The Nature Blog

Esther Beaton is an Australia-based professional nature photographer with 25 years of experience and in The Nature Photography Cookbook the author aims to help those of us (including me) who are keen to take better wildlife photos to do just that.

This attractively produced ebook contains an impressive 153 pages of detailed yet easy-to-follow instructions to help you learn how to take pictures you can be proud of.

Whilst this ebook isn’t specifically designed for total newbies, anyone who has a little experience of taking wildlife photos (no matter how badly!) can benefit from Esther’s clear instructions.

Unlike the majority of nature photography books which focus primarily on technical aspects and contain almost too much information for the beginner to intermediate level of photographer, Esther has applied a “cookbook” style to this guide which really makes it very simple and clear to use, whilst being easy to dip into and use as a reference guide.

The Nature Photography Cookbook includes 60 “recipes” – or different suggestions for taking better wildlife photographs. Each one is presented in a very clear manner including information on subject or location, time of day or desirable weather and lastly the equipment you will need (nothing expensive is required).

Each recipe then includes detailed, step-by-step instruction on what to do in order to achieve the effect desired including advice on using your preview screen if you are using a digital camera and making minor adjustments to get the perfect photo. It should be mentioned though that these techniques are not confined to digital photographers and most if not all will work just as well for good old-fashioned film cameras.

Each recipe ends with a sample photograph showing the effect you are trying to capture together with an analysis of why the particular example works and I found it interesting to not only admire Esthers photographs but this small summary at the end of each chapter was also very useful for “getting my eye in” and developing a deeper understanding of what the technique discussed is trying to accomplish.

Esther has carefully arranged each of the 60 odd recipes in order of difficulty so that each technique builds on what you learned in the last. This greatly cuts down on the learning curve, allows one to follow a natural progression through the tuition and, for me at least, made the learning experience far easier and more enjoyable.

Any technical terms used in the book that the beginner may not be familiar with are carefully explained in detail in the glossary at the end of the book and indeed individual words are linked to the glossary throughout the book so you need only click the word and you will be taken straight to the exact definition before you continue reading which makes this a very accessible and user-friendly way to get started on improving your nature photography.

With all the details contained in the 150+ pages of the book it’s only fair that I end this Nature Photography Cookbook review with a complete rundown of the various chapter titles to “tickle your tastebuds” and give you a better idea of the topics you can look forward to discovering from it or you can click here to visit Esther’s site and find out more about the ebook…

1) Change Your Viewpoint – Look Down
2) The Effect Of Fog
3) Flower Close Up
4) Make A Diagonal Composition
5) Using Midday Sun
6) Shoot Close Up To Tell A Story
7) Good Exposure With Flash
Using Fog For Easy Atmosphere
9) Making Captive Birds Look Wild
10) Making Captive Mammals Look Wild
11) Waiting For The Action
12) Eliminating Busy Backgrounds
13) Can’t Get Close? Use Composition
14) Balancing The Composition
15) At The Porpoise Pool
16) Adding Foreground Interest
17) Using Elements Of A Scene
18) How To Create Silhouettes
19) Simple Backlighting
20) Seascapes At Dawn
21) Silky Water
22) Composing Reflections
23) Harmonious Colors
24) Wildflowers In Meadow Close Up
25) Wildflowers In Meadow Landscape
26) Composing With Clouds
27) Perennially Good Subjects
28) Change Your Viewpoint – Look Up
29) Forest Landscape Vertical Composition
30) Forest Landscape Horizontal Composition
31) Vanishing Hills
32) Complementary Colors
33) Backlit Macro Shot
34) Wide Angle To Create Vanishing Point
35) Radiating Lines To Overcome Lack Of Color
36) Deliberate Over-Exposure
37) Fill-Flash And Macro – Motionless Subject
38) Fill-Flash And Macro – Moving Subject
39) Moving The Subject
40) Stalking Animals In The Wild
41) Panning Over Water With Reflections
42) Basic Fill Flash For Portraits
43) Pre-Set Controls To Shoot Fast
44) Trompe L’oeil – Trick Of The Eye
45) Long Exposure After Sunset
46) Background Halo To Vignette Subject
47) Integrating A Surprise Element
48) Incorporating Shadows As Patterns
49) Using White Balance To Add Missing Color
50) Using Wide Angle Lens To Add Full Depth Of Field
51) Using Fisheye To Create Pattern
52) Using Graduated Filter In Dull Light
53) Depth Of Field With A Telephoto Lens
54) Wide Angle Lens Classic Composition
55) Candid Portrait Daring Composition
56) Framing With Silhouetted Branches
57) Posed Three-Quarter Portrait
58) Posed Head-And-Shoulders Portrait
59) Using Sun To Create Hotspot Vignette
60) Experiment And Have Fun!

