Wildlife
A lone herring jumps for freedom, sandwiched between two ocean giants. The humpback whales work together as part of a team to scare the herring to the surface using high pitch shrieks and blowing bubbles under the water, this pushes the herring upwards, whilst also scarring them close together into tight knit bait balls. Once in the correct place, the humpbacks will launch their attacks in a speed strike at the surface. Lucky herring escape the massive nets, while others are not so lucky.
A humpback whale breaches, as it wakes up from a sleep. The breaching helps to bring them out of the sleepiness, so then they are ready to be active and start hunting herring or krill. The hardest part of photographing breaches, is knowing where the whale is going to come up. But a few little signs, such as a quick fluke or a quick dive can often give away that the whale will be about to breach.
A English rabbit, stares into the camera, trying to workout what this device is. Rabbits are incredibly curious animals and if you give them a chance to investigate, with limited movement and camouflage, they will sometimes even come up to the end of your lens if you’re lucky. This one didn’t quite come that close, but it was standing on it’s back legs at times.
A group of eight humpback whales bubble net feed together, coming up at different angles and in different places, the whales try to cover all the ground, making sure few herring escape their nets. Skin from the whales after a feed will often be left in the water, as they feed, they often knock into each other, which sheds little amounts of skin.
A lone humpback whale comes up to feed at the surface outside of BC Whales’s research station at Fin island. As the water depth is so deep, whales can feed just metres from islands shoreline. This allows the research team to conduct close up surveys, whilst maintaining no disturbance to the whales.
A Fin whale (second largest animal on earth) takes a deep breath before diving down to the lower depths. Often it will take a fin whale around 10 minutes on an average dive, so typically in that time they can travel a long distance, as they’re capable of speeds as fast as 22-25mph, which gives them their name, as the ‘greyhounds’ of the sea.
Two humpback whales dive down to the depths together, as they prepare for the next step in their feeding frenzy. Both whales are part of a team of 8 whales, which are currently out of view. These whales work together every season and are known to be found together.
The interesting markings on this whales fluke, have been caused by feeding. When Humpback whales feed, they often knock bits of skin off each other, so when the whales leave, we go and check the area and will find bits of skin lying in the water where they have been feeding.
A black bear in the great bear rainforest hunts pink salmon in a creek on gribbel island. Moments like these starring across at such a powerful, yet curious animal, gives you the shivers, but at the same time makes you so thankful that we are still able to see beautiful wildlife like this.
A humpback whale breaches out in the fjord, having just woken up from a sleep. A good 7 breaches were recorded, as the whale decides it needed a little longer than just a couple of breaches.
A group of Atlantic puffins stare on, as one puffin with sand eels, gets chased away by an Arctic Skua. These small puffins, are often targeted by the Skuas due to their very successful catches. Whereas, some birds like Arctic terns will often only manage to catch one sand eel.
Two white tip reef sharks rest on the floor of the ocean, around Daphne minor island in the Galapagos islands. Each one at almost right angles, made for a nice composition.
A Rabbit briefly appears out of its burrow, to have a quick bite to eat, before disappearing again. Just before it fed, it was very cautious that something was wrong, so it sat there for a bit just trying to workout if it was safe to stay around.
A marine iguana basks in the sun on the rocks. Like most iguanas, they spend much of the day sat on the hot rocks, but the other part of their day is spent in the ocean or inter-tidal zone, feeding on sea weed. This individual had just got out from a dive 20 minutes before this shot was taken.
A family of marine iguanas rest together on the rocks, as the sun starts to go down, the iguanas stay close together for warmth. One of the iguanas is also sneezing in the background, getting rid of excess salt in it’s body.
The back of a humpback whales fluke is very important for identifying different individuals apart from each other, the unique markings and scraps they carry on the back, make it easy to tell them apart. Often Humpback whales will carry injuries from boat propellers, or rake marks from Orca attacks.
A humpback whale breaches a number of times in the fjords, maybe ridding itself of parasites, or perhaps a territorial purpose, but this whale hadn’t been sleeping before these breaches.
In a small cave in the Galapagos islands, thousands of small fish call this underwater habitat their home. Being engulfed in their world and understanding how they live, is an incredibly important thing to learn, if you want to protect them and the place they call home. Only being down there, can you fully appreciate how beautiful their world is, but also how fragile it is too.
A stranded Fin whale became the sadest story of Cornish wildlife in 2020, however, this should be used as a wake up call to a lot of wildlife standings that go unseen or unanswered. Marine life is struggling and it’s because of our attitudes towards wildlife that we are seriously affecting their chances of survival. If we just instead listen to their cries and change the way we interfere with their environment, then there is still hope of change.
A group of four chital are seen feeding and keeping alert in the early morning mist of Kanha Tiger reserve. The chital must stay alert all the time, as Tigers and leopards could be stalking them at any time. This mist would make it particularly hard for them to see the predators coming.
A marine iguana basks in the sunrise golden light, peering over the edge of a rock, this creates a nice diagonal and a good portrait expression from this beautiful reptile.
A red-vented bulbul perches on the top of a reed. This photograph was taken in Kanha tiger reserve in central India (Mandla).
A Barasingha deer stands in the golden hour light, with a ‘racket tailed drongo’ standing on its back. Barasingha deer are indigenous to this region of India and are only found in Kanha Tiger Reserve. The meaning of the word is derived from the deer having 12 points on their antlers when full grown.
Barasingha deer grazing in the midday haze on the open grassland in Kanha Tiger Reserve. These deer generally stay out here in the open, as grassland areas are where they feed and also it is safer from predators like Tigers.
Chital (also known as spotted deer) are very common in reserves in India, they are one of a Tiger’s favourite prey and are highly predated on by leopards too. When alarmed they will make high-pitch sounds that echo through the jungle, thus warning any other prey of the incoming danger. They have a special relationship with the langurs, in which both species will warn each other if there is danger coming.
Mid way through a yawn or perhaps an alarm call, its hard to tell. These two were very content with having a little drink in the stream, but one is always on the look out while the other drinks and then they switch up the roles. This is vital, as being down below in the river, they can’t see the predators coming.
This bird is called the ‘Indian Roller’, arguably one of India’s prettiest birds. When they fly off, one will see a plumage of bright blue feathers, which looks colourful and beautiful. This bird was just perched on a branch above the track, whilst we were on safari.
Two Humpback whales sync up their dives, as they need to work as a team to hunt herring. If one member of the team makes a wrong room, the herring could dive for the deep and disappear. They need to get below them in order for their plan to work.
Humpback whales often will fluke when they dive, this is when their fluke (tail) comes above the water. This is usually performed when a whale is making a deep dive, they need the extra power from the fluke to push them deeper down into the ocean.
Recently (over the last month), i’ve been following a family of foxes and following the kits as they start to grow up. This image is the first time I saw the Dog fox and he happened to be carrying a fresh kill, a female hen pheasant. It was a short encounter, but for just a brief few seconds we admired each other at work, before he carried off on his journey back to the den. (May 2020).
A fox cub stares at the camera, as I patiently wait for the right moment with the cub starring straight down the lens.
This little cub decided that the wall provided it with a good vantage point. During the early summer months, the nettles are very tall, so being high up on the wall, the cub could survey its families territory.
The vixen during the snow in early 2021. It’s not just people who get excited by the snow, the foxes do too.
A cheeky grin, for a happy and well fed fox.