Rtas' wildlife pics

Your pictures ar really, really fabulous !!!

Thank you Susanne !

Species : Ruddy turnstone

Spot : Pornichet's harbour, southern Brittany, France
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When I go on holidays with my parents in Gérande Peninsula, we usually stay in a beachfront hotel close to a harbour which is full of small waders and sandpipers all year long but especially in winter. The most common and domestic species is the ruddy turnstone which can be found turning stones on the shores to find its food as soon as the tide is ebbing. They are nice and cute birds I am very interested in but most people just don't pay attention to them. This one just landed on a rock a few metres from me while I was trying to photograph brent geese.

I have only seen a turnstone once and that was when I was on holiday in Northumberland. The most common waders I see are lapwings which nest among my sheep and oystercatchers that nest on my local golf course only up the lane from my farm

What a cute, little bird

Some pass through Denmark in early spring, but I have never seen one .

Advicot wrote:

I have only seen a turnstone once and that was when I was on holiday in Northumberland. The most common waders I see are lapwings which nest among my sheep and oystercatchers that nest on my local golf course only up the lane from my farm

That's something I will never understand : oystercatchers nest inland in Britain (I know it, I have seen a pair of them in Reading) but it would NEVER EVER happen in France where they stay on the coast

Susanne, they are very common and easy to find birds, just take binoculars, go to the seaside and you'll see them.

As we've discussed before UK wildlife is tamer than French wildlife, even if they are the same species.

Wonderful pattern and great picture!

RtasVadumee wrote:

Did your mother kill the toads ?!!

No, of course not. They just dehydrated quickly and they were not good to child play with.

I see. I knew a girl who confessed me she used to put salt on the toads' skin just to have fun when she was a child. The most surprising is that she was part of the same nature conservation society as me

Oh no! That's terrible especially when you go on to work at a nature conservation society later in life.

Yes, that's like a murderer who would become a cop, that's nonsense [You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

Species : Great egret

Spot : Guérande's salt marshes, southern Brittany, France
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Another majestic bird from Guérande's salt marshes. The great egret is one of these birds whose area of distribution expanded a lot in the last few years. They were still very rare in my childhood and only seen in winter. Nowadays, they are firmly established in western France and are getting as common as grey herons in the countryside. They remain less numerous than little egrets in Guérande's salt marshes though, and are still more timid than their smaller relatives. I was particularly lucky with this one. We were driving through the marshes with my father when this magnificent specimen flew across the road, just before the car's windscreen, and landed in the closest pond. I just had to open the window and take the picture.

Egrets are a bird I have hardly ever seen, as I don't live near any marshes and I'm not down south. Just asking Ben what camera do you use?

I shoot with that : [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

It is a bridge camera, not even a single-lens reflex camera.

Wildlife photographers would laugh at me for having that but I think my photos are not so bad and it is much cheaper than a reflex.

Oh ok, for my photography I use this: the Nikon D5300.

I like egrets

RtasVadumee wrote:

I shoot with that : [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]
Wildlife photographers would laugh at me for having that but I think my photos are not so bad and it is much cheaper than a reflex.

Your photos are amazing, Benjamin. You have great skill and probably a lot of patience!

Thank you Roger !

Species : Eastern grey squirrel

Spot : Whiteknights lake, Reading, Berkshire, UK


Ah... grey squirrels... I cannot think about England without thinking about them They are so cute, so friendly, so facetious. How can you not love them !
However, we should not forget they are foreign invaders who exterminated the shyer, more introverted red squirrel who now only survives on the Isle of Wight. Don't judge a book by its cover, those adorable little things are actually wolves in sheep's clothing !

I have these guys living in my woodland and I swear one of them is black. It is unusual for them to be black but I now think it was just my mind playing tricks.

Our native red squirrels are much cuter and deserve to be back in the woodlands of the UK. About an hour from my home there is a stable population of red squirrels and also can be found on Brownsea Island in Dorset

Oh, I didn't know there were several remaining red squirrel populations in the UK, that's a good news !

It seems he wants to play. - Where are you red squirrel? Look at my big eye and stop being shy.
The consequences of an invasive species are always unpredictable but I am sure they can't swim from Americas.

Species : Eurasian oystercatcher, lesser black-backed gull

Spot : "Grand Chevreuil" island, Brittany, France
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Here is a comparison pic in real life ! I photographed those two buddies on a rocky, very steep island I visited when I worked for that conservation society I already told you about. We had to count sea birds nests and it was no walk in the park ! The sea gulls gave us such a hard time, always attacking us and... well... shitting on us as we tried to climb on the slippery rocks. On this picture, it looks like the oystercatcher is telling something to the gull... "Gather the troops Captain Guanno, we are under attack and have some intruders to deal with !"