Top 12 Wildlife Highlights of 2023

So with trips throughout Scotland, Finland and Kenya. My highlights of 2023 were very tough to choose, there were so many great wildlife moments that didn’t quite make it in – Badgers in Speyside and Strathspey, White Rhinos in Lake Nakuru, Pine Marten at Keith, Red Kites at Argaty, Gannets at Troupe Head, Ospreys at Aviemore, White Tailed Eagles on the Isle of Mull, Leopards in Samburu, Great Grey Owls in Finland, Waxwings in Motherwell and for the first time otters on Mull were not at number 1 and didn’t make it in to the top 12, I love otters and again was fortunate enough to see and photograph these incredible animals, but due to other trips my time with them was limited in 2023.

The following are my Top 12 Photography Moments from 2022 in descending order.

Number 12 – Red Squirrels and Finches. Dumfries

I have been to Alan McFadyen’s Scottish Photography Hides many times over the last couple of years. But I hadn’t used the squirrel and finch hide before. I first visited in February but went back another 3 times throughout the year with clients. This hide has a great set up for jumping squirrels. The Red Squirrels make their way along a log and then jump to a platform where there are a feast of hazelnuts waiting for them. They move and jump so quickly it is almost impossible to track them, certainly with my Nikon D850. I achieved the images by pre focusing on a stick positioned between the 2 points with the idea being that as the squirrel jumps, I will achieve at least 1 or 2 frames in focus. After a bit of practice, I was able to achieve consistent results with this. The fighting finches is the other set up at this hide. Sunflower seed hearts are positioned in a hollowed-out tree stump and the finches will land on the side of the log, they will then eat the sunflower hearts and when another finch lands on the tree stump the finches fly up into the air squabbling over the food. It is another shot that is almost impossible to achieve by tracking the bird certainly I can’t do it with my Nikon D850 so again the shot is achieved by pre focusing on the finch and then when they fly up just shooting a burst of frames and hope that they fly up in the same focal plane as where the initial focus was. There is a lot of trial and error with these images and a lot of out of focus frames. But after some practice I was able to achieve some good images including where the beaks touch.

The reason why this made it in to the Top 12 is one because it is a lot of fun and two it is technically challenging. You never know what exactly you will achieve. I was really pleased with the results here and enjoyed the whole experience of being in the hide and practicing and then teaching other people how to achieve the results.

Number 11 – Beavers. Blairgowrie

I had seen beavers at Argaty in 2022 for the first time, but due to it being towards the end of the year and the light fading early, I didn’t get the images I wanted. I had clients who wanted to see beavers as part of their Scotland tour so I contacted a guy called Bob “Nature Nuts” Smith and arranged an evening Beaver Walk with him and my clients, the particular beaver family that we saw had several young kits and we sat on the river bank and watched them, we got some nice images, but I had already decided to go back and try again to achieve the images that I wanted. On the 2^nd visit the beavers were more active and I was able to capture some images of them interacting and feeding. There is something quite magical about sitting on the riverbank watching wild beavers in the UK. They are incredible animals to watch and observe and really have the cute factor.

Number 10 – Tawny Owls. Dumfries

In June I had some lovely clients from America with me and they really wanted to see Tawny Owls, we were doing a few days down at Scottish Photography Hides as part of the trip and Alan was keeping me updated on the likelihood of Tawny Owls at his hides, he contacted me a few days before we were due to visit and informed me that there was a female Tawny Owl and 2 chicks being seen regularly at one of the hides. We had 2 nights in the hide with the owls and it was an incredible experience. It was dark with just floodlight used to light where the owls land and over the 2 evenings we watched the female come down and take food and then fly up to a tree where her 2 hungry chicks were waiting, she would then feed them and then fly off to another tree. This hide and experience was particularly memorable, not just due to the images, but the sounds, the female would hoot and then the chicks would make a squawking noise which must have been “please feed me” sometimes this went on for an extended period and you couldn’t see the owls just hear them. The 2 evenings spent here were amazing and it was a pleasure to watch this owl family.

Number 9 – Kingfisher. East Kilbride

A Kingfisher local to me was becoming a bit of a social media star and lots of local wildlife lovers and photographers were posting images of the bird. In February I went down to the local non-commercial hide where it was being seen regularly and tried to photograph it. I visited several times throughout February and photographed it quite often and on one day it treated us to a full hour around the hide. Conveniently perching in a variety of places with different backgrounds, even the weather and the light changed over that period enabling me to get the best kingfisher images that I have ever taken. For me it is great that with all of the places I have visited this year that somewhere less than 10 minutes from where I live made it into my Top 12 Highlights for the year. I hope to see this stunning bird again in the New Year.

