I’m already feeling the colder mornings and the light fading quicker in the evening. I always like to plan for the seasons ahead of time and it also means making the most of the weekends for my wildlife photography. I work a 9 to 5 and this time of year can feel like a rush to get out after work before the sun sets.
During Autumn and Winter, I like to keep my birding activity local to where I live in Lancashire. It allows me to get out n about and make the most of the remaining light.
In the colder and darker months, I like to build and maintain feeders in my local wood. This attracts a variety of small birds and during the week I keep an eye out for interesting branches I can bring to the feeders.
One of my biggest loves is photographing and observing the behaviours of small birds. I see waves of various different birds visit my feeders and they all behave and interact with each other differently.
My favourite small bird by far is the Coal Tit. They display so much character, they are a joy to watch. Coal Tits are one of the only small birds to store caches of food. You’ll often see Great Tits acting like a big brother to Coal Tits because they know they’ll have a stash of food somewhere.
This Autumn (2022) I’m going to concentrate on spotting the large variety of waders that land on our shores, this time of year.
Top of the list are Plovers and I’d love to see a Golden Plover as well as a Grey Plover. They are amazingly beautiful birds and I definitely need to add them to my portfolio.
Here are some of my recent autumnal wildlife photographs
