River Allen

Hello Everyone,

I know its been ages but here is a little update on one of the projects I have been working on. The river Allen is a stunning chalk stream very close to my home in Dorset. I had never really looked in depth at the wildlife there before, but I wanted to start, and I wanted to get to know this amazing waterway in more detail.

I started by putting a stick across the river and waiting. 

It wasn't long before one of my best friends, mr Kingfisher turned up! I went to the hide every morning and slowly started getting to know the birds a bit better. There were two chicks in the area, however it wasn't long before they were kicked out by the parents. They must have only just fledged the nest when I started at the site, so I only saw them for about 5 days before they were gone. 

The next thing I started working on was the underwater life of the River Allen. The river is full of fish, and heaps of other life. I started by placing a GoPro camera onto a rock and just placing it in the river and hoping for the best. Despite the fact its a very hit and miss process some of the results have been quite interesting. 

Lady of the river - Grayling 

Pike 

I have got better at learning the preferred habitats of the different species and I know where best to place the camera now to get better results. 

Pike 

One evening I was filming in the river and something caught my eye flying over the far bank, a Barn Owl!!! I got my stuff and got out of the river and up on to the bridge and watched the owl hunting the meadow on the far side of the bank. Over the next few evenings I spent time waiting and filming the Owl when it made its brief appearances. On one particular evening the conditions where perfect and I was very happy with the results. The image below is only a screen shot from video so not a high res file. 

Barn Owl

I have also filmed Eels is the river Allen. Eels fascinate me as their life history is remarkable. They are born in the Sargasso sea in the Bahamas, then travel across to the UK as tiny 'glass eels'. Once they reach our shores they then travel up our fresh water systems, where they can live in our rivers for up to 20 years! Once they are ready to breed, they TRAVEL BACK TO THE SARGASSO SEA to breed. Its a crazy journey for such a small animal. I felt very privileged to have one in front of my camera.

I have recently uploaded a short film featuring a lot of filming from this project. If you want to have a look, please follow the link bellow. 

"   http://vimeo.com/71697900   "

I hope you like the video and images within this post. I will be updating the blog more now as I am working on a number of projects. The main one being camera trap photography. As soon as I start getting results I will let you know!

Sam 

Short Eared Owls

I have been working on some different stuff this week/ weekend so I will be catching up this week.

The first one is a short eared owl site I have been researching on the internet for ages and finally managed to get to it at the end of last week. It was cool to finally see it after months of google maps. 

However it is very late in the season for short eared owls, and so they were very close to migrating back to there home land......

I managed to get to the site for a few evenings and each I was able to see them but got some distant shots. Next year I am going to try to keep off the shutter until the last minuet, because they tend to keep there distance after they heard the camera. 

Stay tuned for next year. 

Tutorial and Another Otter

Hi Guys,

I spent last night working on a tutorial for RAW, I decided I am doing a series of tutorials on the things I wish I new when I started wildlife photography. I might not be able to do them yet, haha, but I like to think I know about them.

Here is the first one, http://raw.tristanjud.com/2012/02/wildlife-photography-how-to/

What do you think of it? Im completely new to writing so I need time to get it right.


On a different note, It looks as though I have found a barn owl location back home in Dorset, I have been doing loads of research and have come across an area that looks to be good for both Barn and SE owls. I will keep you posted on this.

I had to upload an image with this blog, This was the same Otter as my last posts, but this time he is eating some kind of Eel! Does anyone know anything about what species it could be? Im not too hot on my river species.

Another Otter

Hi Everyone, 

Today is a shot taken a couple of days ago in Dorset. The otter was hunting a few meters in front of me and catching fish on almost every dive. I managed to get a few shots of them with the fish in their mouths, however I like this angle as the view into the mouth is awesome. 

I am hoping to get back to the site over easter to try to improve the images. 

Otters

Today, I had the privilege of photographing an otter at close quarters. After only about 10 minuets of arriving at the site, I saw a lone Otter dive in the middle of the river. It surfaced on the far bank and proceeded to climb up the side of the river. It rested for a while before returning to the river to hunt.

I found a low level platform in front of it and got into position. It soon was diving and catching fish regularly right in front of me. I was at a really awkward angle and so I was not able to hold the lens very well however I am pleased with the results.

I am hoping to return to the site soon (ish) to photograph the female with cubs that has been reported in the area.

Here are two images, I will upload some more over the next few days. 

Otter

Here is a shot of an Otter that I took yesterday. I am going to be studying them over christmas and I hope that I will be able to get some interesting results. 

I am changing my third year final project slightly, to study the human conservation work that has helped to monitor and protect some of britain special wildlife. I hope to look at why there has been such a rapid increase in the numbers of Otters in recent years and how humans have played a part in this.

I will also be looking at some of the other species that have benefitted from healthier rivers in recent years.   

Continuing with Grey seals, I hope to follow one pups journey through rehabilitation and try to show just how important this work is to the survival of the species both locally and internationally. 

Please let me know if you have any suggestions and please let me know what you think