. Lead scientist is Tomas who works for Nat geo Czech republic and we watched one of his documentaries on Slovakia. Had my first Slovakian tea and it is nothing like English tea but it tastes so great! Had a Slovakian bean soup which was lovely. Tomorrow we run through what we learnt and then go out into the national park (veltra fatra) as a big group.
Up from 1am Saturday. Left home at 2:30am to drive down to Birmingham international. After checking in had breakfast with Sal before going to security. Checked in security and got pulled to one side as I forgot I had more than 100ml in contact solution. had to run down to boots to get a 100ml container and decant my solution, nearly missed the last check in at the gate! doh. My first ever flight went really well and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Landed at Bratislava airport and it was minus 3. Met up with Katie from Dundee. We then headed into the capital. Checked In at the hotels to dump our bags and then went to explore the city. Explored a large area and got a few pictures. Went into the Bratislava castle which was a good laugh then went back down into the city. Met up with Sonny, Jean and Angie and went for dinner at a restaurant. Food was brilliant. Back to Hotel for sleep.
Well, last time I posted anything up was after my 2 week trip on mull. I have been very busy with work and are amazingly hot weather has been making me very tired so I've been sleeping any free time I have.
However I have managed to muster sometime out in derbyshire with my camera altho I haven't really photographed anything. The good news is my kestrels I keep track off have successfully had a chick altho im not sure how many. I have been seeing the female hunting alongside her male. I should be able to get some good close ups of her come end of august. I have also been checking in on the deer at big moor and they are raising there young, the male deer are growing there antlers back ready for the rut.I am off to mull again this friday, I've been playing with camera settings and understanding my camera better ready for mull. I will be doing the boat trip again as it's fantastic and at this time of year I have a chance to see the bottled nosed dolphins. Monday 13/05/13
Drove upto Oban to get the ferry across to Mull. Weather was mixed on the way up there with sunshine and showers and when I got the highlands it was snowing. Ferry to Mull I had decent sunny but cold windy weather. You could clearly see Ben More with snow lying. Got off the ferry and drove round to Grassy point. Passed some deer on the way to the parking area however this was full so I think of elsewhere to go. I went to Carsaig Bay as I haven't been yet. The drive to the bay is interesting to say the least! Long narrow winding steep roads, you cant be scared of driving. Down the road I saw a buzzard and a waterfall in the distance and flying over the waterfall a white tailed eagle, I was at this point very excited as I had only been on the island for less than an hour and thought this week is going to be a good week! Watched the 2 birds of prey gliding around for a bit before carrying on with my drive. Walked the coastal path of Carsaig and got photo's of ferrel goats, some of waves and found a waterfall that you could even go behind! Weather again changeable it was hot and sunny then sunny but windy then clouded over later in the afternoon. Went to Loch Scridian to otter watch but didn't see any. Tuesday 14/05/13 My boat trip was cancelled due to poor weather. When I got up it was tipping it down, I had camped by Loch na Keal, I drove round to Loch Don at 5.30am, nearly ran a deer over as it was in the middle of the road, it walked off left so I carried on driving then it decided to bolt across the road in front me. Didn't see anything apart from gulls at Loch Don so drove round to Loch na Keal to spot the white tailed eagles. The tide was out and the weather was now very sunny with a strong wind. Went and sat on the shingles out in the loch. There was lots of twitchers at the parking area on the north shore, this is because you can get a view of the eagles coming out of the tree's. I chose somewhere different to watch the eagles because last time I came I made notes on how and where and why they move so I sat out in the shingles like billy no mates however it paid off, I had a male white eagle pass me close and he came and flew over me several times and the 5th time he flew over me and the female did aswell!! It was truly amazing and some photo's I took you could see the tags on the female. Bet the bird twicther's were jealous. Had an afternoon siesta however I slept too long, Doh! Drove round to Calgary beach to camp. Had buzzards and a white tailed eagle fly over in the evening. Stayed up late to watch the sunset as it was beautiful. Wednesday 15/05/13 Drove to Dervaig as I had a wildlife bus trip. The weather was truly a mixed bag, cold, cloudy then sunny and hot and had showers. Started at 9.30am and we drove around the island for the day going to wildlife hotspots, we talked about how the late spring is affecting migrating birds and how it has affected the breeding season. Saw my 1st golden eagle and in fact there was 2 together so I was really pleased with that. Saw dippers, deer, lapwings, wimberel, ringed plover, white tailed eagles and even saw an otter hunting and eating a fish on a distant island on one of the lochs! Really good day. Thursday 16/05/13 Todays the day! boat trip still on. Weather was abit dull which was a shame but can't have everything. We sailed out onto the loch which was 45 minutes. Then in the distance saw a white tailed eagle fly towards us. It fly around above us before swooping done and grabbing the fish out the water. This boat charter is the only one licensed to do this. I learnt very quickly this was going to be difficult to photography, changing light and the speed of the eagle is difficult then you have to compete with the boat bobing around in the loch! The eagle came in 5 times all together. It was amazing to watch it grab this fish a mere 7ft or so from you! I decided to get a few photo's of it in the sky then moved to trying to get photo's of it grabbing the fish. got some beautiful crisp sharp shots of its talons or half its wing missing in the frame!! But I did manage to get some shots. It was truly amazing and something everyone should experience! Especially as you couldn't get shots like this in the wild! or so I thought....... We also great northern divers, common seals, a pair of white tailed eagles sitting on some rocks, common scooter (altho on Mull there not common) black guillimot and 2 hunting otters. What a day! To end the day I decided to go and find some barn owls but had no luck. Friday 17/05/13 Todays my birthday and I thought that it would be great to celebrate by hiking Ben More. The weather was fantastic! Clear sunny skies, very hot. Hiking up saw a golden eagle several times, after this I was boiled so had a quick skinny dip in