Tuesday 1 May 2007
Tonight saw my sister, Nicky Lewis, receiving the presidentship of the Chester Photographic Society for the forthcoming 12 months. We thought it appropriate that we mark the occasion with a photo or two.
Sunday 29 April 2007
The weather was fantastic - clear skies and pleasantly warm. We arrived at around 10:30am, flashed my National Trust membership card for free entry to the reserve and managed to get one of the few remaining parking spaces at the side of the road before the road narrowed towards the beach car park. We headed straight for the Squirrel Walk (red route).
It was 15 minutes into our journey along the Squirrel Walk until we saw one. Shelled Hazelnuts and freshly chopped (peeled) apple were deployed and we were soon in business taking photos. We had a good hour of shooting, punctuated by periods of squirrel absence as it went to hide the nuts it was gathering.
The presence of 3 photographers (us) with lenses trained into the trees soon drew small crowds of on-lookers who quickly dispersed each time the squirrel vanished over the brow of the hill. We took these opportunities to review our shots and exercise one of the many unwritten rules of photography... when you're back is turned the thing you're trying to get photos of will re-appear!
The number of people was building by noon and we decided to head back to the car for a picnic lunch, each of us happy with a set of very nice photos "in the bag".
Formby Point was a great success for us and we'd heartily recommend it to all. For the visitor, the best time to see any squirrel activity would be first thing in the morning when there are few people around.