Great Grey Owls from the North
Last week I was invited over to Ottawa in Eastern Canada to photograph Great Grey Owls which this year have moved further south than normal. Such population eruptions occur maybe once a decade, so I had to go. I was on one of the last planes out of London Heathrow as a snow blizzard covered [...]
A different forest
Leicestershire, Derbyshire and Staffordshire all have a share in the realm of a great forest in the making, the national forest. When visiting this realm do not expect to wander for hours and hours in the shade of great trees, as you might expect in Epping or the New Forest, where you are totally surrounded [...]
Charnwood Forest butterflies
The English summer never really happened this year and I was reminded of this on a wildlife walk this week through the lovely Leicestershire countryside. Autumn is my favourite season, the crispness of the air, yellows and golds of leaves, blackberries in the hedgerow, but little compares to the beauty of our autumn butterflies the [...]
Autumn migration
September has seen the first huge influx of migrating birds into the UK. Last weekend we were down on the east coast of Norfolk and witnessed the spectacle of waders on their high tide roosting grounds.These birds will have travelled from Arctic Canada across Greenland and down into the North Sea. It is here they [...]
Brilliant UK wildlife: 1
The UK is brilliant for wildlife and being an island in the middle of an ocean is only one good reason. London is as far north as Newfoundland, and they have icebergs floating by most of the year ! So forget the rainy days, the UK has mild weather and this is as great for the [...]
A rainy spring with the Bluebells
We are well into spring in the UK In recent weeks their has been so much rain that two weeks after the first severe downpours started, the water is still running down the lanes and filling the streams that run through the Charnwood valleys. This is the Ulverscroft brook which bisects the Lea Meadows , [...]
Remote camera trapping
I have recently started to use camera traps in a local wood. The point is not necessarily to get great photographs but to understand what animals are present and to understand their movements. I have had one remote camera stolen so am now being very careful where I place my new ones. I do have [...]
Videos from Wildshots
It’s an exciting day for Websters Wildshots. For years and years we have been a photography website. We are now pleased to present our first video. Lot more on this exciting new development to come. Follow Paula Webster on Vimeo. If you liked this video, check out some of our photos from Australia and our story about [...]
Lea Meadows Nature Reserve April 2012
The Bullhead fish The Lea Meadows nature reserve is to be found in the Ulverscroft valley, on the Charnwood Forest in Leicestershire, England. The reserve is bisected by a brook which rises in the hills a mile upstream and as this catchment area is low intensity pasture land where few if any chemicals are [...]
Urban crow roost
In Ottawa city, thousands of crows fly in to roost every winters night. Birds do this as cities are slightly warmer than the surrounding countryside and therefore they conserve vital energy, energy required to survive. Crows are intelligent and highly social, two traits that enable them to compete successfully . Check out Wildshots other crow images [...]
The Geckos’ cloak of invisibility
Leaf-tailed geckos (Uroplatus sp) are found only in Madagascar and are nature’s masters of camouflage. They are nocturnal hunters of the tropical rainforests. When resting during the day, they need to hide from predators. They achieve this in spectacular fashion by adopting various strategies to give themselves a cloak of invisibility. This certainly gives a [...]
Madagascar – priceless wildlife amidst economic poverty
Madagascar is among the poorest nations on earth, being far off trade routes, having few natural resources, with a rapidly expanding population and governed by a long line of corrupt politicians. However due to its evolutionary history, the island of Madagascar is one of the Worlds biological hotspots. Its unique landscapes contain a cauldron [...]
Don’t mess with an Emu
On our recent photographic journey through Western Australia, we came across a few of these amazing birds and the first thing for a wildlife photographer to learn is ‘do not mess with an Emu’ they are fast, taller than most basketball players and can down a fence with one kick from their massive feet. [...]