Click here to visit the official Nature Photography Cookbook website for complete details on this impressive guide.

Continue Reading

photo credit: Benimoto

Whilst I love to see butterflies, I am far from an expert and so regularly find myself leafing through books and websites to learn more about a species I have seen recently.

During my research I have come across a number of useful online resources for identifying British butterflies and their caterpillars and thought that it might be useful for other readers to gather the best resources into one place.

Possibly the best place to start your identification journey is with a visit to Butterfly Conservation’s UK Butterflies site which has neatly categorized all of the UK butterfly species, with clear photos of each making identification reasonably easy for most species.

As well as the photos, this site also groups butterflies by type, helping to narrow down your search and also has a handy “Flying This Week” chart on the left-hand side of the page which is a great place to start your hunt.

Butterfly Conservation’s main website also has some very useful resources including a complete A to Z listing of UK butterflies and a special “butterfly identifier” where you can select options from a form which will then offer up possible identifications.

Also worth mentioning is UK Leps which has lots of nice photos and information but unfortunately there is no overview feature. Because of this, UK Leps is probably not so useful for identification when compared to the two Butterfly Conservation websites but once you have worked out what your butterfly is, the site provides plenty more useful information on the species.

Whilst the flying adult butterflies are often the most visible form, it is of course not unusual to find caterpillars and these can potentially be even more problematic to identify.

What’s That Caterpillar is a great resource for identification of British caterpillars. To make your identification a little easier, try to identify the actual plant that you find the caterpillar on and then use one of the various lists of larval food plants to narrow down the options.

Some of the best lists of larval food plants I have found are Foremost Butterflies and Over The Garden Gate.

Lastly, if you have some top identification websites that you use for lepidoptera, please leave me a comment so we can all benefit from your knowledge

Continue Reading

photo credit: peupleloup

Walking along on a meadow over the weekend I was pretty amazed to spot a fox in broad daylight peering over the top of a hill at an unsuspecting rabbit.

I sat and watched for some time but he never made a move and both the fox and rabbit seemed pretty relaxed so maybe they were just enjoying the sunshine, but something tells me the fox may have had other things on his mind…

Continue Reading

photo credit: h.koppdelaney

Another sunny day, another nature walk and this time I was very taken by the cuckoo flowers (Cardamine pratensis) I found near a stream. Simple yet effective flowers and there was a veritable carpet of these soft violet blooms along the bank which really helped to add colour to the countryside.

On another note, I found a profusion of Sallow catkins (Salix ), which is exciting for a number of reasons. First off, these catkins are just gorgeous! Look at just how dainty and sculptural they look. I was particularly taken by the way the sun shone on them making them look almost like they were glowing.

Lastly, Sallow is a great food plant for a number of British caterpillars so when you see these catkins it’s well worth remembering to come back and look a month or two later because you can have some nice surprises – like the enormous hawk moth caterpillar I found last Autumn on a sallow.

Continue Reading

photo credit: Cheloran ©

The common lizard is the UK’s most widely spread lizard and possibly the most commonly seen reptile of all in Britain. Like all lizards it needs the warmth of the sun in order to get going and so a walk early in the morning on a sunny day gives you a great chance to see them.

However lizards are wary and quick-moving so you need to tread carefully if you want to get a better view than simply a brown tail disappearing into the undergrowth! But take your time and get a close look and you will find that the common lizard is really a tremendously pretty creature.

Appearance

The viviparous lizard (Lacerta vivipara) is not a large lizard by any stretch of the imagination and including the tail may only grow to around 12-15cm though many species seen are a lot smaller. As the name suggests these lizards typically give birth to live young rather than laying eggs so one may see portly female in the summer and soon afterwards tiny baby lizards.