Number 8 – Puffins. Isle of Lunga

The puffins on Lunga are incredible. Spending time with them on the Island of Lunga is often referred to as puffin therapy. Turus Mara offer a fantastic Big Bird trip to the island where you can spend 4 hours with the puffins. I have done this trip many times over the last few years. This year I visited in May to try and get the puffins with the bluebells and the other flowers which make for really interesting backgrounds in the images. I then visited later in the year in July with clients and at this time of year the puffins bring in sand eels for their pufflings and the backgrounds are also completely different with the longer grass taking on a pink tinge. Lunga is a fantastic location for photographing puffins and you are guaranteed to see them in quite large numbers, so you can be really imaginative in achieving some different images using the different flowers and vegetation to create some interesting backgrounds and bokeh. Lunga is one of my favourite places to visit and puffins one of my favourite birds to photograph.

Number 7 – Sunrise. Masai Mara. Kenya

I returned to Kenya and Masai Mara after a 3-year absence. It was my 20^th year of visiting Masai Mara. Our focus here was to capture different animals at sunrise either as silhouettes or using backlighting. Over 10 mornings we were incredibly fortunate with lots of different subjects and various images achieved. My favourite was a mating couple of lions and I got images of the male and female with the sun rising behind them. On another morning we were photographing gazelles jumping around on the horizon as silhouettes against the sun when to our amazement a huge male elephant walked across in front of us. We repositioned the vehicle and were able to shoot a sequence of images of the elephant walking across the horizon. There is something special about being in Masai Mara as the sun comes up. The reserve is usually busy and full of vehicles, but at sunrise, you can have it to yourself and that is what we had every morning. The images I took over the 10 mornings are some of my best ever Masai Mara images.

Number 6 – Lion Family. Samburu. Kenya

Samburu is my favourite reserve in Kenya. I love it as it is usually not very busy, and the wildlife is incredible. Add to this the incredible scenery and landscape and you have a wildlife destination that is difficult to beat. On the 2nd day in Samburu we found a pride of lions that were attempting to hunt warthog and the cubs ended up trying to chase an oryx, that was our first introduction to them, over the next few days we spent hours with this pride, we would sit with them whilst they relaxed in the shade, we would watch them attempt to hunt and when successful we watched them eat. On 2 occasions they got chased away from their resting places by elephants and on one occasion we watched the whole pride climb a cliff to move to another area across the river. They treated us to some amazing moments and some great images.

Number 5 – Cheetah Family. Samburu. Kenya

Samburu really was brilliant this year. As well as the lion family we found a cheetah mum and her 4 adolescent cubs. At times it was difficult to know which animal to spend time with and for most of the time there we split ourselves between the 2 different species. Our first sighting of the cheetah family they were all laying under a small tree and then got up and walked together. Over the days we watched the cubs play with each other. Often stalking and chasing each other. We watched them climb a tree and we watched the mum attempt to hunt. On one particular morning we found them just after sunrise. The light was incredible and the cheetahs were bathed in golden light, they chased each other through the dust, practiced stalking and sat with the sun behind them, enabling me to capture some backlit images. It is always a privilege to spend time with wildlife and study their behaviour, you can start to see the individual characters of the cubs. It is sightings like this and the lion family that make me love wildlife photography. It is not only about capturing images it is about observation, watching and spending time with nature.

Number 4 – Goshawk. Speyside

In March I was able to use a non-commercial hide in Speyside in the North of Scotland where Goshawks were regularly seen and photographed. The hide was run by a guy called Chris Reid, originally set up to photograph pine martens, but Chris managed to do the impossible and regularly had Goshawks coming into his hide. I met Chris early in the morning and he took me up to the hide. I made myself comfortable and sat and waited after 3 hours of watching, I inevitably got a little distracted and started reading. By chance I looked up and there in front of me was a Goshawk. I could not believe that a bird of that size had flown in and landed in front of the hide and I had not heard a thing. The Goshawk stayed for nearly an hour and I quietly and slowly captured some images, at one point it started to rain adding rain streaks to the images. After the Goshawk left I was just so happy, I could not believe I’d seen one let alone captured images of one. But that was only the beginning. I had another visit from a Goshawk a bit later on and it landed on a different perch enabling different images and backgrounds. This one also stayed for nearly an hour and at times I just put the camera down and watched. There were no more visits for the rest of the day after this one had left, but at times the forest would come alive with the sound of calling Goshawks, there haunting sound just added to the experience of being in this incredible location. There was the bonus of a visit from a young sparrowhawk too. This hide was amazing and one of my best wildlife photography experiences. These images will always have particular significance to me as after a high drive malfunction in June I thought I had lost all of these images, but fortunately the amazing people at Seagate managed to retrieve the data and the lost images.

