Summer sort of slipped
by without me writing anything in my little diary - I've been so busy, no
excuse. I've just finished filming a short film for the BBC on my local
woodland Kilminorth Woods in Cornwall, the programme is being broadcast in late
November on BBC1 - Inside Out Southwest. It will be presented by Mike Dilger,
who I have to say is a really nice bloke. I'm not sure what I was expecting,
but he was so down to earth, he really knows his stuff and was a pleasure to
meet and work with.
Mike
Dilger, Lyn Winter (Friends of Kilminorth) & Me
I can't say too much
about the programme for obvious reasons, but be assured there will be wildlife
scenes I have never witnessed before, let alone had the privilege to
film.
Spring
2009
Spring is my favourite
season, everything is coming alive after the winter - and we have had a hard
one here in Cornwall. As I write the bluebells are just coming into flower, who
can resist a slow walk through their favourite bluebell wood. What else is
happening apart from the obvious beautiful flowers blooming from the hedgerows,
nesting birds and the beginings of new life just about everywhere?
Well, the badgers are
now starting to appear from their underground homes before nightfall. One
particular badger from last years litter, always seems to appear first, I think
the idea being, get up and eat as many as the peanuts as possible before anyone
else gets up!
Early risers
It is of
course 'Dawn Chorus' time, I just love spending time in woodland on an early
spring morning listening to the delightful sounds of our birds. The other
morning I found a nice spot to sit and listen, and suddenly the lovely birdsong
was interrupted by this prehistoric shriek, my immediate thought was - a heron,
but following further investigation I realised it was in fact a Raven nestling
screaming for it's parent to feed it, there are five chicks in total - wow, the
parents are having to work hard. It won't be long before they are out on the
branches and in full plumage.
Three of the five Raven nestlings screaming "FEED
ME"
The Blue Tit - a more traditional Dawn Chorus
sound.
The
BBC Features 'Cornwall - The Wild Peninsula'
In March the BBC ran a
ten minute slot about my film 'Cornwall - The Wild
Peninsula'. It featured on the BBC1 'Inside Out
Southwest' programme and was my first personal appearance on mainstream
television. It was a great personal experience for me, and although I was a
little bit nervous everything went really well - the Director Simon was great
and made life pretty easy for me really. I'd like to thank all those people who
took the time to email and telephone me after the programme was
broadcast.
It was a very exciting
day all told, I had a live radio interview at 7-20 am. for Radio Cornwall -
good job I like early mornings! I was featured on the lunch-time television
news, then the evening news - all this even before the programme had
started.
Eventually 7-30pm
arrived and the programme began, I was on tender hooks as this was the first
time I hadn't had total editorial control - I needn't have worried of course
and everything flowed really well - and then at the end Sam Smith (the
presenter) referred to me as............'The One Man Natural History Unit', how
cool was that?
The following day the
Beeb were in touch again - this time they wanted to feature a wildlife photo
gallery of my work on the BBC Cornwall website - it's still up there now,
click here to have a look. Overall it was a fantastic
experience and fingers crossed more will come my way - the beeb have mentioned
a commission for later in the year so watch this space.
Winter
2008/9
As the year comes to a
close I'm really busy editing my year long film called 'Cornwall - The Wild
Peninsula'. It's a film that follows the wildlife of Cornwall throughout the
seasons of the year and includes a few rarities as well as the more common
species found here. The project has been an amazing experience and as well as
seeking out the fantastic wildlife of Cornwall I have met some lovely like
minded people across the county and further afield.
I've recently been
working for the BBC which was a delight and I'm truly honoured that my work
will be broadcast by such a prestigious organisation. The Country Channel has
re-narrated three of my films from 2007 which are to be broadcast on satellite
in 2009 - these new versions will be available to watch for free in the 'Online
Film Gallery'.
It has been an amazing
year for me, one that has enabled me to grow as a filmmaker and as a
naturalist. I've also organised and led a few wildlife events such as badger
watches and wildlife walks which have been pretty successful. I'm looking
foward to the rest of 2009 and hope that I can build on the successes of 2008 -
and of course bring some more wildlife to your TV screens and PC
monitors.
Happy New Year to you
all!
Autumn
2008
Is it really Autumn
already? Yes it certainly is, this summer has to be the wettest I can remember
and Autumn is here. The nights are beginning to darken ever earlier and there
is a chill in the air on most days. The green leaves are just starting to turn
and the wind is helping them on there way to ground. Of course the leaves have
an important role to play in the natural world. They provide the goodness the
ground needs to feed next years plants and replace the elements lost to this
years growth.
