Don W
Imagekind Gallery Summore
Copyright (C) 2008
Well, I guess it's yet another photographic pick 'n' mix collection of "Nature as I see it"...Meanwhile, the little bits of verse that I've used to augment some of the images are mostly by my Mum. She wrote loads of Nature poetry throughout her life (from before she was in her early teens in the 1930s) and I sometimes try to match snippets of it with my photographs or vice versa.
Pretty Flamingo
"On our block, all of the guys call her Flamingo...'cause her hair glows like the sun and her eyes can light the skies" (Manfred Mann, 1966).
Hover Fly on Shasta Daisy
I took this photograph at one of my favourite locations in the county of Gloucestershire...the grounds of the world famous Prinknash Abbey (pronounced "Prinnish"). There's a huge variety of wildlife there and I can easily spend several hours pottering about making notes, taking photographs and making a few sketches. Next year I hope to get permission from the monks who live there to compile a "Year in the Wildlife of Prinknash Abbey Grounds", using some of the material I've already obtained plus a whole load of new stuff.
Nene (Hawaiian Goose)
Brought from the very brink of extinction by Sir Peter Scott, the Nene (pronounced Nay-nay) had been reduced by man and his allies, the rat, cat and dog, to just thirty birds by the 1950s from an original Hawaiian population of more than 25,000 in the 1700s. I photographed this one at Slimbridge Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust in the UK. It had decided to hang around with me as I took pictures of Caribbean, Andean and James Flamingoes...including the Flamingoes depicted in this gallery.
Autumn
As all about its fellows die...By Autumn's light it caught my eye....A single leaf hung soon to fall....But yet defying Winter's call....(By Daisy W, my Mum, circa 1940)
Barrow's Goldeneye
The Barrow's Goldeneye is a rare Winter visitor to the UK's water margins.
Feather Cascade
Another Flamingo image...an Andean Flamingo.
Black Swan
A few Black Swans are gradually finding their way onto the UK's waterways, but they can be very aggressive towards the indiginous Mute Swan and are therefore, usually rounded-up and placed in more controlled environments, particularly during the Spring.
Wild Chicory
As my second favourite wildflower (the Dog Rose being my favourite), I'm always pleased to stumble across Chicory growing in the wild and I still dig up a root or two to dry, roast and grind to make my own Chicory-flavoured coffee...something I've done since my parents taught me how as a boy.
Mute Swan
That most royal of British birds
James Flamingo
Plumage detail from a James Flamingo
Red Hot Lily
The glowing embers of the fire's last hour....Remind me of a Lily flower....And though its roots grow in the shade....its flowers seek sunlight Heaven made....(Daisy W, my Mum, aged 60)
Minster Wood
Minster Wood near Boscastle in Cornwall, is a place much favoured by the likes of Dippers, Otters and....me!
Greylag Goose
Shot for the pot...
The hapless Goose....
Can ne'er outrun the gamekeeper's gun....
Fly as he might....
by day or night....
He'll die to the beat....
Of Death's dark drum....
By Daisy W (my Mum, aged 14).
Towards Boscastle
The North coast of Cornwall is particularly spectacular...Imagine thirty foot waves driven on to crash against these imposing rocks and cliffs by a Winter storm force 10 with spray and spume carrying inland for a hundred or more metres!
Common Town Pigeon
Love them or loathe them, the humble town Pigeon is completely at home in our urban sprawls and is a bird that most people take very much for granted. However, in the right kind of light and with a sympathetic lens, I think that it's actually quite an attractive bird.
Purple Beauty
I couldn't resist taking a photo of this gorgeous flower as it caught the sun in a corner of a park in Malvern...Elgar country.
Andean Flamingo
Plumage detail of Andean Flamingo
Wintersong
When light like steel has a Winter's feel...And I'm much too old to stand the cold....For long! (from "Wintersong" by Daisy W, my Mum, circa 1991, then aged 67).
"White Eye" the Robin
There are two pairs of Robins that occupy my gardens..."White-Eye" and his mate "Ruby" at the front of the house and "Uppity Bill" and his mate "Stroppy Madam" at the back. I particularly enjoy the fact that both "White-Eye and "Uppity Bill" are tame enough to feed from my hand. Ruby meanwhile, will nearly do it, but not quite...she will come to within half a metre, but no less. Stroppy Madam on the other hand, doesn't want to know!
Thumb with Butterfly
This Large White Butterfly was happy enough to remain on my thumb just long enough for me to take its photograph with the camera held in my other hand.
"Blink"
This is White-Eye's fledgling daughter, "Blink". I call her that because she appears to have a nervous tick which manifests itself as a persistent blinking action!
White Bryony
Not an altogether wholesome-looking flower at the best of times, the White Bryony is one of those plants, like Hemlock, that I go out of my way to warn head teachers about when I see it growing in or around school property....particularly infant or junior schools. Its berries are very poisonous!
Old Barns
Old barns in the grounds of Prinknash Abbey
Rock Dove
Now extremely scarce, the genuine Rock Dove still occupies a handful of niche habitats dotted around the British coastline. I photographed this particular bird at Scotland's spectacular Dunnet Head just a couple of miles from John O'Groats, the most Northerly town on the British mainland.
Hoverfly on Corn Marigold
Considered to be a real pest of a plant by most UK farmers, the Corn Marigold has shown a serious decline in the British countryside in recent years due to increased use of selective herbicides throughout the 1970s and 1980s!
