Kitty Kat

 I always love photographing wildlife whether it is near my local beach, at a nature reserve or even in a zoo. I would love to travel and photograph exotic creatures in their natural habitat but there are lots of reasons why that isn't possible every now and then it is great to visit a zoo and get some exotic shots closer to home. Just as in the wild taking photos of any of the animals in the zoo requires a lot of patience and a degree of luck, especially if you want natural looking shots. 

I especially love the big cats and I was lucky enough to see the snow leopards, a Siberian tiger and the cheetah all of which are absolutely beautiful. I am always drawn to the cheetah though because they have such grace and despite being an apex predator with some serious skills they can still manage to charm like a domestic cat.

Here are a few of my cheetah images from my recent zoo visit...

Interloper

Most people , I think, will be familiar with he Cuckoo's habit of laying its eggs in the nest of another species and turfing out the eggs of the resident bird. This duck has a slightly different approach in that the female Carolina Duck or Wood Duck (Aix sponsa) which is native to Canada, the United States and Mexico where it lives on shallow lakes, woodland pools and marshes is known to sneak into a neighbours nest and deposit her own eggs, leaving the unsuspecting mum to be with up to 30 eggs. Often they make their nests in the hollows of trees close to water however due to competition for suitable nesting sites (from birds of prey or mammals such as squirrels) they can nest up to one mile from their water source and this may account for the habit of laying eggs in a fellow Wood ducks nest. This is known as "nest dumping" and unfortunately leads to unsuccessful incubation. They can produce two broods in a season which is unique to this species in North America.

When they hatch young wood ducks will jump down from their cavity in the tree, sometimes from as high as 50 feet landing on the water or a soft surface such as leaf litter. The mother duck will then call to her day old chicks and lead them to where the can find their food. They have a varied diet of berries , seeds and insects, they also eat acorns which  after swallowing them they can crush in their gizzard.

I Love the Avant Garde

 I will come back to ducks in my next post but today I wanted to share a quite remarkable and very stylish seabird.

This bird is from Pacific coast of Chile, Ecuador and Peru but has been found in Hawaii and parts of Central America. Its numbers are declining to the point that its conservation status is "near threatened". 

The Inca Tern is mostly dark coloured, which is unique among Terns, and as you can see from these photos as well as its silky slate grey/black plumage it has a bright red bill with vivid yellow accents. But most striking is the Daliesque moustache comprised of long white satiny feathers. They make a mewing sound a bit like a kitten so we could say these birds are the cats whiskers (sorry).

Their food is mainly small fish and crustaceans but they will also eat offal and carrion, so not too picky. They can feed in flocks of up to 5000 birds and will follow fishing boats or pods of whales/dolphins.

These pictures were taken at Martin Mere where there are several of these beautiful birds in an aviary. They are a joy to watch in flight, however since these images were shot through netting capturing a decent photo in flight wasn't really possible.

Tufty

 Here are a couple of species of duck. There are lots of different species of duck around the world. Here in the UK most people will be familiar with the Mallard which are quite common and I sometimes feel they are easily overlooked, and because ducks are everywhere all species can be lumped in together "as just another duck". To do so is to a massive disservice to the many beautiful variations which have interesting habits.

The images below show male and female Red Crested Pochard. The male is the more colourful specimen and in the portrait image he reminds me of a comedienne and TV presenter, I cant explain why and I wont say who (so that comment is probably pointless but it will serve as a reminder to me when I look back at this post in future). Anyway this is a diving duck which feeds on vegetation and is a resident of southern Europe and central Asia.

The other species is a Patagonian Crested Duck, a dabbling feeder from Patagonia so Chile and Peru and Argentina, as well as the Falkland Islands. They are the most common duck species in that area but they do not flock together, rather they stay in pairs and are quite territorial. Their main foods are macroinvertebrates like zooplankton and clams but also kelp. the bird in this image is a male and he has a very handsome crest. I also really like his mottled plumage.

Elegance in Black and White

My second outing of the year was another trip to Martin Mere Wildfowl and Wetland Centre in Lancashire. This time however I had a couple of my grandchildren with me and so I didn't expect to get that many photos. Much to my surprise though, I took just shy of 140 shots while my eldest grandson also managed to take lots of pictures with his own mini digital camera. It was such a lot of fun.

As well as the birds out on the mere we also went around the collection of more "exotic" species and so I have a nice mix of birds to share, when I get round to editing all of the pictures and sorting out the ones worth posting.

Today here are some shots of a Whooper Swan and Black Swan, you will be able to work out which one is which...

The Whooper Swan is a winter visitor which comes down from its breeding grounds in Iceland. They are so elegant and normally as they swim around they hold their necks straight. In these images the bird has been feeding hence its curved neck. They are an Amber Listed species in terms of their conservation status and they are a Schedule 1 listed bird which means it is illegal to disturb them. They are regular winter visitors to Martin Mere.

