Author: Dawn

A beautiful morning on the Fen, what a relief to have some calm sunny weather! The first bird of the day was a Spotted Flycatcher near the visitors centre – a lovely little bird. A pair of Treecreepers were also hanging around. Walking out onto the fen, I saw the Little Grebe in his regular…

Time for the final part of my British Wildlife Centre series – Britain’s smallest rodent – the Harvest Mouse. This youngster was so tiny, and yet was completely unfazed by the group of photographers surrounding him. Really pleased with these images, quite possibly my favourites from the day. It was fascinating to watch these little…

A Tawny tonight from the British Wildlife Centre. A real treat to get up close to this stunning bird, absolutely beautiful. You rarely see these normally strictly nocturnal owls in the wild. More often they are heard – Tawny Owls make the classic ‘twit – twhoo’  which is usually a duet between the male and…

The next animal we encountered was this beautiful Barn Owl. Her keeper brought her out and perched her in the evening sun and she posed for the cameras. I could have cloned out her jesses, but she is a captive bird, so I’m choosing to leave them in. The pair of wild Barn Owls down…

We visited the large naturalistic Red Fox enclosure twice, the first time the light was quite harsh, but we went back in later in the evening when the light was just right. It was a joy to be up close to these fascinating animals. One in particular, a young female that had been hand reared,…

At the British Wildlife Centre, they have a fantastic walk through Red Squirrel enclosure, with very natural surroundings and tall birch trees. The 15 residents were busy sleeping in the afternoon heat, but this youngster decided to pose for a photo. They have a great range of native British species, including Water Voles. The final…

The British Wildlife Centre, in Surrey is a fantastic place housing a collection of native wildlife. On days where they are not open to the public they run photography days, where the keepers take people inside the enclosures to get up close to the animals. Photography of captive animals is often a controversial subject amongst…

Decided to head back to the Fen on Wednesday evening as it was so lovely. This little rabbit posed nicely, but I could only stand to photograph him for so long as I was being eaten alive by mozzies. Whilst there I noticed an odd looking bird, like a small hawk. Looking through the viewfinder,…

A dull and dreary start to the day at the Fen, with a heavy blanket of low cloud and mist. Nothing doing with the Sedge and Reed warblers, they were keeping low down in the reedbed, but still singing. Spotted the Little Grebe on his regular pool, shame there’s nowhere to get a clear view…

Out on the Fen again this morning, a lovely sunny start, but a little frosty too. Starting to get there with the Sedge Warbler’s I think. They seemed a little quiet, perhaps because of the Cuckoo calling close by. Walking through the dew, with birds singing all around, I came across a Roe deer buck,…