Butterflies galore!

I had a rather pleasant surprise this morning, I found this group in my garage of butterflies, of Small Tortoiseshell and Peacock. Unfortunately two hadn't made it over the winter but the rest flew happily away. 

Images only taken from the iPhone.

Thanks for looking

Eve :)

Facebook: Eve Russell Photography

Twitter: @Wildwatcher_Eve

Website: www.everussellphotography.com | www.wildwatchercollections.co.uk

A great day photographing Red Squirrels at Neil McIntyre's site

Yes... more squirrels! :)

Me and a friend Wendy, spent the morning photographing Red Squirrels at Neil's site in Aviemore, and not long after we arrived the first squirrel appeared. 

The squirrel posed lovely in quite a few different spots for us and stayed for a while giving us a good amount of time to photograph. She was exceedingly cute and a rather cheeky character and sure demands her food lol.

It was quite hard choosing with taking so many images on the day, but here are some of the images...

It was a great morning out, enjoyed by both me and Wendy (she has posted some of her photo's on Twitter, you can find her at - @benjiandblossom) and thanks again to Neil :)

(Neil also offers other workshops and tours - www.neilmcintyre.com)

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After Neil's, we headed off up to the Cairngorm Mountain so see what wildlife was around. I was hoping for some Snow Buntings as every time I go they never seem to be around, but we were lucky and saw a group of about 10-15 of them. We were attempting to photograph them but they would not stay still, so unfortunately only a record shot. 

We headed to the Rothiemurchus Visitor Centre for some lunch after this then to a few more wildlife spots. - Overall a great day out!

Thanks for looking,

Eve :)

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Facebook: Eve Russell Photography

Twitter: @Wildwatcher_Eve

Website:www.everussellphotography.com / www.wildwatchercollections.co.uk

A great day up the Mountain for Mountain Hares & a bit of unexpected news!

With the weather not looking too bad I decided to head up the mountain looking for Mountain Hares. I was hoping for a bit of snow to be there and luckily enough there was snow! 

It didn't take me too long to spot a few hares about, some were moving away and luckily enough the guy below was quite comfy with my presence and posed rather nicely for about an hour.

The sun kept popping in and out with a slight bit of snow falling that added a nice bit of atmosphere to the image below.

There's something about the Mountain Hare and it's amazing how they survive such different weather conditions and also how they change in colour to camouflage well in the different seasons.

I'll be back photographing these guys in a few weeks and it will be interesting to see any changes in them and there environment.

Thanks for looking!

Eve :)

PS: Had some rather unexpected news on Friday from Outdoor Photography magazine and found out that I won there 'Winter Wildlife' photography competition. It certainly did put a smile on my face and was a nice start to the weekend! The image that won was the top image in this blog post, which was a favourite of mine from the day.

Camera and equipment used on the day: Nikon D800, taken with a 70-300mm zoom lens and a bean bag used.

You can also join me on...

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Twitter: @Wildwatcher_Eve

Website: www.everussellphotography.com

A lovely Red Squirrel from the weekend #Highland

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A wee Chaffinch from today #Highland #Scotland

Twitter: @Wildwatcher_Eve   |   Facebook: Eve Russell Photography

Black Grouse and a few new bird sightings for me!

Yesterday was a rather early start (3am!) with a trip to North Wales. I spent a full day with Alan & Ruth from the Biggest Twitch and John. We arrived at a particular location around 7am for Black Grouse, as soon as we arrived the birds were out lekking. We spent over half an hour - possibly longer as time fly's when your enjoying yourself, watching these guys was amazing! Certainly a highlight of the day.

Afterwards and throughout the day we stopped off at a few different locations seeing what was around and we had a lot of spectacular sightings & some of them being a few new ones for me!

Sightings...

Dipper 3
Ravens 5+ pairs easily
Black grouse 40-ish males and a few females
Red grouse 1
Kestrel 3
Crossbills 4
Grey shrike 1
GSW 1
Pheasant 9
Grey wagtail 1
Bullfinch 2
Stock doves 4
Buzzard 24
Squirrel 3
Red Kite 6
Lapwing
Fieldfare 2
Rooks 30+
Mistle thrush 1
Greenfinch male 1
Siskin female 1
Shelduck 3
Sparrowhawk 1
Hawfinch 1
Farmland goose 1
Curlew 2
Greylag & Canadian geese 50+
Mute swans 2
Pied wagtail 1
Goldeneye 2
Redshank 2
Snipe 1
Tufted duck 2
Pochard 4
Crested grebe 3
Heron 8
Shag 7
Wigeon 10+
Teal 10+
Red breasted mergansers 4
Shoveler 1
Scaups
Jay 3
Little egret 1
Oystercatcher 4
Little grebe 1

I probably have missed a few more off the list as well.

It was a fantastic day, lots of Buzzard sightings and a few unexpected Red Kites which I didn't expect so see at all! As I usually only see these when I'm up in Highland near The Black Isle.

New sightings for me were the Grey Shrike and Hawfinch (stunning little birds).

You can read more here from The Biggest Twitch diary... www.thebiggesttwitch.com/diary/once-more-to-the-moors

Highlights for me - The Black Grouse, Red Kites and Hawfinch.

Many thanks to Alan & Ruth for a great days birding!

Eve :)

Twitter: @Wildwatcher_Eve

Facebook: Eve Russell Photography

Red Grouse taken in the heather moorland #Highland