How to find soaring success photographing birds

When Graeme Carroll started taking pictures of birds during the coronavirus pandemic, he found a natural affinity with both the art and his avian subjects. He shared some of the secrets of his success with the BBC (but don't expect him to reveal his best locations).

Graeme suddenly stops talking mid-sentence and grabs the camera that permanently hangs on a strap from around his neck.

He crouches and points his long, camouflage-clad lens at a sudden frenzy of movement in the ferns beside the footpath.

"I'm sure it's a wren," he whispers.

Suddenly, the foliage stops flittering and the chirping that had accompanied it ceases. The bird has clearly gone, evading Graeme's Sony A1 camera.

Wrens "are very flighty," he says with a laugh.

On another day he might set up a stool and sit there for a while to see if it returns, but we've got other sites to scout.

Over the past four years, Graeme has become something of an expert in birds and spends many hours trying to find the best spots to see them in his native Durham dales.

"You have got to put the time in," he says, as we push through waist-high ferns beside the Bollihope Burn, the beck that weaves through a small valley of old mine workings sandwiched between Weardale and Teesdale.

"It's always luck when you get a good picture of a bird, but there are things you can to do to increase the chances of that good luck."

This is one of his favourite bird-watching spots and one he is happy to share, chiefly because it is already well-known to many "twitchers and toggers", bird watchers and photographers.

He is very protective of his sites and guards their locations fiercely, fearful that they could be spoiled and his beloved birds disturbed if the wrong people find out where they are.

For Graeme, part of the fun and satisfaction is getting a shot of a truly wild creature going about its business.

There is one spot he likes near Muggleswick where he can lie on his back among the heather and watch the red kites soar above him.

Above us swallows dart through the air, Graeme takes a picture of a damsel fly and the brook to our side continues to babble.

He really wants to find the stonechat which he knows frequent the valley, but they prove elusive - for now.

He has already got a good shot of a dipper, achieved by crawling on his belly to the side of the beck to snap away on his silent camera as the little bird skipped over the pebbles.

We reach an enclosure, where Graeme once took a bucket-list picture of a cuckoo mid-song as it perched on a dead tree.

He had scouted the spot for three years waiting to see the bird, so was delighted when it finally paid off, research being a key part of his process to get the best shots.

Cutting our losses with the stonechats, we head back to his car and on to the road over the moors to Teesdale.

Up to 80% of his time is spent in the car; some of his best shots are from his red Mazda.

He spends hours crawling along country lanes, his front windows down so as to not obscure any potential photo opportunity and his camera, fitted with a 200-600m lens, within easy reach on the passenger seat.

Graeme is, he says, a very "irritating" driver, but mindful of that, he always pulls over to let other motorists pass.

He constantly scans the skies for circling silhouettes and fence posts and branches for those that may be perched.

The first U-turn of the day came on our way to Bollihope from his home in Wolsingham, an abrupt about-face after he saw a kestrel sitting atop one of the large red and white poles used to mark the edge of the road in the winter snows.

The second arrives about 10 miles (16km) later as we crest a hill and start our descent into Middleton-in-Teesdale.

As we pass the gateway to a farm, Graeme lets out a cry.

"A curlew," he says, and I just glimpse its long curved beak as we pass.

He swings the car round, exclaiming: "You don't normally see them here at this time of the year. They and the lapwings are usually gone by now."

Thankfully, it is still sitting on the gate post when Graeme pulls up and he takes a flurry of shots.

Birds are more bothered by people than cars, Graeme says, adding he can drive pretty close without disturbing them.

Keeping the disturbance of the birds to a minimum is key for Graeme, who describes himself as an "ethical photographer" who follows the birdwatcher's code.

He won't use baits or bird calls to try and lure his subjects (the latter being illegal for a number of species), and once he has got a picture he will leave so as to not deter a bird from hunting if it has found a place it likes.

The fun is in scouting out and researching an area to try and find the birds in their natural habitat.

It all started for Graeme during the coronavirus pandemic when his hobby of playing music for several bands, including a Deep Purple tribute act, was curtailed by the cancellation of gigs.

Graeme, who works as a website administrator for Durham County Council, needed something new to occupy him so started taking pictures of the birds visiting the feeder in his garden.

That migrated to going out for walks to take pictures of other birds and he quickly became obsessed.

"I don't do things by halves," he says with another laugh, recounting how he spent hours watching online tutorials to learn how to identify birds and get the best out of his new camera, which he normally has set to 30 frames a second with manual controls.

"I cannot emphasise it enough, you have got to learn how to use the gear," he says.

Fractions of a second count and he can change apertures and focuses with a flick of his finger without taking his eyes from his quarry.

For every two or three pictures he shares on his social media or looks to sell as a print, he has probably taken up to 800, he says.

With the curlew added to his collection, we move on to Graeme's "secret road", one of his most-prized locations for spotting all manner of feathered friends.

We don't see the owls he has encountered along here before, and our excitement at thinking we have spotted a meadow pipit perched on a post is rapidly doused when we realise it is just a splinter out of the wood.

But then suddenly, Graeme's efforts pay off as we sight a stonechat, the feathered fiend who had evaded us earlier, sitting happily atop a fence post.

The adult male poses obligingly as Graeme snaps away, then moments later we see a juvenile with a caterpillar hanging from its mouth that delights Graeme even more.

As we head back into Weardale, Graeme turns off on to a side road where, he says with a mischievous laugh, we are guaranteed to find an "incredibly large bird".

The reason for his mirth becomes apparent when we round a bend and see three peacocks swaggering around next to an old stone farmhouse.

"They are always here and are practically feral," he says as we drive by.

We pass through the market town of Stanhope and up the steep Crawleyside Bank to the moors beyond and, after spotting red kites circling near Edmundbyers, our final stop lies near three old oak trees close to Muggleswick.

We wait in the hopes of seeing a little owl that Graeme has photographed before.

His longest stake out was a nine-hour watch for a black-crowned night heron near Wakefield, which he finally saw for three or four seconds.

"Of course it was worth it," he says with full sincerity.

His favourite birds are the grey herons found on and around the River Wear, and the short-eared owls he has seen at several spots, including his secret road.

He also adores green woodpeckers having become infatuated with one of his grandfather's table mats which featured an illustration of one.

There is a small population in the woods of Auckland Castle in Bishop Auckland but he is yet to photograph them, he says, although they are very much on his list.

As we watch the oaks, there is a moment of excitement when a flock of crows suddenly take flight, suggesting there is a predator, such as an owl, about.

But we fail to see what excited them and decide to call it quits, the midday sun now too bright to take a good picture in even if the birds are still around, which is not so likely at this time of the day.

"Welcome to my world," he says with another laugh as we head back to Wolsingham where he will edit some of today's shots.

"I just love it," he says. "I like the peace.

"I spend my day at a computer, getting out into the beautiful County Durham countryside is fantastic for my mental health.

"I am addicted and I do have some missed opportunities that still haunt me, but I can laugh it off.

"Every time you go out you can see something different, and you can always take a better picture."

Follow BBC North East on X (formerly Twitter), Facebook and Instagram. Send your story ideas to [email protected].