Autumn is a time of
change very noticeable in our trees, it's also a time of change for birds, some
of whome fly thousands of miles to get away from the cold of winter. One of
which dropped in on us here in Cornwall. A Great Northern Diver has taken up
residence in the tidal estuary, and certainly looks at home diving down between
the boats looking for shore crabs.
Great Northern Diver
As the cold dark nights
beckon some animals are looking to hibernate, one of which can get itself into
quite a lot of trouble - normally due to mans inability to consider wildlife
before we act. Hedgehogs get run over on our roads, drown in our ponds and
often get maimed at the hands of the unforgiving strimmer. I had a phone call
the other day - "Dad get a box - we've just found a baby hedgehog", the kids
were on their way home from school and saved one from three hungry Magpie's who
were pecking at it, fortunately they had caught it just in time. So Dad came
running in his slippers with his box and promptly brought him home. I checked
him over and he seemed none the worse from his ordeal so I gave him some dog
food and a drop of water, placed a piece of cardboard over the box so he could
get some piece and left him for a couple of hours to recover. A little later I
picked him out of the box and weighed him - mmmmh - only 275 grammes - that's
only just over half the weight he needs to be to survive winter hibernation,
he'll never survive.
That prompted me to
search the net for hedgehog hospitals and all the rest of it, what to do etc.
etc. I finally made a phone call to a hedgehog carer who's a member of the
British
Hedgehog Preservation Society, he couldn't have been more helpful and we
agreed to meet halfway in a car park to pass over the poor little chap.
Meanwhile the kids had named him 'Buddy' and wanted to come too - so off we
went. On arrival the chap looked him over and said that he would have to stay
in a heated over winter facility (one of his garden outbuildings) due to his
small size. The hedgehog also had an infestation of lice which needed treating
and he would need worming. Talking to the man was a real eye opener for me - he
deals with around 400 hedgehogs a year - can you imagine that! The dedication
to manage that amount of work? It's is just amazing. I gave him a donation to
help pay for food etc. and the kids said their goodbyes knowing that he will be
looked after by an expert.
Buddy, just after being weighed
The following day he
emailed me to say that Buddy was doing really well, he had been treated for the
lice and had worm treatment - we were all delighted. Thanks to this dedicated
chap, Buddy will be released on a National Trust property next spring,
meanwhile he'll eat well and gain the weight necessary and have the best chance
of survival back in the wild. So a big personal thank you from me.
People like this chap
are the unsung hero's of the conservation world. I for one will be joining the
BHPS -
it's only £7-50 which is affordable, unlike quite a few of the other
charities which are just too expensive for many people.
Summer
2008
Summer is here at last -
or so someone said. We've had some pretty shocking weather here in Cornwall
with 60 m.p.h. gales, so when Dave Culley asked me to film Sparrowhawks for him
I headed north escaping the weather.
Dave runs a website
called Sparrowhawk Island, where subscribers can watch an
array of live online wildlife cams from the island he lives on. He has some
fantastic wildlife on the island including nesting Robin's, Grey Wagtail's,
Blackbird's, Wren, Long-tailed Tits, Blue Tits and the star of the show - the
Sparrowhawks.
Sparrowhawks are
disliked by some people because they prey on much loved small birds, but when
you get close to these raptors you tend to get more of a balanced view. The
first thing to remember is that the presence of such a bird reflects a healthy
and buoyant habitat, if the habitat was devoid of small birds, we wouldn't have
any Sparrowhawks.
Female Sparrowhawk
The other thing that
became evident after watching them at close quarters was, what fantastic
parents these birds are. The male works tirelessly to provide food for his
partner and family, he can bring food to; or near to the nest up to seventeen
times a day. The female is very attentive to her young and even the chicks
appear to be well behaved.
Sparrowhawk Chicks
And when you think about
it, we would have been doing exactly the same thing a few hundred years ago,
eating small birds would have been part of our basic diet.
As you can see from the
screen captures, I managed to get some great footage of these illusive birds.
Dave wanted a short promotional film to show the the different elements of this
incredible wildlife haven.
Summer has taken a turn
for the worst here in Cornwall, torrential rain has almost been an everyday
occurrence for the most of July and all of August. It's been a real pain - bad
light and horrible looking skies have been the order of every day.
Within the natural world
the rain has been good for some species and bad for others. It's not great for
raptors who struggle to hunt in the rain and it's certainly a poor year for
butterflies, there has been the odd Gatekeeper and Silver Washed Fritillary but
that's about it.
The Silver Washed Fritillary
So who's benefitted from
all this dampness, well, the badger's certainly have, rain means worms - which
is the mainstay of badger diet.
Two Badger cubs getting ready for a forage.
