Ten favourites from last year

"Red Squirrel in Snow"

Happy new year to you all. To start off this year I thought I would share ten of my favourite photos, not necessarily my best, by ones I particularly like that I took last year. 2016 was a slow year in terms of my photography, I took a lot less photos than I usually do due to various reasons, but I still caught one of my favourites I have ever taken... this red squirrel in the snow.

This was a fun morning, we had a dusting of snow here, nothing worth while... but a spent some time gathering up as much as I could off the hand rails in the copse to form this little pile here. Then calling the squirrels over, I was lucky to get one climb on top and look straight at me. Animals in the snow always look good, the contrast of the colour against the white really makes them stand out and look vibrant.

Buster is a real character, one of my favourite otters, and I am yet to have a portrait of him that I really like... maybe that should be one of my aims for this year. This is one of my favourites though from earlier this year, in a rare moment where he stood still for a few seconds.

You know I always look forward to the dancing adders, last year was no different, but looking back I was disappointed with the photos I took. Probably because I am being too fussy, but I have taken some lovely ones over the years that it is difficult to get something different. I am still after a unique portrait though, and this is pretty close to what I have in mind. Sharp head fading in to the background. Bit more work needed on this, but a good reminder of spending time with these lovely animals.

I had to include one from the bluebells. So many to chose from, last years bluebells shoots with the members were some of the best we have done. Conditions were almost perfect, and despite the lack of bluebells compared to previous years, we still managed to get some lovely pictures. This is Aluco, a tawny owl, in the bluebells.

Of course I had to share one of the wildcat kittens again too, a good year for us with breeding them, and this was one of my favourite portraits. One of the kittens at about 5 weeks old.

Not the best photo by far, but a fun one that makes me smile. One of our female polecats, Cassie, with all 8 of her kits causing trouble.

I really like this one of one of our harvest mice being released. It's not as good as my more well known harvest mice shots, but for some reason I really like it and used it a lot last year for work.

Another huge success for us last year was breeding two long eared owl chicks. They are both now mature and flying well in our displays, and it was great fun documenting their growth. This is Leo, fully feathered, just a head shot to really show off the ear tufts and facial disk.

I had to include one of a pine marten, here is Drogo... happy to see us... A will hopefully be a big year for him this year, as we introduce him to a female for the first time. Hopefully next year (2018) will bring photos of pine marten kits.

And finally, one from last week, definitely not one of the best, but definitely one of my favourites. Susie, one of our stoats, is turning ermine... Arguably making here more beautiful than normal. Stoats are one of my favourites, and from Susie arriving a few years a go, I have really taken to her and she is my favourite I have ever worked with. Such a character, and a nice little poser... even if only for a couple of seconds at a time. She is quite a famous little stoat now too.

Anyway, thanks for looking, and hopefully some more photos to share this coming year :-)