Over the last few evenings I have been walking my dog on a certain part of Dartmoor Devon England where I last saw the Cuckoo. Each evening I have seen and heard it flying around the area but it appears to settle for the night in some trees on a farm just off the moor. I went to the farm to ask for permission to stand in their field and take photos. They said they would get back to me but as yet I have had no reply. One thing I will never do is trespass on any persons land to get a photo so I always ask for permission. If the answer is yes then great, happy days, but if the answer is no then so be it. I'll be disappointed as I don't understand a negative reply because I am not doing any harm but the bottom line is it is their land and I will abide by their decision and try and get an image elsewhere. When I lived in Bedfordshire I asked several land owners for permission and they always gave it but down in Devon most of the replies seem to be no!
 

Upon driving home from my visit to the moor the other night I came across a “furry bundle” in the middle of the road. I stopped and got out to move it away from the road before it got run over. I could see the baby Tawny owlet had fluff from its neck upwards but its wings and talons were fully grown, talons which can do a lot of damage. Because it was a baby tawny owlet I kept my wits about me as the parents would be about and could “dive bomb” me and this is how the famous wildlife photographer, Eric Hosking OBE, got injured and lost an eye (http://www.erichoskingtrust.com/index.html). I held my hat above my head but as I got closer to it, it decided to take off, fly into the hedge and start climbing a tree. As long as it was off the road I was happy as it was reasonably safe. Upon returning to the car I noticed that one of the parents flew and landed in the tree that the owlet was climbing. Whilst speaking to the land owner’s wife later she informed me that there were at least two tawny owlets, one large that could fly and a very small one that could not. The small one was hiding in the hedge right under its nest which was in a hole in a tree.
 

The only thing I can add to the wildlife list on our nature reserve this week is butterflies of which there are lots. I'm afraid I am ignorant of their names but its great watching them. The flowers in the field are disappearing as the grasses are quite tall now. We have had quite a bit of sunshine recently and with a little bit of rain the vegetation has shot up. The Jays are still present as well as the Otter although we have yet to see it but we know it's about due to the foot prints. The badgers are still there but there has been no sign of the fox. Apart from putting, I can't call it building; stones on the wall, work on the nature reserve has come to a halt due to the amount of vegetation and leaf cover. So I will just have to go there, sit and observe and take in what happens on the reserve and report it back to you.
 

Over the last few weeks I have had some feedback, about my wildlife photography blog, from a few people who have stated that they would like me to include some images within the blog. I have thought about this for a while now, putting my teacher head on, because people learn in different ways. There are several ways, or styles, of learning: - Visual, Physical, Aural, Verbal, Logical, Social and Solitary.

Visual (Spatial) - This style is where people learn by using pictures, images, diagrams etc.

Physical (Kinaesthetic) - This style is where people learn by actually doing something, most adults learn this way.

Aural (Auditory Musical) - This style is where people learn by sound, music, rhymes etc.

Verbal (Linguistic) - This style is where people learn by talking, reading and writing.

Logical (Mathematical) - This style is where people learn by logic and reasoning.

Social (Interpersonal) - This style is where people learn by interacting with other people and groups.

Solitary (Intrapersonal) - This style is where people learn by being on their own where they do their own studying.

People will not just have one style of learning; they might prefer one but go to another style at various times when it suits. It's good to know your own style as this will help you learn quicker. When teachers are researching and planning their lessons they should try and include as many of the styles as they can so that all the students can take on learning in their own style. So if you look at the above styles my blog is possibly only including a few: - Verbal, Logical, Social (possible) and Solitary. Therefore if I include images within my blog then I am including another style, visual. Aural could be included if I put backing music to the blog but I don't think my website does this. Physical could be included if you came to my workshop and I showed you what to do and then you repeated the process.

So if I know all this then why did I not include images from the beginning, well because of the problem we all have, lack of time. Things that take up my time are: - I am still at work, working 10 hours a day. I have also got a dog that needs his 3 - 4 walks a day. We have recently moved down to Devon and the house needs a lot of work to bring it up to how we want it. My wife and I also have finished renovating an annex for her Bed & Breakfast business at Acorn Lodge on Dartmoor in Devon. (www.acorn-lodge-dartmoor.co.uk) Post processing my images. I need / want to do some wildlife photography. Reconnaissance of areas for my wildlife photography. Carrying out research and writing my blog. Working on my nature reserve and all the usual mundane day to day jobs. You all know that there are not enough hours in a day to do what we want to do. Because of all of the above I find it hard to find the time to do extra post processing on images for the blog. Therefore I have decided to change my blog style and will only post wildlife photography hints and tips every other week rather than every week. This, I hope, will give me the time to post process a couple of images that can be inserted into the blog. It will also mean that I can increase the word count for the wildlife photography hints and tips within the blog to help explain some things better.
 

If you have any comments about this change please use the comment link above or below and tell me what you think.