Back to the Mara - Part 1
Five years ago, I made my first trip to Kenya and it's fair to say I fell in love with the Masai Mara. It's not without good reason that you see so many nature documentaries made about the wildlife of the Mara and East Africa. For sheer concentration of wildlife in it's natural environment there's nowhere else quite like it.
I'd always planned to go back at some point and this year decided to make it happen. Having booked myself on a photographic tour with Exodus and Kicheche Camps in the Mara North Conservancy, the last week of June finally came around and after an 8 hour overnight flight to the sprawling expanse of Nairobi later, we found ourselves heading across town to Wilson airport and our much smaller plane into what would be our home for the next week. After a short flight into the wilderness and a grass airstrip landing, I was back in the Mara.
After being whisked off to camp (and I can't recommend Kicheche highly enough), bags were dumped, introductions done and lunch taken, and then we were off out. Our usual routine for the week was alarm call around 5:15am, coffee and biscuits at the mess tent and then out in the vehicles for 6 to catch the sunrise. Back around lunchtime, then out again from 3:30pm till after sunset, followed by a quick shower, 3 course meal whisked up by the camp's amazing chefs, a couple of beers and then bed, to be repeated the next day.
But I'm getting ahead of myself. This was day 1.
Kicheche Mara camp is situated in the Mara North Conservancy. The conservancies are geographically part of the Masai Mara reserve, but were set up as an antidote to the free-for-all that the reserve has tended to become in recent years. Still completely open and unfenced, they enforce restrictions on the number of vehicles and camps permitted, making any wildlife encounters much less of a bun-fight and back to how it used to be.
After heading out of camp, we'd come across plenty of impala, giraffes, a few kingfishers and other big birds and the odd buffalo. With June being quite early in the season and after the rains had fallen, the plains were a verdant green. There were few wildebeest around, with the migration season being some time off yet. Unsurprisingly, the main focus of our attention was big cats and it wasn't long before we found our first of the week.
This is Amani. Well known in Mara North, she'd managed to successfully raise a number of cubs, only to lose them to hyenas quite recently. She apparently kept returning to where she'd lost them, which was particularly sad to see. Despite their speed and agility, a cheetah is no match for a hyena when it comes to size and brute strength and whenever they take down a kill, they're very often just muscled out of the way. It's a real problem and one that has no clear solution.
After taking our fill as the sun went down, we headed off and worked our way back towards camp, stopping for sundowner drinks and to take in the first of many sunsets. To be continued...
Competition Winner!
A little while ago, I posted that I'd entered the Yorkshire Wildlife Trust's photographic competition and was thrilled to be picked as one of the five finalists from the pool of entries.
After the competition had closed and all the votes had been counted up from the various places that the photos were on display at, I and the other finalists were invited along to the trust's centre at Potteric Carr Nature Reserve in Doncaster for the results and prizegiving.
While I had a feeling my squirrel had done well, I had no idea how well, and I was bowled over to be declared the overall winner in the wildlife category. I was a bit chuffed, to say the least.
The evening was also a great opportunity to meet and chat with the other finalists, including those in the junior category, where the standard of photos was exceptional - wildlife photography looks safe in the hands of the next generation.
Thanks to everyone who voted for me, and more details can be found here:
http://www.ywt.org.uk/news/2015/04/16/wildlife-photo-winners-announced
https://www.facebook.com/YorkshireWildlifeTrust/posts/833800583321621
Gone Fishin'
Right then, it's high time I think I updated the blog with a few things I've been up to recently. I'm off to Kenya next week, so need to catch up!
Back in March, I got to talking with a fellow photographer who'd had some success with establishing a hide to photograph kingfishers on a tidal estuary on the England/Scotland border. I've always loved these gorgeous iridescent masters of the riverbank and have seen them from time to time while out walking, but never had the opportunity to concentrate on getting photographs.
So, I booked myself in, bombed up the motorway one evening after work and after an overnight Travelodge stopover, arrived at the location just as first light was starting to break through the trees.
Myself and two other photographers then squeezed ourselves and all our kit into, basically, a small wooden shed overlooking the river, cracked open the flask of coffee and waited.
We could tell from the clouds and overall light level that it wasn't going to be a great day, weather-wise, so ISO levels had to be pushed (often up to 3200, but I know from experience that if I get the exposure right, my 5D Mark III can cope with that just fine). After a few hours, we'd not had any luck but had heard the tell-tale pip-pip sounds as they buzzed up and down the riverbank.
