Lee Harrison's Nature Photography.: March 2010

well this is virtually nose bleed territory, 2 blogs in 2 weeks, this week I didn't have much time to spare, so I just went for a walk around a local reservoir, not really expecting to much I just pottered round without a care in the world, after walking for about 10min. I noticed a small group of 3 Goldeneye (1 male, 2 females) milling around very close to the edge, sensing a possible photo opportunity, I sat back and watched the way the moved for a short while, slowly edging towards them, eventually I got my self in a good position, quite well hidden and low to the water and waited, within seconds they were there, no more that 5 - 10 metres away, diving, feeding generally just ducking around, at one point the male started to call in a very strange way, which I think is a Territorial or courtship act, I have never seen this behavior in the wild, only in wildfowl collection such as Martin Mere, the male bird would arc its head and neck back onto its back and then release it forward whilst letting out a strange grunting/quacking call, this behaviour was captured in the first picture below if anyone knows why they do this please let me know. After watching these beautiful duck and taking way to many pictures, I came away to leave them in peace, these really are one of my favourite duck and I'm very happy I had this opportunity to photograph them,

I hope you like them...

"Calling???"

Well I no that there's a few pics, but I didn't Like to pick between them, I hope that you like them,

Thanks always Lee Harrison.

Well once again I'm going to have to apologise for the recent lack of posts but with college work and a recent fishing trip over to Lincolnshire the blog has taken a bit of a back seat but I'm hoping to update at least weekly from now on...

Well this is a bit different but I thought that I'd make it a post anyway, I head over to Lincolnshire for a 4 day pike fishing trip with an old school friend(Chris), it's something that we have always wanted to do and it been 9 years in the planning so as you can imagine I was rather looking forward to it.

Day 1

Setting off early, we arrived at our first fishing location the south 40ft drain for 10:30, on arrival things looked good and I was feeling quite optimistic, overcast, not "to" cold but still flipping freezing, over the day the weather went from bad to worst, by mid afternoon there was rain, hail and snow with a bitterly cold wind but despite this I manage to catch 2 fish, the first been 9lb 15oz which was a new personal best for me and the second a smaller fish of 3lb 4oz, all in all not a bad start to the Fishing.

"9lb 15oz"

"3lb 5oz"

Day 2

day 2 we treated our selves to a lie in and set the alarms for 6:30 and woke up sometime around 7:15 but we make the effort... today was a glorious day still cold but sunny and wind free. We decided to fish a number of smaller waters that shall remain anonymous, first stop Chris spotted a pike from a small road bridge, leaving me on top of the bridge to watch the pike, he walk around and presented the fish with a small float fished dead bait, with one twitch of the line the pike snapped up the bait and was soon landed, a fine fish of 6lb 6oz, no more fish were caught throughout the day until the final stop at a small river, here we decide to trot small dead baits down the river, just dragging the bottom, first swim, Chris landed a fine pike of 3lb 8oz and another of around 1lb in quick secession, in the next few swims, we didn't get any bites but soon enough I was into another fish but unfortunately this one got away, not to be disheartened I carried on fishing, soon hooking into something with a bit more weight to it, with 5 min, I had it on the bank, it was a fine Pike of 12lb 10oz, a new personal best, we fished on a short while after this but nothing else came so we went for tea.

"6lb 6oz"

"3lb 8oz"

"Approx 1lb"

"12lb 10oz"

Day 3

Day 3 we went a bit further a field s fish some more of the smaller drains, within the first hour Chris had had a pike of approximately 4lb but things slows down after this so we decided to head a little further south and find some where to settle down and have dinner for an hour, sure enough we found a beautiful little spot next to a bridge, we cast out our rods and settled down at the top of the bank just as our pasta cuppa soup was ready my rod went off, after a quick strike I had landed my 4th fish, of 7lb 7oz, this was the last fish of our third day and a nice one to finish on.

"Approx 4lb"

"7lb 7oz"

Day 4

Day four and our last day, so we decide to return to the south 40ft, setting off at 6'o'clock a few flutters of snow started to fall and before we arrived, a nice layer had started to form, settling down to fish, the wintry showers gradually go worse and worse, after what seemed like hours in the blistering cold, my float disappeared under the water, after landing and weighing the fish, it was a little crack at 5lb 10oz, within the next hour it was my optonic that was sounding, striking the fish it felt slightly better and it was "SLIGHTLY" a nice fish of 6lb. Not to be out done, Chris made a few changes and almost an hour later hi float sailed away resulting in his biggest pike of the trip a lovey fish of 6lb 13oz.

"5lb 10oz"

"6lb 0oz"

"6lb 130z

All in all a great trip and hopefully the first of many, not to disappoint you all a took a few shots when I was away as well, I hope that you like them:-