Wildlife — PUBLIC BLOG — NDPS | Norwich & District Photographic Society

Wildlife and Landscape Possibilities in Epping Forest by Peter Warne

Peter began his inspiring talk by describing the Forest which covers an area of 6,000 acres and is 12 miles north to south, 2.5 miles wide and represents the remains of an ancient royal hunting forest.

He began with descriptions of water features. First up was Highams Park, accessed from a train line from Liverpool Street or parking on the road. The drain from the lake provided photo opportunities with lots of water birds: black headed gulls, moorhens, coots, cormorants and herons. Lots of colourful birds also; parakeets and green woodpeckers. There are even lots of rats living in the area.

Then Connaught Water, on the River Ching. This area you have to drive to and it is very, very popular and there is a charge for car parking. Again, there are interesting birds - nuthatch, tree creeper, kingfishers (who fish the ditches), green and great spotted woodpeckers and grebes. In addition there are 5 pairs of breeding herons and, oddly, terrapins!

The third pond was Wake Valley Pond. From the Wake Arms roundabout the Wake Valley car park in Lodge Road is accessible. Here Peter mentioned dragon flies, the Downy Emerald, emerging in May/June. These form food for ducklings and wagtails. Also in this area is a piece of heathland, a great backdrop for dawn landscapes, grass snakes, adders and lizards.

Special Presentation, Wildlife, Nature, LandscapeMaurice YoungSeptember 20, 2023epping forest, landscape, atumn colour, birdlife, fungi

Wildlife Photography 2 by Tracey Lund

We finally got to see Tracy in person for part two of her story which followed on from her Zoom presentation during lockdown.

Alaska, Canada, Yellowstone, India, Zimanga and UK Hides. An inspirational evening with wildlife and nature photos from these areas as well as some anecdotes of her travels and trips.

Tracey Lund is from Hull. Her photographic journey began after an inspiring trip to Africa in 2004.

After returning to the UK, Tracey wanted to develop her photography and so joined three Photographic Societies and submitted her favourite images as entries to some of the major worldwide Wildlife Competitions. Tracey is also a permanent display as she is a ‘gallery photographer’ at the famous Joe Cornish Art Gallery.

Tracey's presentation was a whirlwind trip around the world calling at Alaska, Canada and Yellowstone. Then we moved to India where we were treated to a bewildering array of birds, squirrels and mongooses, not to mention the spotted deer - top of the fast food menu!

In Africa we were taken to Zimanga, the hotel and wildlife hides. Another whirlwind of birds, snakes, jackals and others. She even had a story about walking with cheetahs.

Tracey described the opportunities, Lagoon Hide, Bee Eater Hide, Scavengers Hide and startlingly the Overnight Hide! Into the hide in the afternoon and stay for 17 hours till breakfast.

But what a beautiful collection of wildlife photos Tracey showed to illustrate what was possible - eye to eye with water buffalo and a herd, yes a herd, of elephants.

Special Presentation, WildlifeMaurice YoungMarch 1, 2023alaska, canada, india, yellowstone, uk hides

The Carnivores of the Serengeti by Bob Johnson ARPS

In February, after his first visit to NDPS, he 'Exit(ed) pursued by a bear'! An ice bear, at the end of his Svalbard presentation!

This evening his presentation suited the arrival of English summer! We were transported to much warmer climes, the Serengeti, Tanzania, home of the great migration.

Bob began by explaining his love affair with Africa which followed a family trip where he became hooked on wildlife photography and has resulted in fourteen subsequent visits!

On to the Serengeti (Serengeti means 'endless plains') and is a huge national park in Tanzania. Bob changed his cameras from Canon to Olympus before the trip so there was something of a learning curve, but he began with pictures of a cheetah, up in a tree, with a dead sheep she had caught.

Next was a cheetah and her cub on a hunting trip in woodland! Very, very unusual situation to see a cub helping and in woodland. Then they caught an impala, another rarity! This sequence of photos showed all the action, including the kill, and Bob suggested that even though this was fast moving it is still worthwhile changing settings during the action, to improve the shutter speed and reduce noise - something of a conundrum.

Then, with a non-photography group, they saw a pack of 16 wild dogs, again, never seen before. Then a cheetah, nicknamed 'Patch' by the visitors with her four cubs only three months old and very vulnerable to attack. This means that mum was very busy indeed looking for food. All the animals looked in good condition and, indeed all four reached adulthood. A tribute to Patch because this was her first family and such success has rarely been achieved.

Bob began the second half with some astonishing statistics about lions - the numbers have dropped from 200 thousand to 20 thousand, of which 4 thousand are males and of these only ten percent will mate in their lifetime!

Bob then showed four lions killing a young hippo and a lioness killing a young giraffe for her sister and their eight cubs! Those cubs hadn't eaten for two weeks and they were very hungry.

Bob rounded off his presentation by recommending 'Remembering Wildlife' to us, a series of books published to help in the conservation of species.

Another exciting presentation from Bob Johnson with not too much blood but some good examples of the law of self-preservation and the law of the bush.

Follow Us

Get in Touch

Membership Enquiry