Wildlife Adventures 2020 - Pre lockdown - March

Ptarmigan and mountain hares

A wee break in the storms early march - Coronavirus was out there in a small way - travel was still permitted. and hotels had cracking deals so with the boss we went up north for a little break.Of course I took a camera with me :)

We stoped off at a spot past Dalwhinnie where mountain hares were seen and was accessible from the car with a short walk in.. Grabbed these with the Fuji XT3 and 100-400mm after crawling a bit in the melted snow and heather. The spring time is the easiest time to spot the hares, as they still have their winter coat on and stand out against the darker brown heather that is revealing itself in the thaw.

Video below of the trip -

Get in touch if you want to book a 1 to 1 trip to photograph mountain hares this coming winter (pandemic allowing)

Ptarmigan - (& Red grouse)

Another iconic winter species . The Rock Ptarmigan - a wee bird, a little larger than a partridge. It is exclusively found in the Scottish Highlands. Mature birds eat seeds, berries, nuts and leaves, while juveniles also eat invertebrates. They are renowned for turning white in winter to match the snowy landscape - and boy do they match it well.

These photos are taken up in the Northern Corries - Cairngorm.I spent a good 3 hours trying to find this one - incredibly lucky to find it, as I was giving up and the weather was turning on me. Fantastic to watch and follow for a bit - definitely re-visiting next winter if I can, to spend more time with them.

On the walk down we spotted a couple of Red grouse which was a nice surprise. .

Click on images to get full sized. Give me shout if you are keen to do 1-1 trip up north for these wonderful and difficult to spot birds

Wildlife Adventures 2020 - February

Otters on the Isle of Bute

My favourite animal I think.. its been such a challenge to photograph them over the past few years, learning where they are, and the very important fieldcraft in order to successfully capture good shots of them without disturbing them. I’ve been back and forth to Bute over 5 times in the previous 18 months, trying to locate an active site. Finally found them, where I first started looking for them, (thanks to John Williams, Isle of Bute) for the information and the sites..

I spent a couple of mornings with this family - almost always at the same spot so was nice and easy to locate them . Just had to stay ahead of them and was very lucky to get them come ashore - about 20 feet away from me to clean up and chill out. Click on images to get full sized.

Great fun and exciting hunting for them then a mad rush along with luck to get in front of them at the right spot - get in touch if you want to book a 1-1 workshop on these wonderful creatures Wee video just below to show some close ups.

Mountain Hares -

One of Scotlands most iconic creatures - the Mountain hare - It It is most common on high up heathlands. They are renowned for turning white in winter to match their upland surroundings.

We travelled up past Aviemore for a secret site that I had been told about - (when we got there it was packed with photogprahers all making their way on the long slog up the hill so not so secret). We filmed a fair bit of this trip see below - thanks to Murray for the genius filming.. and Elaine for the naturalist work and talking bits (I’m not confident enough yet for this)

Click on images to get full sized. Give me shout if you are keen to do 1-1 trip up north for these wonderful and difficult to spot hares (now protected)

Wildlife Adventures 2020 - January

Crested Tits in Aviemore

My favourite wee birds - these fella’s are really cute . I try to get these guys in the snow… which I managed to, in early Dec 2019.. (so not entirely true with a Jan 2020 heading but its close enough). Come January time, the milder air had come in, so it was a little more damp than cold. The set up Neil McIntyre has is great - set in the ancient caledonian pine forests. These birds tend to come lower down in the winter to feed, so are more likely to be seen. We set up feeders around the place and they come in to feed - but first they have a wee pose for a photo.

The Crestie or Lophophanes cristatus is pretty much only found up in this area, and nowhere else in the UK with an estimated number of 1500 breeding pairs (Source RSPB). Click on images to get full sized.

Great fun and charismatic wee bird - get in touch if you want to book a 1-1 workshop up there.

Golden Eagles - in Norway

I’ve been planning this trip for a few years now, flights and times were against me until this January. My friend Paul Masterton (Voyage through the Lens Cap Photography) and I booked this winter adventure. flying Edinburgh to Trondheim (via Oslo) then being met by Tom and Svein from Arctic Wildlife Tours, who helped us around the supermarket, and then bundled us on a snow mobile (with trailer) for a 20 minute trip up the steep mountain side in the dark and snow to an old 1900’s hunters cabin where we stayed, no electricity or running water, but cosy log-burner - totally off grid (well actually was a good 4g signal!!!). First morning - up before sunrise to make the 15 minute walk to the hides in knee deep (sometime thigh deep snow) . We had to be in before first light so not to scare any birds off, and we waited.. We had a few visits from Siberian and Eurasian Jays, feeding around the hides - we were grateful for the practice before the main event……. and we waited and waited……. glorious midday light arrived but no golden eagles… then as it was turning more dusk light (about 1:30pm!!!!) we were delighted to see a pair of adult eagles with teenager in tow. They then spent time showing him / her what to do, to feed itself on the road kill we had placed out. Once it had the hang of it - the adults were shooed away. The second day we had the young eagle flying around and trying to make a visit, but it simply was not confident enough to make a landing - so some nice flight shots in the setting sun (again 1:00pm- 2:00pm’ish). It wasn’t until dusk again when the parents came in to show it what to do again, it came in for a feed too, and then it snowed so managed to get some snow shots and record some video which is on the brand spanking new Phazephoto YouTube channel (see directly below) . click and subscribe.. Still photos below video - click on them for full image

Best of 2019

Project Fresh start 2020 (Matt Kloskowski project) to show my best of 2019 .. basically the photos i’ve loved taking or loved the final result (they dont hand in hand.sometimes) in the past year… no real reasons why just a good exercise to do. enjoy and please feel free to leave a comment :)