Living in the countryside as I do, the commonly used phrase "giving nature a home" seems ironic as nature seems to attack me every time I venture out the front door. House Martins, Buzzards, Deer, foxes and owls seem to do especially well here at various times of the year. Memories of being constantly pecked on the head while photographing Artic Terns on the Farne Islands springs to mind. Mind you, my shot of the Longstone Lighthouse on that day appeared in the Trinity House calendar a couple of years ago. But I digress. 

It's a question of Attitude

We are not short of squirrels around here, especially in the Eskrigg Nature Reserve in Lockerbie. Usually, my efforts to photograph them purely as an amateur wildlife photographer usually result in a red backside vanishing behind a leaf, or a perfect shot of a tree stump where only a few seconds earlier something cute was munching on something indefinable.

Occasionally, a trip to the city can give you a break from things that chirp, squeak, or make peculiar coughing noises in the middle of the night. Or so I thought. Straight out of the railway station in Edinburgh I met a squirrel with attitude. Far from vanishing in the flick of a tail he came right up and fixed me with a beady stare. I think he was trying to assess whether I had a sandwich. Luckily the camera was switched on. (the Fujifilm S1 has survived as my pocket camera - see previous blogs). He posed to make sure I got the shot, decided I had no food, then bogged off. Mercenary. Next time I go to Eskrigg, I'll pop into Greggs first.