The Black Swan is a native of Australia but it is now thriving in New Zealand and in the UK. Their plumage is entirely black except for some flight feathers which are white.

My favourite image today is the second one which is a much softer image as a result of reducing texture and clarity and adding a slight vignette giving a slightly dreamy quality which enhances the elegance of this beautiful bird.

Did You Get My Best Side

 My first post for 2026, and the first in some time is from my first foray with my camera in quite a while too.

Even though I am retired life is still very busy and finding the time for hobbies can be difficult, and at this time of year when the weather is colder, my bones are creakier, and the light is less predictable getting out for a spot of photography is a challenge.

All of today's shots are from Martin Mere Wetland Centre from 14th January. It was a really cold day and the light conditions were changeable most of these images were shot with a high ISO (as much as 12800) so I have had to a little work to reduce the noise. I think they have mostly turned out alright. 

    Male Pochard

    Male Pintail

    Black Tailed Godwit

    That Pintail again...

    Male Reed Bunting, coming in to land

    Reed Bunting, about to take off...

    

     Male Greenfinch

    Male leucistic Reed Bunting with a chaffinch looking on

    Launch time for a male chaffinch 

    One of my favourite birds, a Long-tailed Tit. Did you know that these are truly social birds, over 50% of their nests have non-parent birds assisting with raising the chicks. Wonderful little things.

Hoodoo you Do?

 Here are a few more shots of the toadstool hoodoos to follow on from my last post. 

These hoodoos fall within (or rather stand within) the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument. I had made an assumption that this land was a part of the Navajo Nation (Diné), )which was a reasonable assumption because I had stayed at Shash Diné campsite the previous night) however the toadstool hoodoos have greater significance in Paiute tradition. The Paiute people's land encompass much of Southern Utah and in their traditions these hoodoos and those at Bryce canyon are the "legend people" who were turned to stone by the Coyote God Sinawava for past bad deeds. Apparently stories like this are part of the Paiute's oral traditions which are traditionally only told during the winter season.

Looking back at the pictures I shared yesterday and the very clear rock face it is easy to see why traditions like this have developed.

How do you Hoodoo?

 When I was planning my US road trip in May/June of this year I think the part I was most looking forward to was the couple of days  I would be camping in the desert in Arizona. Of course the trip as a whole was amazing and each day had something special but I was so excited to camp out, see the unpolluted night sky and experience the desert scenery that I remembered from the Saturday morning westerns I had watched as a kid. I was definitely not disappointed especially by the night sky (see previous post "Natural Wonder" from 26th June) or by the views of the Grand Canyon.

On researching the route from Page AZ to Bryce Canyon UT I noticed a marker on the map for the Toadstool Hoodoo Trailhead just off Highway 89 outside Kanab, Utah. I was intrigued and thought it would be a good spot to break up the journey and explore. Even though it was only late May it was blisteringly hot and walking along the dry river bed there was no shade so I was glad that the walk from the highway to the hoodoos wasn't actually too far.

I have picked a few shots for today's post, the first shows part of the trail and you can see how flash floods have carved a path through the sandstone creating an ever changing landscape.

In the other shots we can see a couple of my favourite hoodoos, remarkable structures caused by millions of years of erosion. These are quite different to the more conical structures in Bryce Canyon since they have the harder capstones that look a bit like hats. I think there is a very definite face in one of them too, I could almost imagine it speaking in a deep voice to tell tales of the many things that must have happened in its "lifetime". They certainly give a literal meaning to the term "rock face".

I was definitely pleased to have stopped here, it left a great impression .

Iconic Views

 I wasn't able to do what I had originally planned to do today so I took a little time to have a look at some of the photos I took during my US road trip earlier in the year. There are lots of good memories associated with the pictures I took but most of the images won't get shared on here. I thought however that a few images of the iconic Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco were worth sharing. 

Growing up and watching movies such as Dirty Harry and Bullitt, and TV shows like the Streets of San Francisco I often saw shots of the bridge and the steep hills and streetcars so being in the city for the first time and seeing these iconic sights invoked a mixture of feelings. I didn't have enough time in the city to get some of the shots I would have liked to get but I was keen to get some nice views of the bridge. It felt a little unreal driving across it the first time and I was excited to drive up to the various viewing areas to get a good view of the bridge and the city in the distance.

Of course being such a well known sight there are millions of images widely available and so I was hesitant to add mine since they won't really add anything new. However I think that they are good images and I have tried to make the best of them. Some were taken from Hawk Hill and others from Battery Spencer. It was about 7pm when they were taken and the low sun in the west gave a nice light to the structure and the high rise buildings in the city. It was incredibly windy but at least there was no fog, although a little mist might have added a different atmosphere to the images. 

There is a lot of haziness in the far distance which may have been caused by wild fires, although I cannot be sure. When I drove back to San Francisco a few weeks later, driving down from Lake Tahoe and across the Oakland Bay Bridge I drove through an area where fires were burning on the hills along the freeway.