one of the pools made by the river and waterfall and guess what? It was quick cos boy was it freezing cold haha. The water was so cyrstal clear tho. The last quarter of the hike was really tough going as it was incredibly steep and made of loose scree. Made it to the summit, took me about 3 to 3 and half hours but I took my time. The views were fantastic, could even see the highlands back on the mainland and they were still snow covered! Had lunch at the summit and the wind picked up and it was chilly! Looked at my route down and decided to return back the way I came as the other route looked challenging and extremely steep, don't mind steep going up but not down especially on my own, this gives me another challenge when I come back. In the evening I camped at Loch na Keal had a couple of beers and just watched the sunset as it was another beautiful evening. Evening had the male white tailed eagle fly over me again :) Saturday 18/05/13 So I decided to take the short boat trip to Ulva to arrive at the pier to find they dont cross on saturdays, a little dissappointed I thought at least I have something else to do when I come back later in the year. With my plans ruined I decided to head to Loch Schridian and try and spot otters. The weather wasn't great, overcast with a strong cold wind. The wind really picked up by midday. I stayed till 3pm and saw nothing except a buzzard, 2 hooded crows and a greast northern diver. Feeling deflated I went to loch na keal and setup camp. Very disappointing day. Sunday 19/05/13 Had a lay in this morning, still deflated after the lack of anything from yesterday. Broke camp and went around to the mouth of loch na keal. Parked up and sat in my car for a few minutes. I watched herring with a bill full of seaweed, after a couple more minutes it looked at me, dropped it's seaweed and flew over. I was abit baffled by this as I had never seen this behaviour before, got the binoculars out and could see a fish in the seaweed, I was even more confused! All the gulls went mad and flew up in the air and all of a sudden a male white tailed eagle landed onm the shingles on top of this fish! Ahh thats why the herrin went haha. Couldn't believe my luck. The other day I thought there's almost no chance of being close to an eagle hunting yet 20 metres or less in front of me is an eagle! I realised it won't be on the ground long as the gulls started to mob it. I grabbed my camera, it wasn't even setup! I had to set it up so quick I forgot to zoom in on the eagle! Took some shots, moved out of my car and moved slightly closer, realised my camera isn't zoomed in so I did that and took some more shots! After which the eagle took off with fish in talons. Truly amazing and something I will never forget. 30 Minutes later Spotted an otter swimming around just off shore, but I was far away sat amongst oystercatchers, for people that don't know oystercatchers are extremely noisey and will make a big fuss when something moves and with an otter nearby you dont want to disturb the oystercatchers as they would alert the otter! The otter started swimming upstream so I decided to make my move and slowly and quitely get closer, I managed to get a couple of shot before it dissappeared. What a morning! I stayed on the loch for the full day and got a view of the eagle landing on the rocks across the loch from me in the evening. A truly amazing day and my morale back at 100% Monday 20/05/13 Broke camp and packed everything as today is the day I go back to the mainland and head to the Cairngorms. I had accidentally left my camera on overnight and had depleted my first battery! gutted but I had brought an incar charger. After packing up I went on otter watch as it was 5am! I did get to spot the otter again but it swam off shore left to right and dissappeared. After that the male eagle came down in the nearby field and grabbed a rabbit! Not a bad morning even if it was 5am. At about 12.30pm I had lunch at Ben etive decided not to do my 2 day hike as I was too short on time, something I was glad to leave for my next Highland trip when the deer rut is underway. Arrived in the Cairngorms at about 3.30pm and went to find a campsite, thought I would treat myself. I then went to see some Osprey but they weren't upto much at all that evening so went to camp for an early night. Tuesday 21/05/13 Walked along the river Spey and saw 4 ospreys hunting at the fishery nearby. When the fishery opened I booke myself into the hide for the following morning. I went to where I now Ospreys are about and stayed there the whole day, weather wasn't good and it was much colder than Mull, Osprey's didn't have any fish for the whole day which was bizzarre. I left a little frustrated as not much had happened and my local knowledge was all but non existent. Earlier today I had learnt that from time to time an otter has been spotted on a certain part of the spey albeit in the morning, as the morning had already gone I decided to go in the evening anyway. So I stayed at the riverside all evening, didn't see an otter but I did get my first picture of a water vole which I was over the moon about! So I left a happy camper and classed the day a success, joys of wildlife photography, you could spend 18hours of the day watching and waiting and see nothing and then 2 minutes at the end of the day could change how you feel about the whole day! Wednesday 22/05/13 So the big day has arrived, I shall finally attempt to photograph Osprey catch fish or so I thought...... Arrived at the hide for 4.30am, I was in a group of 6, 3 in each hide. We went in the hide and setup, 4.40am An osprey hits the water, never seen an Osprey hunt before so this was the first for me. There not like white tailed eagles, eagles come down and swoop along the water just putting there talons in to grab, the osprey doesnt do this!! It did a full bomb dive into the water and it sounded like a bomb going off!!! Water went everywhere, we all nearly had a heart attack as this was completley unexpected and no one had seen the osprey come in. It was all over in a mere 2-3 seconds, the Osprey was fully in the water and had succesfully caught a fish and flew over. One person got 3 shots off but non of which was good. We waited a couple of hours and had a couple more osprey fly above but not one of them came down to attempt to hunt and that was how it was till 10.30am. By this time I the group had already gone at 9.30am I stayed a little longer with no sighting of an osprey. So I went back to camp packed up and started my long drive home, extremly happy with the past 10/11days!! Remember I said I decided not to do the 2 day hike in the highlands?? Well if I had I would of been caught out in the snow the following day, hows that for luck? I had a fantastic time and will be going again in the 1st week of august, im just unsure for how long, who knows what I will photography |
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July 2015
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