It was nice weather on Saturday..

which leads to us taking a long walk. Actually not a long long one, as it was just over the hills from Lodge Moor to Hathersage, a walk of about 9km.
From the flat to Lodge Moor its a 10min bus ride towards peak district. Which was our starting point, and before you reach Hathersage you both pass Redmires reservoir and Stanage Edge.
As usual I was looking and listening for the wildlife, but during this time of year it is rather 'dead' and so it was that day too.
At the Stanage Edge it was rather windy, but with +10C in air it didn't matter that much, and along the edge its self, there was a lot of hikers and climbers.
Due to the wind and the exposure of the location it was here you could clearly see the victims that the latest storms had claimed.
From the Stanage Edge its just straight downwards to Hathersage which was our final stop. As the weather was really nice, we enjoyed tea in the sunshine and the pleasant warmth of spring.

The pics is taken with Nikon 3Ds and Nikon 50mm 1.8D lens.
                                                                        

Kingfisher

At last, the storms and rainfall seems to have died out, and I have ventured out on photo adventure again :)
As you probably have seen on the news, it has been Very windy and rainy here for the past few months. To be honest, some of the days it has been ok weather for few hours, but I have since not had the energy and inspiration to take photographs.
So yesterday and today I have been down to a valley where I 've seen the kingfisher the whole winter and it was still there. Yesterday I didn't manage to get any good pictures of it at all, so I tried again this morning and it went much better. I positioned myself so that I could photograph it while it was sitting on one of his favorite branches that are quite high up above the water. You can clearly see that it is one of its favourites because of all the marks from its claws. Obviously I had the camouflage on otherwise it's impossible to get closer than 5 - 6m.
During the three hours I was there, it only sat on the branch 3 times! I would have liked to be there longer, but my back was beginning to hurt as I was standing the whole time. The camera was on the tripod rather high up so I could get on the same level as the kingfisher.
I will try next time, perhaps already tomorrow but it depends on the weather, to try and get some pictures while it is hunting and diving into the water.
                                                                         

The Kingfisher sitting on one of its favorite branches



A weekend in Luxembourg

During this weekend we were off to Luxembourg to visit my wife's family. I had in advance checked out some sightseeing location so that we would have enough for the weekend.
The Friday was more or less devoted to traveling so when eventually arriving we were just hoping that Saturday and Sunday would have nice weather so that we could manage the list :) As you can hear, there was no such thing. It was windy and the rain was pouring down, actually sideways. Beside Notre-Dame Cathedral and walk by the Palace of the Grande Dukes, we did some cafes, restaurants and window shopping.
That evening I had my first ever frog legs, was a bit sceptical but they were actually really nice. Not much meat on them, but rather tasty. A mix between white fish and chicken :)

Little bit about Luxembourg, due to its laws and taxing regulations its a paradise for banks. A paradise for more than 200 banks! The population is around 100 000 but each day there are around 200 000 more coming in from rest of Luxembourg but also from surrounding countries such as France and Germany.

Hoping for better weather next time, so that I have more to show you here. The pictures that I took this time are few but well, at least something :)



                                                                          

Palace of the grand dukes

Notre-dame cathedral

Notre-dame cathedral

Nice chair

Boring Weather...

It has been bad weather almost a week now and I really have not had any desire to go out and shoot. But I've gone on walks down to the Rivelin valley where the kingfisher is, I've seen it a couple of times but since it rains so much water becomes muddy and it seems that the kingfisher do not like it so it disappears from the site.
I hope it comes back.
But here are some pictures of the cautious pheasant, they visited my feeding place in the woods before Christmas.

Have a nice day!
                                                                 

Male

Female

Edale, Kinder scout plateau

During the weekend we had a friend visiting from Sweden, so instead of stalking a kingfisher the priority was to spend some time together.
Not many pictures were taken, except during a hike on the Kinder plateau which has the Peak district's highest peak at 636m. We started from Edale and it is from here the 429km long Pennine Way starts that follow the mountain range all the way from there to Kirk Yetholm in Scotland.
We hiked an amazing short route of about 9km, but at least we did something :) Up on the moorland we passed a section that is filled with rock formations called 'Wool Packs' which I have blogged about earlier. They do start your imagination, and this time we found one that looks a bit like a elephant with its trunk and a another one like an old mans face :) The plan was that we would go all the way to Kinder downfall which is the Peak District highest waterfall at its 30m but we changed our mind due the wind and that the mist was covering the area, so we took a short cut back via Jakobs ladder.