The other obvious
benefactor is of course the gardener's most dreaded enemy - the Slug. They are
everywhere, I can't walk down the garden path without slipping on one. The
resident hedgehog can't keep up either.
Pulmonate Land Slug showing the breathing portal /
hole.
Another creature doing
well in my garden is the Slow-worm. This leggless lizard is a welcome visitor
as they also help with the slug glut. These clever snake-like lizards have a
very clever defence mechanism, whereby if attacked by a predator, they can
detatch their tail from their body and leave it wiggling behind them in the
hope that the predator goes for the tail. The tail does grow back, but not
fully, we have lots of slow-worms in our compost heap and many of them have
stumpy tails - probably due to the high concentration of cats in the local
area.
Slow-worms in my compost heap
Slow-worms spend most of
their time in compost heaps, underneath large rocks and in rough grassy areas -
they are keeping away from possible predators as well as hunting for small
slugs and insects. Incredibly, slow-worms can live up to 30 years old in the
wild, which is a great age for such a small reptile.
They also hibernate
through the winter and find compost heaps perfect for this purpose due to the
natural heat generated from within.
Spring
2008
At last Spring is here,
Spring is without doubt my favourite season of the year. It is such a contrast
after the short days and long nights of winter. Everything seems to be alive
again.
Badgers
I recently visited my
local badger sett and managed to film 6 badgers during the hours of daylight
including a small cub. What a thrill that was, especially when we had such a
poor year for badger cubs last year due to the extraordinary dry spring. Last
years weather rendered many setts cubless.
Here you can see the
young chap or lass, the dominant boar was giving it a hard time though - it
hasn't yet quite got to grips with the hierarchy of the group.
Bluebells and
Wildflowers
This year has been
fantastic for Bluebells. Cornwall's pocket woodlands are carpeted with them at
the moment - a joy to see, and not forgetting the fragrant whiff in the air,
it's a great time to have an early morning walk. I did just that the other day
and saw a Tawny Owl at 8-40 a.m. I couldn't believe my eyes, unfortunately he
was too quick for me and my camera. Whilst on the subject of strange sightings,
I was in strip of woodland by a river last summer and spotted a Pipistrelle bat
at 2 in the afternoon !
There are plenty of
other wildflowers peaking in Cornwall at the moment, wild strawberries, dog
violets, forget-me-nots, red campion, greater stitchwort and one of my
favourites - Herb Robert, they are just so dainty and pretty.
The Cornish
Choughs
I'm off to the Lizard
tomorrow in search of the Chough - one of only two nesting pairs in the whole
of England. It will be a challenge capturing them on film and if I'm successful
they will make it into the new film 'Cornwall - The Wild Peninsula' - so
fingers crossed.
Update on the
Choughs - I'm afraid I didn't manage to get any more footage of the choughs on
the Lizard but as I have already filmed them it seemed wasteful to keep making
the long journey down from Looe. The latest news is that the Lizard nest has 4
female chicks.
A Chough
on Lizard Point in Cornwall
Kingfishers
I did however have the
great pleasure of filming a Kingfisher at close quarters. I sat for about an
hour and a half at one of my favourite Kingfisher spots with only a couple of
fleeting sightings as they belted along the river. I was just about to leave
when I thought I'd just have a quick look upstream.
A quick peak up the
river revealed a Kingfisher perched about 40-50 yards away. He was too far away
to get a decent shot so I crossed the river to the other bank (I only had my
walking boots on and the river was icy cold, my feet soon became numb).
I crept along the bank
to gain a better vantage point - just enough room to get a shot. The light was
awful, the breeze was moving an over hanging branch covering the Kingfisher
with mixed bright and dark light which makes things very difficult from an
exposure point of view. Not happy with the shots, I thought I'd risk creeping
slowly closer, as I crept I kept my eyes down, avoiding eye contact and just
peeking past my microphone occasionally to make sure he was still there. Now
I'm about 12 yards away from him, he looked at me and just bobbed his head up
and down, luckily for me by this time the sun had moved round a little
showering him with even sunlight. I reduced my exposure to compensate for the
bright light and the background was almost black as it was in the shade -
perfect.
I managed to get a
couple of great clips and then moved even closer - 8 yards away now. He had
another look at me, not bothered in the slightest.
Here's a couple of video
clips:
It really was a
privileged encounter (despite the wet and numb feet) with one of our most
charismatic birds. Perhaps I'll be lucky enough to catch up with him later in
the year.
