Peregrine

 

It`s remained a quiet month photography wise for me. Being unable to track down the Bittern and Otters at WWT, but I did manage to have a flyby from this Peregrine on North Gower last Saturday while I was waiting, unsuccessfully, for Harrier to turn up. 

Generally though it`s all been quiet, with even my attempts to photograph the comet have been clouded out so far. With the flu-like cold still dragging on from December, I haven`t been out as much as I would have liked. Still, plans remain and I hope everything will pick up soon.

Nice to see more activity from our local foxes again. Hoping that they`ll have a successful new family this year, so added that to my list of things to regularly look out for. 

Jeff Beck

 

So sorry to hear that we have lost Jeff Beck over the last week.

Although I don`t know a lot of his work, he was a superb guitarist. One of my `top twenty of everything` tracks has to to be People get ready, which he did with Rod Stewart. 

Another one gone.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yC_j_dzkaVE

strange start to the year

It`s been a mixture of bad weather and still feeling a bit rough post-covid during this first week of the new year. My one venture out with the camera during the week wasn`t very productive at all.

I went to Llanrhidian on the North Gower coastline to try and photograph the Hen Harriers that are there for the winter, but the few glimpses were way out (even long-distance with a telescope), and it was just one of those days. Having had a Hen Harrier so close to me on New years day, when I DIDN`T have a camera with me, it`s been a frustrating one.

This Hen Harrier was taken just over a year ago at an undisclosed location closer to home. The birds are persecuted, particularly during the breeding season up on the moors, and we are fortunate to have them on the coastal marshes during the winter.

Apart from feeling pretty rough still, i`ve continued making a few plans that I hope to get round to and achieve in the coming year.

So not much of a diary blog entry, but here`s to a more productive month ahead (fingers crossed)

Kingfishers in 2022

Last year I spent a considerable amount of time studying and recording the fortunes of a pair of Kingfishers, getting clearer data on their breeding success for the first time. This was discretely done away from any nest site disturbance, but close enough to monitor their fortunes.

During the summer the heat became almost unbearable inside the bag hide, as it reached 38C outside. It must have exceeded 40C inside the hide, which almost `wraps` over you, so there is very little space to breathe. However the effort was well worth it, and the information gathered will help with any new monitoring during 2023.

PROJECT 1:

This year I hope to set up a secondary site to keep an eye on, away (hopefully) from the disturbance and threat of dogs in particular. It`s also important that breeding sites and perches are away from people, as the slightest disturbance can be seen as a potential threat, and they would abandon a site for a safer area.

Last year, the main pair I was watching had two successful broods, and it will be interesting to see how they fair this year. As for the second potential site, which depends on getting away from disturbance, I plan to set up some perches at suitable spots by early April, and these will be in places where there might be a plentiful supply of fish, but not too far from where they might try and nest. 

Kingfisher are Schedule 1 birds, meaning they must not be disturbed at or near the nest site. My plan would be set something up away from the site, particularly where they may be a lack of other perches around. If they are not too far away, they should hopefully be adopted as `training perches` for any young ones.

We shall see!

Is there anybody out there? .........

 

The quest for `casual work!:

For those that might follow me on LinkedIN, you might remember I posted a notice last year to say that I was having to give up my self-employment / freelancing, which I carried out both as a photographer and also with a mix of my former practice management and web skills. 

Things reach a point where you no longer get responses enquiries or offers of work, relating in particular to opportunities that I see to help people with work that hasn`t been done, or maybe specific projects. Websites are often well out of date, staff profiles are incomplete, website imaging is poor or the wrong resolution, etc. The list goes on.

After many attempts to offer help on a freelance basis, the lack of work, or even replies,  meant that eventually I had to `bite the bullet` and, unfortunately, stop my self employment.

 With the pandemic also affecting the photography tuition days I had lined up or proposed, it was a difficult decision  to make, but the right thing to do. So unfortunately I finally closed the `russartworx` website, but I have restarted this blog to go alongside my social media. 

So 2023 is now here, and I am available for casual work, based from home. 

The benefits of this to any employer are:

• there is no `employed staff` overhead, including salary, NI contributions, holiday payment / entitlement, Pension contribution, etc
• no office software licencing or hardware overhead relating to me
• no office space used up
• work can be carried out at an agreed rate and an achievable time
• projects or work, suitably outsourced, may actually be physically achieved rather than left undone
• by working from home, and particularly in the evenings, urgent work might be able to be turned around by the following day
• `News`, whether website or social media, could be kept up to date and not left unattended, subject to login access rights
• it would be made clear if I was unable to help, so there would be no time wasting

In so far as PHOTOGRAPHY is concerned, I am still able to carry out casual work for private tuition, wildlife photography, business / corporate work, staff and personal profile portraiture (I still have my mobile speedlite setup), and imaging for websites and marketing. 

If you would like to get in touch to discuss anything, I can be emailed at russartworx [@] gmail.com (no brackets or gaps), or messaged via social media. I can of course set up a video call using zoom, Teams or skype, by arrangement.

If you think it`s time to keep on top of your website `shop window` and keep things up to date that aren`t up to date, please get in touch.

In the meantime, I have some personal projects to try take forward. 😀

See you back soon

New Year`s day at WWT

 A good day today at the WWT event in Llanelli. The weather was quite blustery (what`s new), but it was good to bump into some people I hadn`t seen for a while. These included some who`d been on prior WWT events where I had been volunteering, including a couple who I hadn`t seen since before the pandemic but said "Hiya Russ!"..... , and it was as if no time had passed.

As i`d set aside the day to help visitors, I left my camera equipment home for the day. Little did I know that I was to come within about 30 metres of a female Hen Harrier early afternoon. This might not mean anything if you`re not really into birds, but if you are - it was an experience. This stunning, rare winter raptor was being bothered by crows for about 15 mins before it came that close. 

While I was on my rounds I found my first Barn Owl pellet of 2023 - again without my camera - but just took a rather naff record of it on my phone. The pellets get dried and later analysed, as they can contain two or three different remains of prey. This helps look at the health of habitats, and the hunting areas of the owls.

After a good few hours there, picking out other species for people, including Kingfisher, it was time to drag myself away until another day.

The weather looks better tomorrow, before it goes into a wet spell again, so hopefully out and about - with the camera this time!

Happy New Year!

 

January 1st, 2023:

It`s the start of another new year, and i`ll be at WWT Llanelli today, not for photography, but to help with their New Year`s day event.

Looking  forward to seeing what will be around today, and perhaps bumping into some old friends that I haven`t met probably for quite some time.

I didn`t make `midnight` last night, always preferring to be up early rather than struggle to keep my eyes open late at night for the sake of it. So staying up to see in a new year is a bit of a challenge, but I gave in last night and curled up while everyone else in the country was probably partying!

So another year is starting off with volunteering at WWT again, in what will be my 18th year.  

Whatever you are doing, a happy new year to you.

Best wishes.