Photos, videos and docs of Gavin Johnson, with the keywords: "nature"

White pigeon

nobody@ipernity.com (Gavin Johnson) — Tue, 26 May 2026 07:03:31 +0000

I think this is a pure white pigeon, as the lcal doves are rather smaller. It was kind enough to pose for me while I was out taking photographs for our local Parish website.

Cotswold Alpacas

nobody@ipernity.com (Gavin Johnson) — Fri, 22 May 2026 06:24:39 +0000

Gavin Johnson has posted:

HFF - continuing my accidental series of local landscapes, Cotswold Alpacas have a herd of 45 animals in the village of Cowley.

You can book mindful walks with the alpacas and buy their wool, but for a small donation, you can also help yourself to well rotted alpaca manure, which seems to be rocket fuel for our garden plants.

As it was a quiet day at the farm, we were also encouraged to spend a little time in the company of these charming and inquisitive creatures. (Closeup in PiP).

Alpaca closeup

nobody@ipernity.com (Gavin Johnson) — Fri, 22 May 2026 06:24:40 +0000

Gavin Johnson has posted:

A closeup of one of the residents of Cotswold Alpacas. They'd recently had their annual haircut, so were looking a little thin.

Wheat field and barn

nobody@ipernity.com (Gavin Johnson) — Thu, 21 May 2026 06:30:38 +0000

Gavin Johnson has posted:

I seem to have accidentally posted a series this week of "landscapes I can walk to from home", so here's another of those.

About 1km from Monday's bench is this field at the foot of Chosen Hill in Gloucestershire, with a rusting but still functioning metal shed at the end of the tractor tracks. If you look closely, you can see the Malvern Hills in the far background.

A little place in the countryside

nobody@ipernity.com (Gavin Johnson) — Tue, 19 May 2026 06:15:21 +0000

Gavin Johnson has posted:

Along a very nice walk near Painswick in Gloucestershire, the path runs through a country estate. Tocknells Court is a historic and architecturally significant Grade II* listed detached country house surrounded by around 40 hectares of private land, complete with 16th century barns.

It was last sold in 2020 for £4.3M / €5M, so, while delightful, it's a little out of our price range!

A man-made view

nobody@ipernity.com (Gavin Johnson) — Mon, 18 May 2026 06:09:49 +0000

Gavin Johnson has posted:

HBM! The 20 hectare Horsbere Brook flood storage area was created in 2010 following a series of flash floods that affected more than 300 homes in Gloucester. The £1.5m project involved creating a huge ‘depression’ capable of accommodating the equivalent of 70 Olympic swimming pools full of water. If there’s torrential rain the water is now diverted into the depression, and it is then slowly released later.

As well as reducing the risk of flooding the storage area was also designed to be a natural looking ‘wetland’ landscape, and, over the last few years, it has become a delightful local nature reserve – attracting many rare birds to the area. Otters have also been spotted in the brook.

Tits, kingfishers, egrets, heron, swans and a wide range of both rare and more common birds are now regularly spotted here.

Welcome to the world

nobody@ipernity.com (Gavin Johnson) — Sat, 16 May 2026 06:20:14 +0000

Gavin Johnson has posted:

Birds seem to have started nesting earlier this year, and we've already seen broods of Great Tits, Sparrows and Starlings, but no young Blue Tits this year so far.

This is one of my favourite bird shots from a couple of years ago, when we had a couple of fledglings using the garden as a nursery.

Excuse me, sir, but could you spare a peanut?

nobody@ipernity.com (Gavin Johnson) — Tue, 05 May 2026 06:48:08 +0000

Gavin Johnson has posted:

Another cute one (I think) from our wildlife outing... a squirrel looking on as we were feeding the ducks.

He came up for some (unsalted) peanuts after posing like this. An extreme closeup in the PiP.

A squirrel-eye selfie

nobody@ipernity.com (Gavin Johnson) — Tue, 05 May 2026 06:48:09 +0000

Gavin Johnson has posted:

It's a shot I've taken before, but with the squirrels coming so close, I tried again.

This is a heavy crop, of course, but the reflection is good, and my wife and I are clearly visible.

