Cold weather and wildlife in the UK

With the on-going cold spell and nearly 2 weeks of freezing conditions, many species are much more co-operative as photography subjects because they are out in the open and seemingly preoccupied. This is because everything is frantically searching for food and shelter, so it is more important than ever to be careful when out and about - remember that disturbance can have a much greater impact in these conditions.

The British Trust for Ornithology has posted the following on their website:
"To minimize disturbance to waterbirds in frozen conditions there is a call for voluntary restraint from wildfowling after 7 days and a statutory suspension after 14 days. There have now been 12 'freezing days' in Scotland and 8 days in England & Wales. When it is cold we also need to minimise other disturbance, including birdwatching. It is important to continue with surveys such as WeBS and the Atlas, but participants should avoid disturbing birds wherever possible.”

The BTO will be posting updates here on their website.

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New Wildlife Photography Forum

For those of you who like to share your nature and wildlife photos online and get constructive feedback, a new Wildlife and Nature Photography Forum has been set-up: www.wildphotoforum.com

Only a few weeks old, this friendly, helpful community is starting to grow with some fantastic photos already posted. I also know that John Stuart Clarke, the forum owner, has some ideas brewing which will be great for the members.

So sign-up to WildPhotoForum and introduce yourself!

If you are already a member, don’t forget to vote in the first competition for a new forum banner image. Voting has been extended until tomorrow.

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White-tailed Eagles on Mull

I have spent the morning catching up on some blogs and websites I haven’t visited in a while and saw that Martin of Mullcharters has posted a short video that was filmed for a BBC documentary.

Although the Eagle was not very close to the boat in the video, it does give some idea of the experience!

So, if you find yourself on Mull next Spring/Summer, I highly recommend that you book yourself on the Lady Jayne for a wild Eagle experience of a lifetime! I created the photo at the top of this post on the Lady Jayne.

Talking of Mull, if you want some expert guidance on seeing the wildlife available on the island, have a look at Marcus Conway’s Mull tour next spring. It looks like you need to book soon as there are only a couple of places left!

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Other keyword libraries for Lightroom

Following on from the recent additions to my nature related keyword libraries, I started to build a list of other keyword libraries available to download for Adobe Lightroom.

Then I found that Richard Earney had already compiled such a list over on his website, inside lightroom.

I also owe Richard an apology – after I posted my library of UK Dragonflies he politely pointed out that he had posted almost exactly the same list a couple of months ago…sorry Richard!

Having looked, I think Richard’s list of Damselflies and Dragonflies is more complete than mine – it includes extinct and vagrant species – so you may want to use his version instead.

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Even more nature keyword libraries!

Continuing from the European Mammals and Amphibian species keyword libraries I posted last week, Kiri on www.wildphotoforum.com provided some links to help me create another couple of libraries:

UK Butterflies

UK Dragonflies

These will work with Adobe Lightroom 2.x and 3.x.

You can download them at the bottom of my Adobe Lightroom keywords page.

Let me know if you have any problems.

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