A day with Robin Morrison

(CLICK ON A PIC AND IT WILL GO BIG)

I'm sorry Robin but this picture is an absolute load of rubbish

Since James Corden has his Carpool Karaoke the EFRS thought they would get in on the act and are pleased to present what will hopefully be the first in a series of occasional special features where we invite a local well known photographer or birder to spend the day with us and have a bit of an interview at the same time. We'll try and give you the person behind the lens.

So for the inaugural post we give you non other than Robin Morrison. Robin is a natural history photographer based in the South West and is known amongst both the local community and further afield. He has been published in many national papers and on-line publications and occasionally picks up an award. Despite working full time he makes full use of his spare time doing what he likes best. He's been a friend of the EFRS from pretty much the beginning. We had admired his work for quite some time and finally met out on the Steart Reserve on a windy day looking for Short Eared Owls a couple of years ago. After that it's been a steady stream of irreverent nonsense on Twitter usually involving the Tor with assorted birds, class envy and poo!

Robin had decided on Westhay reserve. I immediately guessed as to why. It was for the Beardies wasn't it Robin. I'm not daft you know. You see I have a deep seated belief that Bearded Reedlings simply do not exist. I have never seen one in all the years I have been birding. QED!

So on with the day. Meet at 9 in the main car park he said. I was there prompt James would be late he always is. I wasn't expecting Robin to be. He wasn't. We would be on foot so didn't bring the EFRS chariot however I wasn't expecting Robins entrance. He came sailing round the bend on his bicycle with a big grin on his face. "I thought I'd make a suitable entrance" he said. I felt a little deflated not having my stallion with me. Nice one Robin, the day was set to be a good one. James arrived and after a brief chat we wandered down the track to see what the day would bring.

Taken by Robin before his grand entrance!

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So talk us through your early days.  

"As a kid I had a Kodak Instamatic 12,6 great little camera which required a small film cassette.. The only way to do nature photography was to find dead animals and photograph those because I couldn’t get close enough to the real ones. My dad buried a badger (local road kill) in the garden once giving it a proper burial and two years later we had a badger skull. The cat usually brought home presents which was always welcome. Of course, back then you sent off your rolls of film, waited three weeks for them to come back and then throw them all in the bin because they were rubbish. Maybe keep one,Not like today when you can shoot a thousand pictures in a day.
Then when I went to college I bought my first SLR which was a Dixon home brand Chinon CM-4 instead of text books and went to the library instead. It only had a 50mm standard lens so still not very good. Then I got really serious after college and got a Pentax ME-Super which was a great camera. Bought lenses for it, graduated and joined the Bristol Photographic Society. That’s when I got into aviation photography doing all the air shows. Five films in my pocket and a 400mm lens, manual focus and no image stabilisation. Those where the days!"

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"Come on" he says and leads us to his little set up. He had employed the services of the local amateur dramatics society. Popped down the local Army & Navy store for old cammo gear and brushed off his Blue Peter badge to spray some toilet rolls black and hand them round. Along the track there was a gaggle of birders 'Looking for Beardies' and surprise surprise no one had seen any. The lengths people will go to!

A non Beardie as taken by Robin!

A Kestrel was hunting for some time above the reeds while we were at the board walk. This one by Robin

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That was the good old days what about the digital age and why Canon?  

"Well my first was very late in life 2011 after taking a gap year in work and spending it just doing nature photography. I recommend it to anyone and should be looked upon as a positive by employers. I chose Canon after doing some research and they seemed to have the best range of lenses for what I wanted. Although I’m not altogether convinced as a lot of the Nikon guys seem to get consistently better pics than I do with the Canon stuff. Today it’s the 7D and a 300mm lens which does me just fine."

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I was pretending to be disappointed as we wandered back and found ourselves at the Tower Hide overlooking the reed beds.

Robin and James survey the scene

"And I had this one published in the Telegraph, which was nice"

As is befitting on such an exciting and high profile day we saw bugger all save for a single female Marsh Harrier.

