lizard in a bottle
Why is that poor lizard in a bottle? Long story short: The Gambia’s foremost biologist, Clive Barlow, was out for a walk one day when he saw one of these, “Strange” he thought, “Not a familiar species.” Far too fast to catch that day he suggested to ‘Teacha‘ (you’ll meet him in a later post) that he take a group of students to seek out the little blighter. We found him and photographed him. All in the mid-day heat in a random stretch of forest near Tendaba. It was a very exciting thing for all of us to think that we may have found a new species! Excited by our find we popped him in the bottle to restrain him while we contacted Clive for a description, on conformation of his appearance we let him go. Happy with our pics and buzzing with the thrill of the chase we headed to the local service station. To discover a new species would have been great, not much chance of that these days with reptiles in Africa, but possible in a place like The Gambia because not much biological surveying takes place. There could be all kinds there to discover, and in some places we know there is…
Oh yeah, it turns out that this is a Gambia Agama(Agama weidholzi), not known to many in the Gambia strangely enough, although it is known in many neighbouring countries, perhaps because more surveying and conservation takes place there!?
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nile monitor
A creek crawl through the mangroves in Tendaba, The Gambia. We saw all kinds. This made me very happy. A Nile Monitor resting in the branches over the water. This one was a fair size too, about 4 or 5 foot snout to tail-tip. It’s not the best picture but this photo is about the experience, for me, a nile monitor in the wild! Very happy John.
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red billed hornbill
A pair of red billed hornbills in Bijilo Forest. They pair up and forage together throughout the year searching in the leaf litter for lizards and invertebrates. The male on the right has a black underside to his bill.
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gambia
I’m in Gambia assisting with the running of a Media & Wildife / Conservation Biology applied field studies course with students from the University of Cumbria. Bijilo forest park forms the base for most of the students project work. It is an inspirational place filled with a wealth of animal species, this is the first one most people see when they enter the park. A green monkey, or vervet as it is more often called, looking rather bored.
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golden pond life
Hello wordpress, it’s been a while! I’ve been busy watching these little beauties develop. Right now they are getting more skin pigmentation and their eyes and nostrils are starting to develop. You can still see their hearts beating through their skin. I find them utterly fascinating. Tadpoles is where it all began for me, as a boy I would spend hours pond dipping and collecting frogspawn. My love of nature began with frogs so this is a brilliant side project to all the rest of my work at the moment. There will be a film soon… hope I’m not away when they sprout legs!
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spring is in the water
Frogs and toads of all shapes and sizes were really making the most of the warm weather on Sunday. The surface of the pond was practically frothing at some points. This alligator style pose by a common toad (Bufo bufo) happened in one of the stiller moments when all participants just needed to lay back for the metaphorical cigarette.
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the patient langur
I was recently asked by a few people what my favourite Photos of my own were. I had to think. Some go in and out of favour. Some remind me of a time or place. Others just speak to me. This is one that I love, the pose of the monkey, the light, the experiences of that trip. I photographed this hanuman langur in Bandhavghar, India, in 2010.
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previews, distractions & spring
One of the early springs welcome distractions from a hard days editing has been filming these. Day one; this is the frogspawn before it began to develop. I have been literally watching [filming] it grow and develop. AMAZING. A little film will follow when they are ready to hop off. Taken using the canon MPE 65mm f2.8 1:5 macro lens at about 4x magnification the ‘black dot’ at the middle of the shot is about 2-3mm in diameter.
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Part 2
Oh yes, it’s that moment you have all been waiting for, here is part 2 of the film about bears and bear research at University of Cumbria.
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a sneak preview
This is part 1 of a film that I made to help promote the work of the Bear research team at University of Cumbria, Part 2 will follow later in the week. This first part is just over 3 minutes long. Most of the Images in the film are from camera traps used by the researchers. Enjoy.
