Outdoor Photographer & Writer in Northern Ireland

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Enjoying what's on your doorstep

I remember watching Ray Mears on television a few years ago saying that, when in the woods, he sometimes travels less than a mile in a day. His reason was that there was so much to see that he didn't need to travel far and fast. It may be a little difficult to appreciate this until you try it for yourself. Last summer I started wandering around more slowly, looking at the details, paying attention to the sounds, looking up in the trees and down at the ground. In a sense I always have done this, but when you really start to pay attention there is so much more than you at first think.

Before I go any further, let me point out that I'm not advocating that people only stay locally. This week I travelled up to Rathlin Island off the north coast of Northern Ireland to see Puffins. I've never seen them before and I thoroughly enjoyed the experience - co-existing with the puffins were guillemots, razor bills, kittywakes and fulmers. The same day I also saw twites for the first time along with a number of other rarish birds. Indeed I had been planning to travel to another continent this year until tribal violence broke out along the intended route. So if you want to go and see tigers in India or orangutans in Borneo, then I'm not against that (in fact I'd encourage you to go and see the orangutans!)

Recently, for various reasons, I have been going out with a specific intent - something that I have been focussed on achieving. So yesterday I packed my gear and just went out without a plan. The idea was just to wander along slowly and see what was there to be seen. First stop was a bramble patch where I had noticed a number of small birds flying in and out. Careful not to disturb the birds as much as I could I crouched down in a relatively thorn free patch and waited to see what came along. First up was a couple of rock pipits, clearly in nest building mode as they had mouthfuls of nest material. Soon I saw another bird, although I couldn't work out what it was until I spotted its gape ... so a young bird, but what kind? The answer flew along soon enough as mum and dad stonechat made an appearance on the scene and baby opened the gape wide to accept what appeared to be an insect of some kind. There were other birds flying about too - the linnet, an endangered species (on the IUCN Red List) made a welcome appearance. These seem to be present along the coastline here as I saw some further down the coast only a week or so ago. This bird is still wearing its winter coat - as the season progresses further in to spring and summer the red will develop on its breast and and red cap will appear to match.







I believe that there is a latent interest in people about the fauna and flora that surrounds them, however, because of a somewhat odd need for humans to attach labels to things, a lack of information prevents most people from developing passing curiosity into anything of greater depth. To illustrate this, as I was walking along the coast to a nearby meadow where I hoped to see more birds I was stopped by a couple who had seen me in the bramble patch (hey, out of the ordinary behaviour attracts attention!), they asked me what the bird was that I had been photographing. "Which one? There were several there. What did it look like?" The gentleman proceeded to describe a male stonechat - a species which often sits on favoured perches. They had often seen this bird (or other males) and had always wondered what it was. They weren't the first people to stop me to ask a question that day and neither were they the last.

On reaching the meadow, it was strangely quiet. I had expected there to be more birds, but with the exception of the obligatory robin and a dunnock, the only other birds were passing pigeons and crows. Hey ho, that's OK because the season has changed and there are different things to see now. The great thing about living in a temperate climate is that we do get a noticeable change in seasons, each with their own character. This meadow, in the winter, is relatively dull. Long grass and muddy underfoot. The most interesting parts are the surrounding trees were various tits, finches and other species feed on the pine cones (stripping them of seeds) and digging insects from the bark. Now in spring the meadow has transformed into a carpet of wild flowers - I can't tell you what they all are, I don't know, but that doesn't change how beautiful they are.



There are some woods close to this meadow and I wanted to see what might be in current residence, so a short wander, disturbing a few rabbits feeding along the path on the way, and I'm enclosed in a canopy of larch, alder and willow and beech. This is the downside to spring and summer, the leaves make it much more difficult to see the fauna. I can hear birds, but I'm not strong on bird calls. There is something right above me, but I can't see it clearly, I think it may be a warbler of some kind - I lose patience after about 10 minutes and quietly move over to where I can hear what I think are tits. Sure enough, there are a pair of blue tits, later to be joined by what I at first assumed to be coal tits, but I never quite got a clear view. Moving though some trees I find myself staring straight at a real prize - a pair of bullfinches! Another species on the IUCN red list, I have only ever seen a few other pair of bullfinches and so I'm really pleased to see them here. With a bright pinkish red breast and a bold black head the male is unmistakable - a dimorphic species, the female is very similar but has a more browny-golden breast. Sadly I missed the opportunity to record this sighting as they soon departed, probably unhappy with my presence. I'm glad to have seen them regardless.

I continue to wait patiently and listen, but seeing past the leaves is just too difficult, although I have noticed that, in the lowering sun, it isn't necessary to see past the leaves. There is much activity going on in front of me and around me. Butterflies make an appearance, but are skittish and hard to observe closely. A high pitched buzz by my head catches my attention and I turn to see a hoverfly which seems, to all intents and purposes, to be looking right back at me. Many people see the stripes on hoverflies and assume they are either wasps or bees. This isn't a totally unreasonable assumption, with over 250 British hoverfly species, there are some hoverflies that look very like bees. Eristalis tenax is a good honey bee mimic, while Volucella bombylans exists in several forms and mimics several bumble bee species.

To the best of my knowledge the species shown here is Syrphus ribesii, but the larger insect I think may actually be a bee of some sort ... but I don't know what kind! Answer on a postcard please ... or via the contact page!





I recently broke my watch, which gives a wonderfully relaxed feel to life. Gauging time becomes dependant on things like the angle of the sun or how hungry one has become and eventually both these signals were telling me it was time to go home. On the way I met a few more people out enjoying the sun, everyone has a different way of enjoying the outdoors, whether it is walking the dog for relaxation, climbing mountains for the physical challenge, or just spending time with someone important. Just once in a while I would encourage people to go and and just walk a bit more slowly and observe their surroundings. I reckon that they would be surprised at how beautiful the things that they take for granted really are.



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