Right-angle squirrel

nobody@ipernity.com (Gavin Johnson) — Sun, 03 May 2026 06:30:34 +0000

Gavin Johnson has posted:

Another bit of cuteness from the Cheltenham visit. The squirrels are used to humans and the occasional snack they share, but this one spotted a dog in the distance and froze, before scampering up the tree trunk to safety.

Grey Heron flypast

nobody@ipernity.com (Gavin Johnson) — Sat, 02 May 2026 15:01:09 +0000

Gavin Johnson has posted:

Another shot from Gloucester University's Cheltenham campus. The resident heron was disturbed and flew by on its way to a new perch.

Greylag gosling closeup

nobody@ipernity.com (Gavin Johnson) — Fri, 01 May 2026 12:58:48 +0000

Gavin Johnson has posted:

I couldn't resist adding a couple more of yesterday's cuteness overload...

Greylag goslings

nobody@ipernity.com (Gavin Johnson) — Fri, 01 May 2026 12:58:47 +0000

Gavin Johnson has posted:

I couldn't resist adding a couple more of yesterday's cuteness overload...

Greylag gosling

nobody@ipernity.com (Gavin Johnson) — Fri, 01 May 2026 07:58:49 +0000

Gavin Johnson has posted:

I set a new personal record yesterday. It was a sunny afternoon, so we went to the grounds of Gloucester University in Cheltenham where there is plenty of wildlife that is reasonably habituated to humans.

I set the camera up in fast burst mode with precapture, to make sure I didn't miss any action. After a couple of hours, I came home with 5800 images! It'll take hours to go through and delete most of them, but as you can see, some of the wildlife was extremely photogenic!

Update - I added another couple in PiPs.

Clematis flower

nobody@ipernity.com (Gavin Johnson) — Sun, 26 Apr 2026 06:40:43 +0000

Gavin Johnson has posted:

I'm not in Gunter's league when it comes to macro photography, but I took a few closeups of the flowers of my garden clematis which turned out reasonably well (extreme closeups in PiPs)

Clematis flower macro closeup

nobody@ipernity.com (Gavin Johnson) — Sun, 26 Apr 2026 06:40:45 +0000

Gavin Johnson has posted:

I'm not in Gunter's league when it comes to macro photography, but I took a few closeups of the flowers of my garden clematis which turned out reasonably well.

Clematis flower macro closeup

nobody@ipernity.com (Gavin Johnson) — Sun, 26 Apr 2026 06:40:44 +0000

Gavin Johnson has posted:

I'm not in Gunter's league when it comes to macro photography, but I took a few closeups of the flowers of my garden clematis which turned out reasonably well.

Birds in flight

nobody@ipernity.com (Gavin Johnson) — Sat, 25 Apr 2026 07:24:20 +0000

Gavin Johnson has posted:

We've had some sunny days this week, so I spent a while in my back garden trying to improve my technique at photographing birds in flight.

I'm finding capturing small birds in sharp focus really tricky, but thanks to the camera's high speed burst mode, I've managed to get a few crisp ones, and I've made a collage of four of them here (male and female House Sparrows and a Great Tit).

A regular garden visitor

nobody@ipernity.com (Gavin Johnson) — Mon, 20 Apr 2026 06:25:11 +0000

Gavin Johnson has posted:

I enjoy feeding the garden birds and thi is one of my regulars. We have a few feral pigeons that visit, but this one has noticed that I'm more generous with handouts than my wife.

If I'm out in the garden, he'll fly down expectantly, and if I don't immediately reach for the peanuts he'll make a point of flapping around at head height to make sure I've noticed him.

Here he is in his natural habitat... filling his crop with free food!

Hummingbird and flowers

nobody@ipernity.com (Gavin Johnson) — Sat, 18 Apr 2026 06:32:07 +0000

Gavin Johnson has posted:

A shot from a trip to Costa Rica quite a while ago. At an eco-lodge in the cloud forest, the owners planted a flower garden to attract the local hummingbirds.

It was a marvellous place to visit, but I really want to go back with my current generation of camera equipment and get some better photographs of these beauties!