Harry Appleyard - Tattenhoe Wildlife Photographer
I started wildlife photography as a hobby back in the spring of 2008. While I was always fascinated with wildlife before I started photography, my local knowledge of the subject was very basic, so having a camera wasn’t just a way for me to take pictures, but a great learning tool. The camera I had at the time was a small Fujifilm. It wasn’t exactly the “ideal” wildlife photography camera but it was great for simply documenting the species I found and comparing the images to those in books and on various websites for identification and research.
Most of my “early days” in the hobby were spent in and around Howe Park Wood, usually taking pictures of dragonflies, damselflies and other insects. As I upgraded to larger, more sophisticated bridge cameras and continued my own research through other resources, I started to expand my range across the local area, getting to know Tattenhoe’s many habitats ranging from the brook, ponds, meadows, hedgerows and woodland which create an urban haven for all sorts of wildlife all year round especially birds, many of which like the Tawny Owl and Great-spotted Woodpecker are resident breeding species while others including the Wheatear and Waxwing are migratory species, travelling thousands of miles from the continent, Africa and other areas to stay/breed here at specific times of year.
One of my favourite aspects to wildlife photography is that no matter how much experience you may already have in certain places, you never know for sure what you might find, so there is always the chance of getting something new. You can visit them hundreds of times, getting used to seeing a range of familiar animals and one day out of the blue, find a species that could not only be a new one for you, but also an entirely new species for the local area. In September 2016, I discovered the Willow Emerald Damselfly in Tattenhoe and became the first person known to find, photograph and officially record the species in all of Buckinghamshire, according to the British Dragonfly Society, making Milton Keynes the most westerly point at which the species has been found in the UK so far.
I think in urban areas like Milton Keynes, we are incredibly lucky to have such a vast range of green spaces, most of which are maintained by The Parks Trust. Through posting my photography to my photostream on Flickr and the Tattenhoe Friends Facebook page, I’ve always aimed to show the variety of wildlife we have on our doorstep, which is much wider than you may think and steadily increasing. While it may be a part of a city that never sleeps, Tattenhoe’s habitats are helping many species that are declining nationally as well as increasingly widespread species such as the Ring-necked Parakeet, Peregrine and Raven.
I’ve also had a large number of publications since 2008. In 2009 and 2011, I won the junior person’s category of The Parks Trust’s photography competitions and some of my images have appeared in books such as RHS Wildlife Garden from Dorling Kindersley and Mysterious Milton Keynes by James Willis. Several others have appeared on the BBC’s Springwatch and Autumnwatch shows and most recently, one of my shots of a group of frogs and their frogspawn outside Howe Park Wood from last year was featured in the BBC’s Countryfile 2017 calendar as a runner-up to their latest photography competition, with over 21,000 entries.
Although it does take a lot of patience and perseverance, wildlife photography can be very rewarding and there’s no place better to do it than around your local area.
Most of my “early days” in the hobby were spent in and around Howe Park Wood, usually taking pictures of dragonflies, damselflies and other insects. As I upgraded to larger, more sophisticated bridge cameras and continued my own research through other resources, I started to expand my range across the local area, getting to know Tattenhoe’s many habitats ranging from the brook, ponds, meadows, hedgerows and woodland which create an urban haven for all sorts of wildlife all year round especially birds, many of which like the Tawny Owl and Great-spotted Woodpecker are resident breeding species while others including the Wheatear and Waxwing are migratory species, travelling thousands of miles from the continent, Africa and other areas to stay/breed here at specific times of year.
One of my favourite aspects to wildlife photography is that no matter how much experience you may already have in certain places, you never know for sure what you might find, so there is always the chance of getting something new. You can visit them hundreds of times, getting used to seeing a range of familiar animals and one day out of the blue, find a species that could not only be a new one for you, but also an entirely new species for the local area. In September 2016, I discovered the Willow Emerald Damselfly in Tattenhoe and became the first person known to find, photograph and officially record the species in all of Buckinghamshire, according to the British Dragonfly Society, making Milton Keynes the most westerly point at which the species has been found in the UK so far.
I think in urban areas like Milton Keynes, we are incredibly lucky to have such a vast range of green spaces, most of which are maintained by The Parks Trust. Through posting my photography to my photostream on Flickr and the Tattenhoe Friends Facebook page, I’ve always aimed to show the variety of wildlife we have on our doorstep, which is much wider than you may think and steadily increasing. While it may be a part of a city that never sleeps, Tattenhoe’s habitats are helping many species that are declining nationally as well as increasingly widespread species such as the Ring-necked Parakeet, Peregrine and Raven.
I’ve also had a large number of publications since 2008. In 2009 and 2011, I won the junior person’s category of The Parks Trust’s photography competitions and some of my images have appeared in books such as RHS Wildlife Garden from Dorling Kindersley and Mysterious Milton Keynes by James Willis. Several others have appeared on the BBC’s Springwatch and Autumnwatch shows and most recently, one of my shots of a group of frogs and their frogspawn outside Howe Park Wood from last year was featured in the BBC’s Countryfile 2017 calendar as a runner-up to their latest photography competition, with over 21,000 entries.
Although it does take a lot of patience and perseverance, wildlife photography can be very rewarding and there’s no place better to do it than around your local area.
All of the images shown here were taken by Harry Appleyard, in and around Tattenhoe over the past few years.