Autumn Colours
Once Summer's delight....A magnificent sight....Leaves now growing old....In their russett and gold....Will soon be discarded....Cast off and regarded....As eyesores under our feet....(By Daisy W, my Mum, then aged 16)
Cornish Dipper
With arrowed flight on whirring wing....The Dipper lands on rocks to sing....Or by the sparkling waterfall....the lucky ones may hear his call....(Daisy W, my Mum, aged about 20)
Purple Toadflax
Originally a native of Italy, Purple Toadflax now finds a home amongst a few old walls and disused railway embankments in Southern England...although this particular specimen was quite happy to be growing alongside the River Avon in Tewkesbury.
St Nectans Glen
Probably dating from the end of the last ice-age, St Nectan's Glen in Cornwall is a truly ancient place of Druidish ritual and dark, forbidding legend...and just a quoit's-throw from the crumbling remains of King Arthur's once spectacular Camelot Castle at Tintagel!
Barn Swallow
"Sister, my sister, O fleet sweet Swallow....Thy way is long to the sun and the south"....(Swinburne)
Leaf
Most people look at some of the pictures I take and say "why on earth did you take a photograph of that?" and, to be quite honest, I don't have a clue sometimes....Meanwhile however, here's a picture of a leaf I took earlier!
Tree Silhouette
Virtually everyone loves trees, but as night draws on in the middle of the forest and the breeze moves the branches ominously from side to side above you, they can appear quite menacing!
White Rose
Garden Rose....Do you suppose....That if I pick you....Just to smell you....You will prick me....On my Nose? (Daisy W, my Mum, aged 12)
Field
I like to photograph this field at different times of year in various weather conditions and I think there are at least two other efforts featured somewhere in these galleries .
White Duck
I loved that little Puddleduck....Mother's pure white snowy duck....who paddled with me through the muck....When I was just a girl............She lived with others round the back....and all day long she'd quack and quack....And quack and quack and quack....When I was just a girl....(From a poem called "Puddleduck" written by Daisy W, my Mum, circa 1984, then aged about 60).
Alstroemeria
More visually complex than a year's worth of TV soap dramas, the Alstromeria flower outshines even the most glamorous of so-called celebrities!
Woodland Glade
Follow me down to the woodland glade....Where Brock and Reynard seek the shade....And Tarka chases fish for fun....In sparkling streams touched by the sun....Then take your time to sit and stare....at all the wildlife living there................Follow me down the woodland trails....Where Weasels chase each other's tails....And murderous Crows sit in the trees....Swaying in the Summer breeze....But listen close and use your eyes....To make the most of Nature's prize....(Two verses from the 1940 poem, "The Woodland Glade" by Daisy W, my Mum, aged about 16).
Female Smew
A fish-eating "Sawbill", the Smew winters in the UK in very limited numbers.
Balteatus Hover Fly on Bristly Ox Tongue
Locally common in lowland England, Wales and occasionally found as far North as Southern Scotland, the Bristly Ox-Tongue (along with a wide range of other edible wild plant species) has always been an important item on the survival plant menu for reconnaissance troops training in the UK and who are learning to live off the land for perhaps weeks at a time as preparation for operating behind enemy lines. The Argentine mainland and the Falklands have been places where such skills have been ruthlessly tested in times gone by and, more recently, Afghanistan and Iraq, so Learning about such things has always been vitally important for certain elements in the Military and will probably remain so until there is a "Starpox" and a "MuckRonalds" in even the wildest and most remote corners of the Globe (probably no more than ten or fifteen years time by my reckoning)!
Autumn Leaves and the Three Emperor Geese
Emperor Geese like to breed on wet tundra high up in the Arctic North-East of Siberia, across St Lawrence Island and along the West coast of Arctic Alaska. They are also quite bright for Geese, with a good problem-solving capability.
Sunlight Through Peeling Bark
Another one of those tiny details that tend to catch my eye.
Buckholt Wood
The architypal English woodland, Buckholt is a terrific place for the budding naturalist to spend a day pottering about...That's naturAList by the way!
Trolly Park Sunset
I took this photograph as I waited in the car, gradually losing the will to live, while my wife and daughter did some shopping.
Pink Rose
In the pink.
Bullock Brown
"Bullock Brown...You seem so down....That you can't come with me to town........Behind the wire....Your life so dire....No wonder that you frown....And eyes so sad....Is life so bad....Oh lonely Bullock Brown?" (By Daisy W, 1937).
Speckled Bush Cricket
Not uncommon, but usually extremely difficult to see when concealed in dense undergrowth. Note the splendid parang/kukri-shaped ovipositor on this particular specimen identifying it as a female of the species.
Autumn Gold
I matched another version of this photograph to one of my Mum's poems, entitled "Autumn's Bite", which she wrote shortly after my Father died in 1985. Both the poem and the photo can be found on the "Home" page of www.wildliferanger.com
Derelict Cotswold Farm
Nearly a thousand metres above sea-level and just three miles from my home, this is all that now remains of a once prosperous Cotswold Hills farm.
Red Leaves
"No whimper here...As Autumn's blushes raise a cheer....To herald Winter drawing near....But soon red leaves will vibrant fall....In answer to the Old Man's call! ( From "Wintersong" by Daisy W, circa 1991).
Grass Bank Bivouack
My job requires that I do a great deal of walking (you can't see much from a vehicle) and this frequently entails sleeping out of doors, bivouack-style...even during the Winter months. This was the view from my bivi-bag as I settled down for one particularly long, cold and rainy night miles from anywhere in late Autumn 2007.