Andrew's version

Robin's version

We wandered further

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 So what’s your favourite bird?  

"I’ll have to say something like a Sparrow hawk. Such beautiful birds that you often see on garden fences. Bit of a killing machine but you have to admire them. They’re not too easy to see but can be seen. I like the allure of spotting one. I must admit to really liking owls of all shapes and sizes. Very charismatic. I always feel for owls in a harsh winter either getting wet in the horrible weather or going hungry. They can’t really go out hunting. The noise from wind and rain on the grass means they can’t hear their prey. However my favourite bird can change as I also like the Cranes. Some people are against the project because we shouldn’t reintroduce something that’s died out however I don’t see the problem in giving them a boost."

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Aha!! Success! We had found a willing subject in the form of a Mute Swan having a bit of a preen and merrily splashing around. As I was on 'Interview duty' I left Robin and James to it.

"You see this is how you should hold it James if you want to win an award"

{Disclaimer - Robin would like to make it known and be put on record that he was fully aware the lens hood was still reversed when this picture was taken. He did attach it in its correct position to take the excellent pictures of the Swan illustrated below and herein. So endeth the Disclaimer}

'Oh yes baby thats it yes splash it for me baby the camera loves you. Bit more wing, yes thats it now a little more feather ruffling yeah baby splash it splash it good for me

James' version

Robin's version

Another by Robin

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Your thoughts on the politics of nature?  

"We do really benefit with all the organisations around here from the big ones like the RSPB and English Nature through to the regional ones like the Somerset Wildlife Trust down to the really local, local ones. When you look at it they make this fantasist corridor for nature from the WWT Steart all the way up to the Poldons and Mendips. Wildlife reserves in isolation aren’t much use. They all work tirelessly to create environment that’s rich in wildlife. We need them to counterbalance other aspects of the countryside such as farming which, out of necessity, has changed and is no longer this idyllic farmer with a few cows living in harmony with nature. A lot of farmers do leave set aside but it’s a small amount. You can’t turn the clock back and we are where we are. You can never recreate what was and we need to adapt with how it is or will be."

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 Unfortunately the fun didn't last as we walked on since we found a dead Heron. It looked in perfect shape except for a bold patch on it's neck. Who knows why it died. Interestingly we debated as to it's age since it seemed very small. Was it a rare pygmy Heron? We wondered aloud for a while. Later we realised it was a standard one just twisted and fallen. Live ones aren't all that big except for height in their neck.

Fox food

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 What about those big metal birds?  

"I love aviation. That would be my perfect job photographing planes. In school I wanted to be a fighter pilot. I tried to get into the RAF but my eyesight wasn’t good enough. Now I just go and enjoy it. I used to go all around the country watching a magnificent range of aircraft but now as the armed forces has dwindled the number of air shows has gone down so it’s Yeovilton and occasionally RAF Fairford. There’s something about the Red Arrows which makes then unique. I love watching them down at the coast. I managed, by chance, to see them at Sidmouth and they were fantastic. Life is full of the unexpected."

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So things weren't going so well on the birding front. No Ahem Beardies and just a single Marsh Harrier to keep us awake. We'll have a see how the new hide is coming along shall we.

We didn't walk down to it of course

Oh!

Taken at a secret location

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 So is aviation your first love?  

"I wouldn’t say that. I’ve always been fascinated by nature but aviation seems more dynamic. I used to go out for the day to the air shows and it caught my interest. The shows are there and you can go along, where, with nature you have to have more time and a lot more patience. You can go out there and buy the kit but if you don’t understand how the wildlife operates and lives then you’re unlikely to see the wildlife at its best anywhere. But what you can learn is the signs leading to behaviour and sounds. This will help you with things like otters. Little sounds,little signs that teach you they are there and eventually you’ll see them."

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We ended up at the bottom hide along London Drove, the horse shoe shaped one you can't get passed in. This is where we settled down for a while and had a good chat and laugh. Robin definitely gets into the EFRS spirit and his humour matches nicely. Just as well since we had to spend most of the day with him!!

