Here’s a small selection of images taken of some of the breeding birds up in the Lammermuir Hills,here in the Scottish Borders.
Close up,after ruffling its’ feathers.
In the cotton grass.
With 1 of the chicks.
On the way back to the nest with a caterpillar.
In the low evening light.
On the lookout.
On drystone wall.
In the low evening light.
Watching over the youngsters down below.
Ollie and I spotted a mountain hare in the heather as we drove through the Lammermuir Hills and managed a few pictures before it turned and wandered back through the heather and away.
Coming down off the hills we also spotted this brown hare in a field near Dronshiel.It was so close to the roadside that I couldn’t fit it all in the frame with my long lens,and was also very obliging,so I concentrated on a few close ups.It was still sat there when I had to leave.
Anyway here’s a few of the images.
Drive up into the Lammermuir Hills at this time of the year and you can’t fail to see or hear the breeding curlews.With the chicks now scampering around with the adults you will often see one of the parents move away from the group,often towards you,in order to distract your attention away from the youngsters.A win/win situation,as the bird thinks it’s allowing the family to ‘escape’ and you get the opportunity to get some images.Once the family has moved far enough away,’your’ bird will rejoin the group.
Sometimes this distraction ploy will work so well that the photographer will not only be kept safely away from the chicks but may also miss other photo opportunities nearby and will drive on having missed,as happened to me,the short eared owl sat on the ground nearby watching the whole encounter.This can allow the ‘opportunistic chancer’ to follow up behind you and get some even better pictures.
Anyway here are a few of the curlew images.
I haven’t posted any images for a while as opportunities to get out and about with the camera have been too few and far between.But here are a few images that I have managed to take and more will follow over the next week or two.
On my travels, close to the Lammermuir Hills,in the Scottish Borders I came across several groups of Greylag geese feeding in the fields.I also had a walk around Duns Castle lake,which was reasonably quiet for birdlife,but the resident Mute swans had set up their nest and one was out feeding.Down by the River Whiteadder a pair of Dippers were busy nest building earlier in the year but Ollie and I didn’t hang around too long,so as not to disturb them.
Here’s a few images from those encounters.
More driving up in the Lammermuir Hills,Scottish Borders and this time Ollie and I got close to the male Red Grouse.A very handsome fellow in his breeding plumage and bright red eyebrows.
Here’s a few images.
I took Ollie for a drive up across the Lammermuir Hills,hoping to find something co-operative to photograph.This little splash of white caught my eye,a small pocket of remaining snow was my first instinctive thought.But no.Double take as I’m slowly driving by.Quickly pull in,check the mirrors,no other cars and then manoever into position to photograph this beautiful mountain hare.The hare was very kind to me and allowed me to reposition the car several times and so I managed a good few images before it got bored and wandered off through the heather.
Here are some of the images.
Here’s a few more images from along the Westruther road in Berwickshire.The snow had melted and left large puddles in some of the fields.The incoming breeding birds were beginning to arrive and a pair of redshank settled down and began feeding in this shallow pool,next to the roadside.
That’s All Folks.
Never mind a white Christmas,we had a white Easter this year.The weather confused all the birds coming into the hills to breed,with the short eared owls coming into the Lammermuirs and then heading off back to the coast when the snow returned and blanketed the hillsides.All of the breeding birds will be late this year,including the peewit that I photographed in the last of the snow along the Westruther road in Berwickshire.As the snow melted away,it left large puddles in some of the fields and that is where I came across this pair of mallard feeding in the shallows.
I was talking to a friend of mine at the camera club last month and he said,’You should get yourself along the Westruther road.Someone told me that the mountain hares have come down off the hills and are sitting on top of the snow,close to the roadside’.Got to check that out,I thought.So the next day Ollie and me did just that.We soon found the animals but they weren’t mountain hares.They weren’t even hares.
Whoever the original wildlife spotter was: ‘Should have gone to Specsavers’.Anyway here’s some other members of the Lagomorph family, the rabbit.
That’s All Folks.