Winter 2007 /
2008
Badgers
Badgers are a lot
quieter during the winter, but a visit to one of my local setts revealed that
they are quite active at the moment. With a lack of beetles and other insects,
they were busy foraging for plant bulbs, worms and anything else they might be
able to eat (including a few peanuts from me). They seemed reluctant to appear
from the sett before darkness fell, this cautiousness may be prompted by the
likelihood that cubs are in the sett by now. It won't be long before the young
cubs venture out from the safety of the sett, albeit under the protective eye
of Mum.
Badgers from my patch foraging.
I have
uploaded a 2min test clip of my local badgers - with plenty more to come yet.
Amazing creatures and a delight to see.
Let There Be
Light
Our woodlands seem very
quiet at this time, that is until a sunny day arrives. The sunshine always
manages to bring the wildlife out of their nooks and crannies. The woodland
birds are suddenly busy in the constant search for food singing as they go, but
it's not just the birds that are more cheery, I, like most people have a much
bigger smile on my face and an added spring in my step when the sun
shines.
From a filmmaking
perspective, the winter is a strange time of year, the foliage is missing from
all but the pine trees, grey days roll past and several weeks can pass without
the hint of a bit of decent light. But then, the sun comes out and what happens
is truly magical.
The winter sun provides
fantastic light, you often hear photographers talking about 'Magic Hour'. Magic
hour is that fantastic glowing light that shows itself at dawn and at dusk. It
is also great light for filming. Winter provides many more 'Magic Hours' than
any other time of year, the light stays vibrant for much longer, lighting up
the dullest scene for most of the day providing opportunities that are not to
be missed.
Great Tit making the most of the winter sunshine
By The
Water
Living in Cornwall has
the benefit of fantastic beaches and estuaries full of wildlife. My local
estuary is very busy with Oystercatchers, Redshank, Little Egrets, Curlew,
Shellduck, Grey Heron and even the odd Kingfisher. The estuary is an important
source of food, the thick mud is full of invertebrates which the waders prise
out with their long bills. They are not that easy to film though, as the
estuary is very wide in most places and getting close enough to the wildfowl is
a challenge.
The beach is also quite
lively, as well as the obvious species of Herring, Greater Black Backed and
Black Headed Gulls, we have had a small flock of Turnstones that are quite
accommodating and allow me to get quite close to them.
Turnstones on the beach.
Work
It has been an
interesting time on the work front (if you can call it that of course). The BBC
telephoned me after I had sent in some of my films, the call came from a
producer and I must admit, I was taken aback somewhat. To be telephoned
personally by one of the Natural History Unit's biggest names was an absolute
honour (I won't say who it was, as it wouldn't be right to name drop). He was
very complimentary about my work, particularly my camerawork in 'The Monarch Of
The New Forest', he said on two occasions that it was beautifully shot.
Although there wasn't an offer of work (the NHU are losing staff at the moment
due to a lack of funds), he gave me some great advice on moving forward. I
really was honoured that he had taken the time to watch half an hour of my work
and then telephone me in person. I'm sure he doesn't do that for every person
that sends in work, so feel very privileged.
In the last few days a
production company who make many programmes for broadcast has also been in
touch, they have expressed an interest in some of my ideas for programmes -
hopefully at least one of them will become a reality, and I'm just waiting for
them to get back to me - so fingers crossed.
Public
Support
I am absolutely
overwhelmed at some of the correspondence I have received in support of my film
work. I have received many e-mails, some of them from total strangers that come
across the website, and having watched my films, have taken the time to write
and express how much they enjoyed them. So thank you very much to everyone who
has sent me letters and e-mails, it's most uplifting.
The Grey Seals Of
Donna Nook
In December I made the
journey up to North Lincolnshire to film the Grey Seals at Donna Nook. I camped
in a local campsite in North Somercotes, it was freezing cold at night, and I
felt it - I hadn't camped during the winter for a few years so that's probably
why. On arrival the rain was tipping down and a howling gale was blowing, after
having a fight with the tent, I managed to get it up just before nightfall. I
had timed the trip with the weather, the forecast for the next day was very
good, and for a change the forecasters were right. I awoke to a crisp and cold
morning, it was still dark and the stars shone bright which meant clear skies.
I arrived at the Donna Nook car park at sunrise and quickly set about getting a
few sunrise shots. The morning broke with the sun low on the horizon, as I
walked along the edge of the birthing dunes the grey seals were hauled out,
many with their young pups. I had the light, the wind was acceptable and I had
the wildlife in front of me - everything was perfect. Whilst there, I met
another chap filming, he had been there for 17 days and this was the first day
of decent light he had seen. I couldn't have timed it better - I love it when a
plan comes together.
After two days of
filming I returned home and set about putting the script together and editing
the film. I was pleased with final piece, it had atmosphere and think I had
captured the spirit of the place.
