Mark's Wildlife and Adventures Blog

I did a short video of Benjie in Hotham Park the other day, hes getting on now at 13 Years but still doing well thats good isnt it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DydeLAg_QN0

Last weekend i went to Bournemouth with some friends and we visited the Pier and filmed a special train and also visited Poole Park, here is a photo of the Pier.



I will post more photos of the Bournemouth trip soon.

Wow, i thought i bettr get posting again, i hope everyone had a good Winter, its Spring now and i will start posting in smaller posts rather than long ones that end up being not done thats a good idea isnt it.

Here is a few posts from the extreme Winter we had just gone.

The Snow of December 2010.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/21967655@N08/sets/72157625895235471/

I also have photos from work on there and a nice big snowball fight with my Boss which was super fun lol!

Flickr sems different now with HTML codes, hopefully i can link photos here on future posts once i have sorted out ho to do the new system.

I will now start posting from Spring 2011, i did miss people here hope you missed me too but iam back now and will try to post on here more frequently.

I went to Heathrow Airport yesterday and had a lovely days spotting, i seemed to have nicer weather than the south coast did.

The half Moon was out in its Waning position where it can be seen in the morning sky and i waited for a plane to pass by and here is what i got.



Its a cracking shot at the Professor at Chichester Plantarium was so impressed that he is going to use it with my permission for his Moon Presentation and he will let me know when its shown so i can go and see it yay!

Another shot i caught with these high overflights is this rather worrying if you are not sure if the aircraft are at the same level or not!



Its an optical illusion, the easyJet A320 is 1000ft or so above the Thomas Cook A320, but it can look like they have collided, ok if they did i would have to try and run for cover!

The reason for this visit was to catch the British Airways Boeing 757 which was being retired from service, BA has repainted it to the old Landor 1983 scheme to celebrate and today was its last day of operation. The Sun would have to hide when it came but i caught him yay!



It was a perfect day forspotting and the rain eventually came in th mid afternoon but i was heading back then so i missed a soaking, the spotters waiting for the plane to come round again at 4pm got soaked but i didnt see the need to watch it twice, also with the daylight getting shorter now i wanted to film at Clapham Junction station, so much Trains there.

I will do a post on the Trains one day that i see at Clapham Junction, which is just outside London Victoria and Battersea Park, have a nice Halloween folks!

Yesterday i went to Worthing because this weekend i have to look after Benjie so couldnt go far away from home which was nice for a change. The weather was so clear and sunny that i could see Bognor Regis from the end of Worthing Pier!

Taken with my Canon 1000D with 70-300mm Lens.



Also, i took a photo looking east towards Brighton and beyond, think i can see the cliffs of Rottingdean or further before the heat haze drowns it out. Its very interesting when i can see for miles, usually this only happens in the Winter where there is no heat haze but it was cooler yesterday.



As the Summer gradually fades into Autumn i find time to do posts here again, as some of you know on Facebook me and my girlfriend have been out nearly every weekend so we have been having a really fun time.

Foxy with his friend Oscar the Otter.



Hope you enjoyed that folks!

Hi, for my 30th Birthday present on 5th September i went on a London Sightseeing Helicopter from Redhill near Gatwick, all around London which was really cool! I went on G-ORKY, a red and yellow AS 350 Squirrel which was a lovelly helicopter which can seat 5 people at a time including the pilot.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/2196765.../sizes/z/in/set-72157624778060295/

Its my first time in a Helicopter and i have always wanted to experience being in one, its so close to Gatwick that the planes bank around after takeoff, in this instance using easterly operations.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/2196765.../sizes/z/in/set-72157624778060295/

(For some reason, Flickr has gone weird, any reason why is it due to security issues? anyway pressing on using only the links iam afraid.)

My family went with me and i went into a room with 3 other passengers for the briefing which is simular to the safety briefing you get before you takeoff in a passenger plane and then Rick, our pilot for the day introduced himself and we got into G-ORKY yippee! http://www.flickr.com/photos/2196765...67850487/in/set-72157624778060295/

Rick let me sit in the front as it was my Birthday which was very nice of him. I did a video of the takeoff here and you can hear Rick communicating with Redhill Tower.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yG_IvJZxW4M

I had my Canon 1000D with 70-300mm Lens and Fuji S2000HD with me and found out that using my Fuji was better due to the Canon getting blurry, there was not much room to interchange lenses so kept it at that, plus it keeps the Canon insides clean if you dont change lenses.

Gatwick just after we took off.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/2196765...67816031/in/set-72157624778060295/

Then we headed over Reigate and over Surrey towards the Heathrow control zone where we requested to cross so we could get to the rover Thames.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/2196765...68462852/in/set-72157624778060295/

I was really enoying the flight and didnt always take photos all the time because i wanted to enjoy the experience thats good isnt it.

We reach London and the Thames.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/2196765...68465858/in/set-72157624778060295/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/2196765...68466796/in/set-72157624778060295/

London certainly looks beautiful from the air and even better by Helicopter.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/2196765...67860495/in/set-72157624778060295/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/2196765...68471348/in/set-72157624778060295/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/2196765...67864539/in/set-72157624778060295/

The most important bits of London yippee!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/2196765...68475250/in/set-72157624778060295/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/2196765...67868743/in/set-72157624778060295/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/2196765...68477948/in/set-72157624778060295/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/2196765...68479450/in/set-72157624778060295/

Short video i made, note i didnt use Foxy due to not having much room but that didnt matter because i was having such a great time.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=duNzMolNAww

Coming up to Canary Wharf and Milennium Dome (i still call it that, better name for it) and London City Airport and Isle of Dogs area.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/2196765...67872675/in/set-72157624778060295/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/2196765...67876717/in/set-72157624778060295/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/2196765...68485938/in/set-72157624778060295/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/2196765...67824867/in/set-72157624778060295/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/2196765...68433652/in/set-72157624778060295/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/2196765...67826687/in/set-72157624778060295/

Then we turned south again over Greenwich and started to head back to Redhill again and i had a nice long chat with Rick about how he looks out for other aircraft, then we see a Virgin 747 just leaving Gatwick heading for us! He has us on TCAS Rick said so he decenced a bit to let him pass over us very safely. I took some photos of the 747 but they were waaaay too blurry, dont think Canon and long lenses are suitable for photography from the air lol!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/2196765...67881991/in/set-72157624778060295/

We pass over a busy railway station, i forgot which one Rick said it was.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/2196765...67891743/in/set-72157624778060295/

Me enjoying the flight, i could make a really cool Helicopter pilot, or scare many people lol!!!!!

My Snoopy, rarely seen in YouTube videos because hes so special i leave him at home, being given to me when i was only 30 minutes old!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/2196765...68502112/in/set-72157624778060295/

Interesting clouds.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/2196765...68506930/in/set-72157624778060295/

Heading back to Redhill Airfield.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/2196765...67910361/in/set-72157624778060295/

We passed over quite a few golf courses.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/2196765...68440472/in/set-72157624778060295/

Theres Redhill, i didnt know it had an 08L and 08R and Heli runway, i do now lol!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/2196765...68444068/in/set-72157624778060295/

Heres the landing video, stopped just before landing due to having to get out quick.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U3ogElSub1Q

It was a very quick turnaround after we landed, soon as we got off, another 4 people got off and Rick didnt even turn the rotor off lol! must be a busy day taking lots of people around London and back.

Here is Rick and G-ORKY taking back to the air after 5 minutes on the ground.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/2196765...68531972/in/set-72157624778060295/

All photos here.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/2196765...72157624778060295/with/4968531972/

Hope you enjoyed that folks, i will try posting a bit more here too.