I like to blog. I enjoy writing  a diary,  that's essentially all a blog is of course..  This blog, "Wildlife in a Suburban Garden" has been up and running for the last 9 years, it started as a way of recording the comings and goings of the wild things in an around my garden.  This quickly spread further afield and as I became more and more inspired by the photos I began yo take, that side of it took over.  It's had its ups and downs, it has followers who compliment and comment – and I am sincerely grateful, thank you – but it also has had  its detractors, people who feel it is an open forum for expressing their own negative opinions and usually their petty jealousies.  Like I said to everyone of those detractors, if you want to comment about life then my blog is not the vehicle to do it, get your own!  So there we have the tone of my new approach. I hope to talk about life a bit more and all the ups and downs. I want talk about – just a little – about what it's like to be 66 and what it's like to have all the important decisions in the world made by people almost still in nappies and perhaps, who knows, it may even be cathartic.

Jenny, my life partner and wife for the last 45 years tells me that she doesn't like Dartmoor, she see it as bleak and a tad barren for her taste.  We had a great day out on a trip to some of my favourite haunts yesterday.  Dartmoor is one of my favourite places to visit, I  love the wide open spaces, the peace and real silence but the bottom line is, it's just beautiful. 

We started at Holne Moor and Venford Reservoir specifically. We hiked a mile or so and got ourselves in to a position to see the wide glorious scene in front of us. Not a soul or unnatural sound got in the way, it was breathtaking in its simple beauty and we both agreed that when the sun shines, England is the equal of any exotic holiday destination. There was a distinct absence of bird life though, just a couple of Ravens and the occasional Meadow Pipit which was the only disappointment.  Oh and Jenny gave me 8 out of10 so I must have converted her just a little bit.

As a wildlife enthusiast, blogger and photographer I have been busy these last few days trying to photograph Kingfishers and Buzzards. My local brook always has a resident Kingfisher in the late summer right through until February and with lots of patience and a bit of knowhow it's not that difficult to get photographs that anyone would be proud of. However it's frustrating and sometimes you can spend 3 hours without success, three hours that you won't get back, but it's worth it on balance.  The last three days have been particularly unsuccessful and it's hard for me to understand why.  I have a perch planted in the water that was being used constantly up until Monday but after that, the resident seems reluctant to perch there – It's an adult male this year.  I thought it may be due to the time of day that I had been visiting to coincide with the best light for photography in this spot, from 5 until dusk, so I went a bit earlier today.  As I approached the spot I heard a Kingfisher and it seemed as though there were 2 calling, if that were so it would explain why there was so much excitement.  Within seconds I saw one flying downstream and past me, I had a glorious view with that exotic turquoise tail covert flashing to me in glorious technicolor. Then a short while later it flew back towards me again, this time upstream of course, frustration!  Then as if to tease me even more. minutes later it flew back in the other direction again!  By this behaviour I guessed that something was going on and I am not even sure of course  that it was the same bird on each occasion. I have lost count of the hundreds and hundreds of times I have had a Kingfisher in front of me on a perch so it's hard for even me to explain my obsession and fascination and why I'm prepared to sit there waiting as I do, in to the second hour of the session. Then at the end of that sentence, I look up and there he was, like I said, I hadn't photographed him since Sunday so success now seemed all the sweeter.  After posing for me for a few minutes he flew back down stream again. Bingo as they say!

Wow, who can believe that this is a British bird, so exotic.

Later on in the evening I went to the caravan hide where I had put out some goodies earlier in the day for the Buzzards and hopefully Jays as well. I was thrilled when both species put in very cautious appearances. I managed to take a few shots of the Jay who came in attracted to some peanuts.  In my experience they absolutely adore peanuts. However the Buzzard was much more difficult proving that they are perhaps more intelligent than Jays and this one this evening for example wasn't going to be fooled by me, I need to work a bit harder to be successful.  It landed for no more than 5 seconds and I didn't even have chance to press the cameras shutter before it flew off quickly, however it wasn't noisy and I don't think it was too spooked and was just not prepared to take any chances, typical of birds of prey.

Not a bad day when you get photos of two of your favourite species.  Jays are wary so its always a bit special to get a shot of this member of the crow family, our most attractive but murderous species.

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