As is often the case we all took the same pics so I'll leave it to you to say who's you prefer?

Andrew

James

It's all about timing Robin!

The resident Great White Egret

A Grey Heron in a grey sky

Fly-by by Robin

Gadwall Coming at yah! (Robin)

Lots of Gadwall

Bittern landing by Robin

We popped back to the board walk to see if the Beardies had come back. The Am-dram boys had all gone home and all we saw were these darters mating.

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And your favourite plane?  

"Concorde no doubts about it. Absolutely ahead of its time. Fantastic! Should have been a world beater. It’s only the politics of Britain and America that destroyed it. Also when the 747 came along and really made transatlantic travel really cheap. So it was too small, too expensive and only had a niche market. Aviation usually goes forwards but it actually went backwards with the retirement of Concorde. I was very disappointed when they had that disaster in France as everyone reassessed it and realised it was too expensive and too risky. If we could have made it so we could all get to America that quickly then it could have been a gold mine. Because travel is good. Travel broadens the mind. You can Skype, you can Google but it’s not the same as actually setting foot in another country, all the people, the cultures, the smells and tastes. You have to be there. You can see all the photographs and TV programmes but until you’ve been there you cannot appreciate the intense cold of Prague in the winter as an example. One of the reasons I love Concorde is because I grew up in Berkshire and the test planes used to come over our primary school. The head teacher just gave up telling me to stop rushing to the window. It was so noisy I couldn’t help going to look. There was nothing else like it. If you went to an air show there were two things that were show shoppers, the Red Arrows the other was either the Vulcan or Concorde. We’ve still got one but lost the other two."

He then started rambling!

"These modern fifth generation jets t are so clever that they can almost spin on their own axis leading to completely different aerobatics than when I were a lad. Those with vector thrust engines are incredible. Lightnings and Hunters used to take off and take half the county to turn around while now aircraft turn on a sixpence so if anything goes wrong its right there in front of you. I think there's more skill today from the pilot than there has ever been. It's very intense. The stresses and strains must be incredible. The pilots eyeballs must be popping out at times. The computerisation is amazing to. So look at cars eventually we will all be in driverless cars. If they were computerised then at traffic lights when they go green you'll get a lot more through because they will all go at once rather than everyone sitting there trying to find the gears, fiddling to the radio, looking around. So come on the days of remote control cars. (I think he meant driverless!) As soon as the lights go green Wham! this train of cars will take off. I'd love to know how long the petrol is going to last. We've been told twenty years since I was a lad."

There's more!!

"Why aren't we all driving around in electric cars? It must be more economical to generate electricity using one big power station than lots of little engines. All that excess heat generated from internal combustion engines is completely wasted. You'd think it's in the car manufacturer’s interest to switch to other energy sources wouldn't you but they're not heading that way. The infrastructure around the car is still set up for fossil fuels. However I did come across some recharging points in the most bizarre places the other day and I thought 'That's really good, that’s just the sort of place you might need one. What a forward thinking council'. There's a trial on the M5 now where they're putting up the prices of fuel in the service stations. What’s the point? It's a complete and utter waist of time. It's a trial to encourage people to shop for the best price but, it’s still way more expensive than anywhere else. What that has told everyone is don't buy your petrol here find somewhere off the motorway. We're always told there are too many signs on motorways anyway. How did we digress from wildlife photography to stupid signs on the M5? …… because ultimately the Human species will destroy this planet for all wildlife and themselves."

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Great day with a great guy. Thank you Robin for taking the time especially at the end for the interview over lunch.  If any of you lot don't know about Robins excellent work then he can be found in these locations:

Robin's Twitter page - @robinmmorrison

Robins Flickr page - https://www.flickr.com/photos/68911555@N03/

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 Any final thoughts? 

"I think it’s the magic of flight. Something about planes and birds that just fascinates me and come on the days of driverless cars! "

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So look out for the next 'A day with......' edition. You never know it might be YOU!!!