The common lizard is a basic brown colour with a reasonably blunt head though some specimens may be seen with a variety of darker mottling and speckling on them. If you see a lizard in the wild in Britain it is *almost* certain to be the common lizard.

Habitat

Common lizards were once widespread and I remember seeing them as a child simply running around people’s gardens in the height of summer. As with all other creatures though habitat loss and the building of roads has reduced the places in which you may see these creatures.

Common lizards may be found in grassland and meadows, basking on walls in summer, on sand dunes but the most likely place to see them in my experience is on heathland. Find your local heath with it’s unique habitat and walk slowly and quietly on a summers day for the best possible chance of seeing this amazing creature.

Food

The common lizard like most other lizards is carnivorous and will eat virtually anything it can get in it’s mouth. Due to the small size of this lizard this typically means invertebrates of which grasshoppers are possibly the most common given the habitat and time of year that common lizards are at their most active.

Continue Reading

photo credit: jurvetson

One of the real pleasures of being out in the garden is the profusion of wild creatures one can see closeup. From hoverflies to hedgehogs, bats to beetles, gardens are an important habitat for many species of wildlife.

For the best results, however, why not take some time to make your garden just a little bit more “wildlife friendly” by turning at least a small patch into a “nature garden”. It needn’t be as hard as you may think, so in this article I’d like to discuss just a few simple ways you can turn your plot into a nature garden.

1) Water

Water is essential for many animals either to drink or to breed in and so providing water in your garden will go a long way to attractive wildlife. Frogs, newts and toads will breed in ponds, as will a waide variety of invertebrates. Bats may hunt over ponds and some birds may drink from them or bathe in them.

Obviously the bigger the pond is, the better but really anything is better than nothing. Pond liners are cheap to buy and easy to fit and it can be tremendously exciting to watch your pond flourish.

A couple of points worth making on the subject of ponds. Firstly, try to avoid putting fish into your pond which may well eat smaller creatures and also try to ensure that there is easy access in and out of the pond. Young frogs, for example, will need to be able to climb out and hedgehogs have been known to drown in ponds where there wasn’t an easy exit route. Lastly planting dense foliage around your pond will provide cover making wildlife feel more at home.

But it’s not just ponds that are beneficial for wildlife. In addition, consider adding a bird bath to your garden to give garden birds somewhere above ground to drink and bathe where they will feel far safer.

2) Nectar Plants

When you consider the food chain, insects are important not only to pollinate plants but also as a source of food for a wide range of other creatures. Planting flowering plants such as red valerian, nicotiana and buddleia will help to attract butterflies, moths and a host of other invertebrates into your garden.

3) Larval Food Plants

Just as important as nectar plants are larval food plants. Many British wild plant species such as wild violet, native grasses and nettles are used by a range of different butterflies and moths as a food plant. So why not leave a little area to “go wild” and so provide food for caterpillars in your nature garden?

4) Varied Species

It’s as true in your garden as it is in nature; the more plant species you have the wider the range of animals that your garden can support. So don’t just have a “monoculture” of grass but add a range of different flowering plants, shrubs and trees to attract as many different species as possible.

5) Hiding Places

Wildlife is constantly on the look out for predators and so any way you can provide them a haven will be welcomed. We’ve mentioned planting trees and shrubs but also planting a hedgerow of native plants around your garden helps to provide places for wildlife to hide.

Old piles of logs or dead leaves are also excellent habitats and require minimal effort yet can provide homes for breeding grass snakes, hedgehogs, small mammals like wood mice and more.

6) Nest Boxes

Lastly consider adding some nest boxes to your garden. As habitat loss continues to increase there are fewer and fewer nesting sites (and roosting sites) for British wildlife. Of course you’ve seen standard nest boxes for small song birds like blue tits but don’t also forget artificial nests for swallow and house martins, bat boxes and even the boxes now available to attract bumble bees, ladybirds and the like.

Continue Reading

photo credit: anemoneprojectors

Despite the dreadful weather forecast for the Easter weekend I’m pleased to say that I managed to get out on Easter Sunday and whilst there was a lot of cloud I managed to avoid getting wet.

