Phil McLean Nature Photographer Blog

Here’s a few more images taken as Ollie and I have driven along the Westruther road.They are all birds of the wader family that have come up onto the moorland to breed and raise their young in this so called summer.

When Ollie and I go for a walk down by the River Whiteadder I carry a tripod,camera body and either the long lens or more recently,my macro lens.I don’t carry both lenses,not just because of the weight,but because I find it difficult to concentrate on the two very different disciplines.With the long lens I’m focusing 10,20,50 or 100 yards ahead.Where as with the macro I’m focusing on the foliage just a yard or two around me and personally I find it hard for my eyes to continually switch focus and locate subjects to photograph.Before I leave the house I decide which lens to take and that is often dictated by the weather.Lately it has been rather cool and damp,and so as long as it is not windy,I have taken the macro lens.Insects are obviously less active in these conditions.If the sun emerges,then the long lens gets an outing.

Too often lately though it has been heavy rain,no camera and more annoyingly for one of us,shorter walks.Here’s a selection of recent images taken with the two lenses.

Mating Weevils. Weird looking things when you get in close.

This young peregrine had just been supplied with a woodpigeon,killed by one of the parents.

Just after a shower.

These greylags generally have 4-7 young.So I hope they do a better job of looking after this last one.

Daddylonglegs.

Having a good scratch.

Here’s a little selection of bird images from Westruther moor.









Hope you like them.Bye bye for now.

Over the last week or two we’ve had rather alot of damp,dull days and so I thought I’d dust off the macro lens and see what I could find to photograph.On duller,cooler days the insects are less active and hopefully more approachable,although sometimes more difficult to find as they nestle down in the undergrowth.

So as Ollie and I walk along the river bank,our eyes are peeled, looking for creepy crawlies in the vegetation next to us,we enter a whole new world.I say we,but in actual fact Ollie is just charging about through the grasses as normal,dislodging my potential photographic subjects in all directions.’But hey,it is his walk and I do manage to find the odd insect or two’.At least that’s how he answers me when I tell him for the umpteenth time to be more careful where he’s going.

Yellow dung fly sat on a raindrop laden blade of grass.

If it’s wet,there’s gonna be a snail or two about.

Yellow dung fly on buttercup.

Hunter and prey.

Yellow dung fly.Such a pretty name!

Large Red Damselflies paired,prior to mating.

Here’s a few pictures of some little brown jobs,lbj’s,otherwise known as meadow pipits in this particular blog.They were taken from the car as Ollie and I drove through the Lammermuir Hills over the last week or two.They are often overlooked as we photographers cast our eyes over the hillsides looking for the curlew,short eared owl,red grouse and the like.They are also not that easy to get as they are generally quick to take flight and disappear under the heather,out of sight.But they are worth persevering with and can make an attractive little image.








Bye bye from me.
Bye bye from Ollie.

On tuesday evening several members of Duns Camera Club met up at Duns Castle lake.It was one of three meetings that we had planned for the summer and we were there to primarily photograph the wildfowl on the lake.The weather was a real mixed bag,with very little sun,lots of cloud and several showers.So it was a matter of using high iso’s,getting wet and putting up with the infuriating midges.

For once Ollie wasn’t with me.He had decided that dry,warm beds were preferable to rain and midges and  he hadn’t paid his camera club fee anyway.So here’s a few of my attempts and hopefully future blogs will improve when my assistant returns in due course.

Lovely weather for ducks.

One of 9 cygnets in the resident mute swan family.

Coot feeding,with the mist rising in the background.

The drakes had moulted their colourful plumage and so the females looked better.

The cygnets produced quite a bow wave as they torpedoed towards me.

Showing off with its’ stumpy little wings.

Where Ollie and I walk,down by the River Whiteadder, there is a peregrine nest site on a cliff face above the river.The site has been used for at least the last 10 years and this year another 3 young have been raised.We walk down there nearly every day and so the birds have got used to our presence from before their courting,mating,egg laying,brooding and feeding of the chicks as they steadily grew in size.There have also been fishermen on the river below the nest site on many of the days as well and so the birds have been quite used to a certain amount of human activity in their vicinity.

And so on the sunday before last I decided to stop below the nest site for a short while to photograph the three young birds.They were all a good size,with two looking ready to fly the nest.There was much preening,wing exercising and general jostling about.One of the adults flew by to check on them but wandered off again,satisfied that all was ok.We didn’t stay too long,took the pictures and left them to themselves.

The next day,one had flown.Tuesday a second had also flown and by the Thursday all three were flying.They’ll remain close to the site for a while,calling noisily to be fed and still returning to the nesting ledge on a regular basis.So Ollie and I still have their company every day and what noisy company it is too,at the moment.

Any disturbance around the nest site should be kept to a minimum and a good distance away.The birds’ welfare should always come first.

Feathers fly during preening.

Exercising wing muscles.

Fascinating stuff,this wing stretching.

Feed me,feed me.

Ganging up on littl’un.

The Redshank and Golden Plover are two of the more attractive birds that come into the Lammermuir Hills and surrounding moorland to breed in the spring/summer.The redshank posed briefly on moorland before flying a little way off and calling its’ four chicks to safety under its’ wings.While the golden plover was up in the hills,again where it posed briefly before flying a little way off to provide some habitat shots.On both occasions the birds were photographed from the car,beanbag on the window and Ollie in the back,observing.                                                                                                                                

Gathering in the chicks.

With chicks tucked up under the wings.

Amongst the cotton grass.

Sometimes when we go out in the car Ollie and I come across just a brief glimpse of wildlife,where we get just an odd image or two,before moving on to the next encounter.

Here’s a few of those brief encounters from around the Lammermuirs.









Back soon.Bye bye.

I was driving down off the Lammermuir Hills,looking across the fields to the distant hillside to see if the short eared  owls were out hunting.They weren’t but my eye was drawn to the drystone wall alongside the road.A meadow pipit was sat in the glow of the last of the evening light and so I eased up alongside,shut off the engine,positioned the camera on the window beanbag and focused in on the bird.Surprise,surprise,it didn’t fly off!

Here are some of the images that I got,in some really lovely light.

Evening song.

Preening.

All fluffed up.

And some more preening.

A final fluff out and shake.

Hope you like them as much as I do.  Bye bye.