Unfortunately the hide was closed later this year, through no fault of Chris’s. Meaning that I will probably never have the opportunity to photograph wild Goshawks like this again in the UK

Number 3 – Brown Bears. Finland

In June I visited the hides in western Finland at Martinselkonen near the Russian border. I hadn’t been for a few years and went with 2 brilliant clients with the focus on photographing the European Brown Bear. The hides here are superb and offer unique views and opportunities to photograph Brown Bears, with my clients going in the 2 person photographic hides it enabled me to go in the single photographic hides which allow for low level shooting. Shooting from the ground with these incredible animals so close is a unique experience and one that I will always remember. The bears don’t seem bothered by your presence, they know you are there and are inquisitive but show no signs of aggression. I always try to get as close to eye level as possible when photographing any wildlife subjects, shooting from the ground enabled below eye level images when they were really close and a ground level perspective when they were further from the hide.

I have more tours running to Finland in 2024 and cannot wait to work with this incredible species more.

Number 2 – Fish Eagles. Kenya

Lake Naivasha is an area of Kenya that I have often done an overnight in with or without clients to relax and recharge after several early starts on safari. On this occasion in September I had scheduled a few days in Lake Naivasha to explore it further, the main focus was Colobus Monkeys, the many water birds especially kingfishers and the African Fish Eagle. I stayed at Elsamere Conservation Centre, which is a wonderful destination. After the 2 days there I had achieved the images I wanted including the images of the African Fish Eagle fishing. You can take a boat trip out and the boat guide gets some fish from the local fishermen and feeds the Eagles. Then you sit in the small boat and try to capture images of them as they take the fish from water. I had attempted this years ago and didn’t really get the images that I wanted but after the last few years and doing the boat trips with Mull Charters on Mull with the White Tailed Eagles I had practiced a fair bit. I had done 3 boat trips over the 2 days and had achieved some great images. But as we were leaving on the last morning I couldn’t help but think I had missed an opportunity. I wanted to photograph the eagles fishing at sunrise and sunset. After a conversation with my guide and good friend Isaac Kinyanjui, we decided it was worth trying to change the itinerary to go back to Naivasha, so 5 days later we did and after heavy rain at sunset on the day of my birthday I managed to get the images early the next morning at sunrise. This shoot took a lot of planning and it would not have been possible without the help of so many people. Photographing the Eagles at sunrise was an incredible experience and one that I will remember for a long time.

Number 1 – Flamingos. Lake Bogoria. Kenya

I only spent 24 hours in Lake Bogoria and stayed at the amazing Lake Bogoria Hotel and Spa but without a doubt this was the highlight of the year for me. Simply because of the planning that went in to photographing the flamingos here and the ideas I had for specific images. It all started with 3 main images that I wanted to achieve – slow shutter speeds of the flamingos to show motion amongst the flock, a low level shot using a remote release and photographing them backlit with the sun rising. Over the months leading up to the trip I started to read about flamingos and started to study images that had been taken, I wanted to see what was already out there and I wanted to achieve something different, I also researched their behaviour (like I do for all new subjects) and started to plan out the images I wanted to try and achieve, Whilst researching I came across an article talking about flamingos and there place in mythology, folklore and symbolism, this got me thinking about creating images based on the various different meanings of the flamingo in different cultures and religions. I made a shot list and over one afternoon and one morning achieved the images that I wanted to achieve. Travelling to the Flamingos in darkness along one of the worst roads I’ve ever been on and then walking down to the shoreline before the sun rises was incredible. We sat in darkness waiting for the sun to rise and the smell and sounds of the flamingos became more and more vivid, until the sun appeared, and a mass of pink and gold was revealed. Sometimes you just have moments where nature truly astounds you and this was one of them. It was a magical experience to sit with the flamingos, watch, listen and capture some images whilst being accepted by them for a small amount of time.

This is why the flamingos are my number 1 wildlife photography highlight for 2023.