See you All soon!
                                                                          

The elephant

Wool packs

The old mans face

Wool packs

Jakob's ladder

Hope valley

The colorful Kingfisher

As mentioned in the previous post, I have been trying to get a good close-up of a kingfisher down in the Rivelin Valley. They are a bit easier to see during the winter months, not sure why, so I have for the past few years focused on them during this period of year. Like this time, I have stalked that poor bird to take a photo for the past two weeks but it didn't really want to land close to me. Its only 15cm, so you need it close, even when I use the 550mm! 
So couple of days ago I went down to the valley rather early one morning and was hiding in front of one of its favourite landing twigs just 5m away which should make it more that just a dot on a pic. The tripod was up, as the camouflage and the wait began.
After an hour my feet and butt got numb, even though I was sitting on a rather comfortable pad. After another half an hours the kingfisher chose to show itself, but only by fishing on the completely opposite side to where I was.
Just for a moment it landed on a twig close to me, of course on one which I didn't have the focus on, and I thought that was the chance I had that day. It got scared off by me moving around underneath the camouflage.
As any dedicated (read insane) photographer I waited for another four hours while loosing all the feeling in my legs, and then It was suddenly back and sat on the perfect spot that I had focus on!
Yes it takes a lot of patience to take good pictures of wildlife, and I'm not sure everybody is actually aware of that, but it is definitely worth it.

I was out today to the same place, wanting to take a picture of it fishing. Unfortunately it came by the pond only to show itself, stayed for around a minute before leaving to never came back.
No, I didn't stay and wait for it for four hours :))

Until next time, have a great week!
                                                                  

 

A Hike at Ladybower

Last week was spent trying to figure out where the kingfisher would land so I could get some close-up pictures. As you can see, in the lack of a blog about it, I failed. The area its in is rather full of twigs and bushes, which makes it a bit complicated. Anyhow, the hunt continues.
Until then, you'll have to put up with some pictures from Ladybower where we were on Saturday.  A path that we have taken before, a 14km loop that starts by taking you along the reservoir, then turns right up the hills towards the dark peaks and back along the ridge.
Earlier that morning it had been snowing, and as its rather high up here, the snow was still on the ground. After a while the sun came out too and it almost became warmer. Actually only if you were hiding behind larger rocks, as the wind itself was cooling down to probably around -5 :)
Despite the weather earlier in the day, there were a lot of people walking around. Some better and some worse dressed. Actually saw few with just SHORT on!! Should not be so surprised as its rather normal here in England to underdress for the weather.
Until next time, hope you enjoy the pictures.
                                                                           

Beaver tracks in Tyresta National Park

Happy New Year All!
I'm back from Christmas holidays, and it's time to get started with photography and blogging again.
While in Sweden I only went out on a photo-sessions once in Tyresta NP as the weather was extremely dull almost every day. It's surprised me how heavy the clouds are there compared to here in UK.
In Tyresta, just to get out and get some light, I followed a so called 'barnvagnslingan' which might translate to 'pram loop' :) that is around 5km long. In the beginning you follow a stream which after a while turns into a lake. A few years ago while living in Stockholm, you could see traces of beavers there, but they now had built proper dams along the stream and almost roads through the forest. Along the path I met couple of other walkers and they were as me pleased to see all this activity. Sadly didn't see a beaver as they nocturnal, and I couldn't be that bothered to wait :)
Another time when out fishing (no trout caught) I was kept company by a Weasel. It was incredibly curious, running back and forward checking me out just 1.5m from me. The sad thing is that I didn't have the camera with me!

This is just a easy start to the New Blogger Year which I hope will be filled with a lot of new photo-adventures. If you have any suggestions on what we should see/do here in UK, let me know.
Until next time!
                                                                             

Great Spotted Woodpecker

Before the Christmas holidays start, here are few pictures of the male woodpecker. The pictures are taken from my hiding-place, which is nowdays almost a little too close even when the camera lens is fully zoomed out. Which means that I only get half of the woodpecker :)
Not complaining though, it's not easy to get that close to these birds :) and they are very nice to watch.
On one of the pictures below you can see its long thin tongue that it uses to get the larvae out once it has hacked its way to it.
Merry Christmas to You all, and see you in the Happy New Year :)