Signs of spring were everywhere. The streets around where I live are alive with cherry blossom turning the gutters pink, while I also saw my first swallow of the year hunting over farmland in Sussex.

Despite a flock of long-tailed tits driving me to drink as I attempted (and failed) to stalk and photograph them for a good half hour, I was amazed to see so much plant life. This really is one of my absolute favourite times of year as all the plants look so new and fresh and lush.

Blackthorn (Prunus spinosa) was in bloom and I managed to get a snap of an early bee feeding on the nectar the plant was giving out. It seems that the leaves themselves are just starting to break out of their buds and so should be taking their proper form over the next few weeks.

Blackthorn Blossom And Bee

Silverweed, cleavers and many more wild plants were all seen bursting into growth though those early spring flowers which bring colour (and essential nectar) to the countryside were the real high points for me.

Here are just a few I found on Easter Sunday:

Lesser Celandine (Ranunculus ficaria)

Lesser Celandine

Common Comfrey (Symphytum officinale)

Common Comfrey

Common Dog-Violet (Viola riviniana)

Common Dog-Violet

Continue Reading

photo credit: raneko

Like many animals, common frogs exist in a range of different colour forms. Typically green or brown in colour, one also may see bright yellow/green versions and also some orange/red specimens.

Nobody seems totally sure whether this is due to genetic variations or differences in habitat or diet but I think the picture above illustrates the point well where a red female can be seen mating with a more standard coloured male.

Note that according to Froglife, the conservation charity, red frogs are not too unusual and some females reportedly *turn* red during the breeding season for whatever reason.

Red Common Frog Seen In Scotland Recently

Continue Reading

photo credit: law_keven

If you’re a wildlife fanatic and spend some of your time in the great outdoors enjoying all the plants and animals it has to offer, were you aware that your activities could be put to excellent use by a range of scientists? Many biologists rely on the observations of people like you and me to help them understand the conservation of Britains nature.

The following list, while not exhaustive, lists a huge number of wildlife surveys you can get involved with if you have the interest. Please feel free to add any that we have omitted in the comments section at the end. Lastly, as always I have tried to link to the specific page that relates to the survey rather than the homepage of the various organizations to try and make your research just that little bit more speedy.

• Beewatch
• Big Garden Birdwatch
• Breeding Bird Survey
• British Waterways (Newt And Bat Monitoring)
• Butterfly Monitoring Scheme
• Dragonfly Recording Network
• Golden Great Nut Hunt (Dormice)
• Goose And Swan Monitoring
• Harlequin Ladybird Survey
• Hogwatch
• Living With Mammals
• Mammals On Roads
• National Amphibian And Reptile Recording Scheme
• National Bat Monitoring Program
• National Otter Survey
• Natures Calendar
• Nest Record Scheme
• Orchard Survey
• Scarlet Malachite Beetle Survey
• UK Glowworm Survey
• Wetland Bird Survey

Continue Reading

photo credit: Marco Hebing

Whilst superficially resembling the lesser spotted woodpecker this species is far more likely to be seen. Not only is it larger and far more common but the rump is a right, bright scarlet which is typically missing in the other species.

Appearance:

The great spotted woodpecker (Dendrocopos major) is a smart-looking bird with mottled black and white plumage. The long beak used for drilling holes and finding food is clear but the most noticeable factors are the bright red on the top of the head and the rump making this an easy to distinguish bird.

As with many woodpeckers they are most often seen clinging onto the trunk of a tree in a vertical position while searching for food.

Habitat:

These birds are most often seen in deciduous woodland which provide them with both nesting places and food. They may ocassionally be attracted to gardens but are generally rarer in this habitat than the green woodpecker with it’s characteristic “yaffle” call.

Food:

The great spotted woodpecker typically favours and insectivorous diet of grub and caterpillars. These are often found under the bark of trees and one may observe a woodpecker carefully listening for telltale signs of grubs when perching on a tree. They may feed on peanuts or fat balls in a garden environment.

Interesting Facts:

These birds may be seen very early in the year searching for mates. It is not uncommon even in December to see two or more great spotted woodpeckers chasing each other around a forest making their squaking call while they choose a mate for the following season.

Continue Reading