Garden wildlife pond.

I've been doing a lot of reading on the Internet about wildlife gardens. It seems that water is one is one of the best features to add to a garden to attract wildlife. 
So I've added two small ponds to a strip of ground in my garden and a small wetland created with old under the bed storage boxes.
I've also made two rock piles with twigs and logs piled in the general area.

This is the other mini wetland I've created with the storage boxes, one has a hole in the bottom so I have filled it with soil to become a bog garden.

It looks very bare at the moment but I have some bags of bulbs to plant and a load of wildflower seeds so hopefully in the summer there will be lots of colour.

The birds have been enjoying the new pond area, most of these photos were taken by my trail camera.

I'm looking forward to watching the area change as the year goes on plants will be added to the ponds when they become available in the local garden center.

Only birds this morning.

This morning I Returned To were the fox had been feeding and was in a really good position to photograph the fox if it returned, but it was a no show. Nearby pheasants began to squawk and take flight, I missed one great photo opportunity as a pheasant flew straight at my head in the dark (I ducked) probably better to miss one photo than be hit by a bird.

As the day began to lighten up several flocks of geese passed by. A flock of plover (I think) took flight from the centre of the field.

The area were the fox had been hunting was riddled with rodent size holes, I'll go there again to watch the holes.

On my way home I saw a bird of prey it seems to be a permanent resident in my patch now but I've only been able to see it from a distance.

Also saw some curlew feeding in a field.

A very cold morning but It's always nice to be out and about.

A meeting with a fox.

A cold morning and I nearly stayed in bed, glad I made myself go.
Spotted something moving down the edge of the field.
We looked at each other for a while and the fox walked out into the field glancing over at me.

Then it came back to my edge of the field and started walking back towards me.Times like this I'm glad of the camouflage gear I wear.

I was standing quite close to a ditch where I've photographed brown rats before an the fox went there to check it out.

Moving back into the field it walked past me and went into a wild patch of field and spent the morning hunting in that patch.

Eating his catch.

Glad I made the effort to get up and go out this was a brilliant morning.

Mice at night

While exploring a small woodland between a motorway and a farmers field I spotted signs of wildlife in a small pile of garden waste. I set up my camera on the tripod and waited, knew I was onto something when I saw the grass moving as something moved through it.

As I waited I saw a pheasant wandering through the area.

Later that night I saw several mice but only got one decent photo.

Unfortunatly not the best of settings the next night I changed my position  managed to get a couple of pictures and saw a lot of scurring about. I noticed that when I reached forward to zoom in and focus they would run away.

The third night I changed my set up, l attached the light to the tripod and extended it as hight as it would go that lite the area much better for general wildlife watching. I stepped back into the dark to hide my movements and used the monopod for support. Got my best pictures yet.

That seemed like a good way to set up and I will try it again. Time to move to a new field where I've seen some other small interesting holes.

Night time wildlife 2.

On a walk around a  local field I saw some bones in a clearing under a bush.

I returned  one evening to watch the patch to see what might be using it. Only a rabbit passed through while I was there.

Thank goodness for my remot trigger ! 

After a while when weariness from standing set in I packed up and took a slow walk along the edge of the field, spotted some rabbits running for cover I decided to wait and see if they came back out. 

The following pictures were taken with the camera resting on a monopod.

As I'm just starting out with nightime flash wildlife photography I'm very pleased with these images.

Gear used:- Canon100d, tripod, monopod, remote trigger,   64 buld  Led light.

Mouse hole project

Yesterday I spotted what looks like a well used set of holes at the base of a tree.
There seems to be a lot of scree around the bottom of the hole and what looks like a path from the holes around the tree going left to right.

I'll be back with sliced apple etc. to see if i can get anything to come out.

I've been looking at wheat fields to try and see a mouse, yesterday one ran across the path in front of me.

Seghill Rabbits

Came across some rabbits near Seghill they were quite animated moving around and not just being grass eating furballs.