Last week was spent in Cumbria on a break, one day of which I popped over to North Yorkshire to photograph Red Squirrels at a private wood with a company called 'Wild Dales Photography'. I had used these people last year and was looking forward to seeing Simon who owns the company again but unfortunately he had hurt his back and was out of action. Luckily for me his partner Sarah stepped in and took me and two other photographers to the woodland setting where hides are set up allowing close views of these wonderful animals. In this wood there is an estimated population of 20 or so animals all of which seem to be happy to approach as long as sudden movements are avoided meaning that there are many chances to take pictures. The only problem was the weather which was dull and drizzly most of the time and being in a wood meant that the light was very poor which required me to increase the sensitivity on the camera which leaves the images looking a little 'grainy'. In total I spent 5 hours or so in the hide resulting in hundreds of photos that took me some time to sort through and reduce in number to more manageable totals, a few of which are shown here.
When you spend a little time with these animals you soon realise that they have their own separate personalities and their appearances can differ greatly with different colours and thickness of fur. One or two of the squirrels were very bold and would actually come inside the hide with me looking for treats no doubt but we were told not to feed them as bacteria on our skin can be potentially harmful to squirrels and whenever Simon or Sarah feed them they make sure to use anti-bacterial hand wash first. A brilliant day with amazing animals that I could spend far more time with observing and photographing.
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