10. A tranquil spot in India
My only foreign trip this year was in April. It was a trip I’d always hoped to be able to do one day - looking for tigers in India. I had 6 days in Ranthambhore National Park, 12 jeep safaris in all. The whole trip was wonderful, the people were all lovely and the forest was just incredibly beautiful. It was tough going at times - very hot and dusty, you get bounced around a lot in the back of the jeep, and you can easily go a few days without seeing any tigers. But it was great fun!
One morning we stopped at a dam for a rest and a cup of tea and I was able to wander off a little on my own to sit and take in the scene. There were 3 species of kingfishers flying around, peacocks and egrets in the distance, monkeys in the trees, deer by the far shore, turtles, stilts, many other birds, and no people! It must be one of the most peaceful, tranquil spots in the world, let alone India. I can almost taste the tea now just thinking of it.
9. Stag fight
Having lived near Bushy and Richmond Parks in south west London for many years I’ve spent plenty of time photographing the resident deer. The red deer rut in the Autumn is still an exciting spectacle to witness but as it’s become more popular with photographers in recent years, and as I’ve already photographed it a lot myself, I’ve definitely lost some enthusiasm for shooting it. This year I didn’t even take the big lens out, just cycled around with a medium zoom instead.
One afternoon I came across a big fight between two stags, a surprisingly rare occurrence. It was a great reminder that although these deer are used to people, they are still wild animals. The battle amongst the older, larger stags for the right to mate with the hinds is a gruelling one. For weeks they hardly eat or sleep at all because they’re too busy bellowing and charging around. I’ve woken at 3am and heard a distant stag in Bushy Park still roaring away.
This fight went on for over six minutes and the loser was left bloodied but still calling defiantly. To be so close to such powerful animals locked in combat is certainly thrilling. But when you’re also so close to a group of dog walkers, parents with little kids, bystanders filming it on their phones, and about eight other photographers, it doesn’t really feel like wildlife photography!
8. Sparrowhawk garden visit
Visiting my parents in Devon I had gone out into their back garden one late Summer evening looking for some house martins to practise on. All was quiet but sometimes when you just sit still somewhere the wildlife comes to you. I remember the sun had just gone behind a cloud and I got this strange sense that something had changed, then realised that all the garden birds had vanished. That usually means one thing - sparrowhawk! I checked the treetops and there she was, perched high up, scanning the garden for any stragglers. To the blue-tits and chaffinches she represents death, and I couldn’t help seeing her as if she was wearing a cloak and holding a scythe.
7. Kingfisher flight shot
I won’t go into great detail about this shot here as I’ll write more about photographing kingfishers in flight in future. Suffice to say, I’ve spent so many hours trying to perfect this technique and had so many near misses (and plenty of not-even-close failures) that any half-decent image I get is a great moment for me. This isn’t the perfect flight shot, of course, but it made me feel that I’m on the right track.
6. Little owls
I must have seemed a bit strange to the other people still in the park at dusk, sitting under a tree on my own with apparently nothing to do but watch it get dark. I didn’t even have a camera with me. I was just there to listen for the calls of male little owls as they established their territories in the Springtime. I did see them too, but only when it was far too dark for photography. I then left them alone for a few months to be certain not to disturb them when they had young in the nest, and returned in July when the young had fledged. It was great to be able to find them straight away. Unfortunately though, they were staying hidden until dusk and seemed to hide away again very soon after sunrise, which made photographing them pretty challenging. Delightful little birds to watch though.
5. Short-eared owl on Exmoor
I’ve been lucky enough to photograph these beautiful owls many times, and just to watch them gliding over the long grass and then suddenly plunging down onto a vole they’ve detected, is a great thing. My Dad hasn’t had quite so much luck, only a couple of brief sightings in very dim light. So to be able to take my parents up onto Exmoor at Christmas for glorious views of the surrounding countryside in late afternoon light, and for them both to get really clear views of a Short-eared owl, was a truly wonderful wildlife moment. Dad came with me on foot as we tracked the owl to where it was hunting and saw it tussle with a kestrel. Mum stayed in the car and got the best view of all when the owl flew right over the top of it.
4. Peregrine hunting teal
Ok, so when I checked I discovered this actually happened in the last few days of 2013, but who cares?! This is something I had always dreamed of seeing. The world’s fastest animal and one of the most impressive predators actually in the act of hunting, chasing down it’s prey. The action was a little distant and all happened a bit too fast to really make sense of, but the impression left was clear. The sheer speed and power of it’s flight, the tight turns, and the drama of the predator being right in amongst the flock of prey. Through a long telephoto lens it was impossible to maintain focus on the peregrine but luckily I got the focus locked back on for just long enough to get a shot. The ducks were lucky too, they all got away this time.
3. Sparrowhawk flypast
No photo with this one. It’s not really something that’s possible to photograph, although if I’d been filming with a helmet-cam I might have got something. I was in a wooded area by the side of a river and had just spotted some footprints in the mud. Hoping for signs of an otter I had bent over and was looking straight down. What I hadn’t spotted was the half-eaten body of a wood pigeon not far away. And I happened to stand back up just as it’s killer returned. A sparrowhawk, coming straight at me from the side at head height.
We only saw each other at the very last moment but it had already adjusted it’s flightpath as if I was just another tree to skim past, and it missed me by less than two metres. I got just an instantaneous view of it’s side, the cream breast with narrow black bars, and then a sustained rear view as it carried on through the wood, dodging from side to side between the trees. A three second sighting that was utterly breathtaking.
2. Hobbies
This time last year I decided that one photo I really wanted to get was of a hobby catching a dragonfly. Hobbies are small falcons that migrate here from Africa every Summer and somehow I had never managed to photograph them properly before. I thought my best chance would be in May, when they arrive and are often seen hawking for dragonflies. I made a few long trips but without much success. Then in September I heard of a pair and their young hunting over a lake in Richmond Park near my home. Great, except they were due to return to Africa at any moment and I was 150 miles away at the time! Thankfully I was able to get some time off work a couple of days later and finally got my chance.
And what a chance! At one point there were five birds hunting at once, coming in low and fast on straight runs across the lake or down one side of it, jinking suddenly when they spotted a target and then flaring back with talons outstretched to make the kill. When successful they would then pull up and climb, gliding as they ate their dragonfly. In fact they often seemed to target pairs of mating dragonflies and I've got photos of them with one in each talon.
Standing on the lake shore you didn’t know which way to look next. It was the most spectacular flying display I’ve ever witnessed. After a while I had to put the big lens down simply to rest. Technically it was the most difficult action photography I’ve ever tried and I’ll write more about that in future. A few days later I was able to go back and try again but it was too late, they had gone. At least I knew they were well fed in preparation for their epic journey.
1. Tiger
What can I say? He’s a wild tiger! And he’s about ten metres from the jeep!
This was in Ranthambhore National Park in India, towards the end of a six day holiday. Again, I’ll write more about this another time. For now I’ll just say that it was special for many reasons, most of them obvious. The tiger was completely relaxed. He’s a young male ready to establish his own territory and he’s seen plenty of jeeps before. He was just strolling down towards a water hole. There were a few other jeeps present but for a brief moment we had him all to ourselves as he decided to cut in behind us and then sit in the track right on a bend. What a magnificent creature he is!
To see more of my wildlife photography, visit my website: kevinwoodphoto.co.uk