Our patience was rewarded though, as the male eventually showed himself and we got some nice visits.
We knew that there was also a female around, and not long afterwards she made herself known too, resulting in squabbles with her mate over the perch. In kingfishers, the female is easily distinguished from the male if you see them together. Her plumage is effectively a desaturated version of the male's, and she has a pale orange tint to her lower bill.
Wildlife photography is not without it's challenges, and while not a risky hobby (compared to say, skydiving), it often needs patience, research, and understanding and respect of the subject and occasionally some physical discomfort. We'd been warned that with the hide being on a tidal estuary, the water level would rise up during the day and with it being close to a high spring tide, the water might come up the base of the hide.
Sure enough, bang on schedule around midday, the river level had risen substantially and we were all so focused on the birds that we initially didn't notice the water creeping into the hide itself. A feeling of wet feet resulted in a quick scramble to hoist camera bags up onto the benches and we spent our lunchtime sat with our feet in a few inches of cold water! - the things we go through...
An hour or two later, the water slowly receded and the birds seemed to reward us with some great opportunities.
As the light levels slowly dipped, the shutter speeds got ever slower and the ISO setting got ever higher, we eventually decided to call it a day after about 8 hours in the hide. A great day, and my boots are nearly dry now.
More photos from the day can be found in my Kingfishers gallery on my portfolio page. Hope you like them.
Yorkshire Wildlife Trust Photographer Competition
I don't tend to enter too many competitions, so it's always a nice surprise to be told I'm through to either a subsequent or final round of voting.
The Yorkshire Wildlife Trust is one of a number of wildlife trusts across the country. They're charities, protecting and providing access to wild places up and down the country.
For their 2015 photography competition, I entered one of my images of a leaping red squirrel. Taken in foul weather last year in North Yorkshire, one of the few places outside of Scotland where they're making a comeback against the greys, jumping from branch to branch, the wet weather at least made for interesting effects with the little guys leaving trails of water droplets behind them.
From the pool of photographs entered, the judges selected this as one of the five finalists, and these are available for public voting to decide a winner.
If you've got five minutes, feel free to have a look, and cast your vote for your favourite:
http://www.ywt.org.uk/vote-wildlife15
Voting closes on Friday - 13th Feb
Cheers!
Mark
A Hare for All Seasons
With the new year now upon us I'm looking forward to my photography plans for 2015, but it also seems an opportune moment to pause and look back on what was probably my favourite project of the past year.
On reflection, 2014 was a pretty good year. I got to see wild otters in Shetland, soaring gannets (again in Shetland and also on the east coast), red squirrels, foxes and more red kites than you could shake a stick at.
Coming into 2014 though, I resolved to put concerted effort into another species. Living on the edge of the Peak District, I'd known for a good while that mountain hares were to be found up on the moors (indeed the one location outside of the Scottish highlands where they exist in any numbers), but I'd never managed to see one myself.
After a fair amount of research and many hours criss-crossing the peak district moorland in a variety of weathers, patience started to pay off. There's a moment, I find, when out with my camera when after a number of hours of no-shows your heart starts to sink a little and you feel that today might not be your day.
But then you'll spot some movement on the horizon and suddenly everything changes.
This was taken from one of my first trips at the beginning of February and with no snow covering the ground, the hares were quite distinctive in their white winter coats against the moorland grass and heather. Getting close enough was a different matter though. If the wind is not in your favour and they catch your scent, see your distinctive human form against the skyline or hear you coming with those radar-like ears, you've had it. I ended up with plenty of blurry images of the backs of hears disappearing into the distance.
Gradually, I was able to work out a way of getting closer without disturbance. By the beginning of March, their summer coats were starting to come through on a few individuals.
Finally, a couple of weekends later, the patience finally paid off with a cooperative subject, good light, time and a healthy dash of luck.
With being away during the summer, and other demands on my time, I resolved to go back and see how they were getting on as autumn set in. As the autumn colours took hold, they were a little difficult to pick out from amongst the bracken and heather, their summer coats still in place, but it at least made for a nice splash of colour.
Finally, as the year came to a close and we saw the first snows of winter, their trademark white coats were once again back on show.
I really enjoyed the time that I spent in the company of these beautiful animals this year and despite whatever else I get up to this year, if a winter or early spring weekend morning brings some sunshine, frost or, even better, a covering of snow, it's more than likely I'll once again go and try my luck.
Thanks a lot for reading and more hare photos can be found in my gallery from the photography link at the top of the page.