Yellowhammer – Stephen's Wildlife

The B3082 is the main road between Blandford and Wimborne. Where it runs beside the Iron Age fort of Badbury Rings there is an Avenue of Beech trees, originally planted in the first half of the nineteenth century by William John Bankes as a birthday gift to his Mum. There are 365 trees on one side of the road (one for every day of the year) and 366 on the other (for a leap year). Don’t ask me which side is the leap year. The trees are showing signs of age and many have been replaced.

The photo above was taken at 11.00 am yesterday, a rather overcast winter day. The headlights of modern cars are automatically illuminated due to the poor light. Modern life with its man made pressures, routines and deadlines co-exists alongside a more natural environment with its own rhythms and seasons.

However, the instruction to cars as they approach this point in big bold letters on the road is “SLOW”. So let’s take a brief moment to pause, to observe and appreciate the grace and beauty of the natural world.

A great tit shares a tree with a chaffinch. Two male pheasants stand overlooking a field, before being spooked and taking flight. A Fieldfare sits at the very top of a tree. A flock of Yellowhammer flies into the hedgerow, staying just long enough for a picture or two. A bird of prey in the distance not allowing me to get too close.

And the farming activity of the Kingston Lacy estate.

Now, where’s my to do list…

Great tit (foreground) with Chaffinch (background)

Farming activity along the labyrynth of tracks behind Badbury Rings

Most of my walking is without a camera. I probably clock up 20 miles a week just doing the school run. Its part of my fitness regime, which I missed out on during the first UK lockdown when schools were closed. Joe Wicks did a sterling job with his online HIIT workouts during that time, although the ‘High Intensity’ element was a bit challenging.

Most days I will join Jacki and Pippin on the daily mid morning exercise walk. I may take my camera on this. I love the countryside of East Dorset. We have an amazing diversity of habitat: woodland, heathland, farmland, riverside walks, lakes, beaches, cliffs and gardens. We also have quite diverse wildlife. One can never be sure what one will see.

The season has an impact on the light, which is quite important for a photographer. I was out over the weekend and the light was constantly changing: bright sunshine one moment and cloud cover the next. I was changing camera settings for every shot and making further adjustment for whether the subject was light on a dark background or dark on a light background.

For the past two years I have focused my photography on wildlife requiring fast shutter speeds, a lot of patience and a sudden flurry of activity lasting only a few seconds. More recently I am trying to introduce more landscape photography. The fundamentals are the same, but the technique is quite different. The landscape isn’t moving so slower shutter speeds can be used and a tripod. The lens is different too. Instead of a long telephoto lens, landscape photography uses more of a wide-angled lens. I am still getting to grips with the technique and will try and share some of my efforts in the blog over time.

This blog post includes some recent shots from heathland walks. First are a couple of landscape shots of Holt Heath in the sunshine. Followed by an excited Pippin. Then we have a few birds: peregrine falcon, yellowhammer, blackbird, thrush and dartford warbler all from heathland locations. As the nights are now drawing in and sunset is about 4.30 pm, there are a couple of moon shots. And finally, a rainbow; we’ve had quite a few of these recently reflecting the changeable nature of the Dorset weather at the moment.