The perils of photographing animals...

Who here loves their pets? Yay! So do I! With a tiny flat rapidly approaching zoo proportions (containing five rats, three puffer fish, a bearded dragon and a marine tank... oh and two pinkies, also known as people), you would think there would be ample photographic opportunities.

You would be wrong.

Toots (aka rats) are incredibly sweet little critters. Awww, look at these two? Sweet aren't they?

Yes they are sweet until they realise they're being photographed! At this point, you end up with a critter that is less gorgeous and more Gollum...

Of course, you might think that this strange affliction is restricted to one little toot (the lovely specimen pictured above is Wynnie, with a rather prettier looking Moose). 

However, it would appear not, for after struggling with the new and swanky camera a few days later, I set up the shot beautifully to get a snap of Beattie and ended up with this:

So I have come away with a whole new respect for wildlife photographers. I can't even get a good pic in the controlled environment of my own home with a domestic animal. Goodness knows what would happen if I attempted to snap a lion pursuing gazelle across the Serengeti!

Concerning orcas...

Don't get me wrong. I appreciate orcas for their skills as epic hunters, their problem-solving abilities and their behaviour.

But why oh why is the BBC so obsessed with them? Every single remotely watery nature documentary has to contain orcas. In fact, I'd bet that they get more air time than any other creature. And EVERY single time we have to watch them ruthlessly pursue a hapless seal/whale. This is, of course, what they do. But why must it always be this particular behaviour that we see? Why can't we watch calves being born, or playing, or courtship behaviour perhaps?

With the money that gets quite rightly poured into nature documentaries, you'd think they could shake things up a bit. How many times have we seen the same bit of footage of the grey whale calf being separated from its mother by orcas and killed, for them to only eat its tongue?

I've been watching and enjoying the Frozen Planet series currently running on the BBC, but every single episode keeps churning out films of orcas killing stuff. Come on BBC, let's see something different!

The Sid

Here is Sid, the seven-year-old bearded dragon!

He's a gorgeous critter! He had two hoppers today so is looking suitably pleased with himself. Beardies rock! Stupidly he's never been that keen on crickets and is a bit too daft to chase live hoppers (ends up falling off his rocks and logs) but has suddenly taken to dead, frozen hoppers (defrosted before feeding, of course!). He loves them and chases them about. Bad ole Sid!

Any lizardy tales out there? 

Pirate poem

It's been a while, but I'm going to get this blog up and running again. To kick off, here's a little ditty I composed a few years ago while covering someone's lunch break...

A pirate on the Seven sea
Was bitten badly by a flea
He jumped and yelled and made a fuss
Waving his arms like an octopus!

Because he let out such a scream
He caught the attention of a bream
The bream poked his nose out of the sea
And saw the little tiny flea!

The bream opened his mouth up wide
And swallowed the flea deep inside
The pirate looked over the side
And said: "Thanks matey, need a ride?"

Alas, the bream could not accept!
For in the air, gills are inept...
He waved a fin to say goodbye
The pirate waved back with a sigh.

"What a shame fish live in the sea,
I thought he might be friends with me!"
He set the sail, while feeling glum
But soon cheered up with a shot of rum!