Yorkshire's winter wildlife on camera

When Simon Roy thinks about the happy times of his childhood the memory invariably involves the hours he spent looking out of his bedroom window observing the various birds 
that perched on the hedge below.

“I didn’t have the easiest time growing up and nature was a bit of an escape,” he says. “I could pretty soon identify every species which came in our back garden. I just loved watching them and how you could track the changing seasons by which birds were stopping by.”

While his passion for the outdoors didn’t wane, it did take a backseat as daily life got in the way. After studying for a degree in art and design, Simon began working full-time as a graphic designer. He had established a good career, but when he was made redundant eight years ago he decided that it was time to take a different tack.

“I’d always been interested in wildlife photography, but never really had the time to get good at it,” he says. “When redundancy came I decided to look at it as an opportunity. I knew I could pick up some freelance graphic design work and then my spare time I would devote to the photography.”

From the beginning, Simon says he wanted to use his growing portfolio to celebrate the wildlife of the average British back garden. “I think there is a tendency to think that if you want to see great wildlife you have to travel to some remote part of the country or head abroad. That’s just not true. If you take the time to really stop and look you will see just how lucky we are in this country.”

It’s eight years since he turned his lens on his back garden and Simon now has an impressive collection of images which run the gamut of British wildlife from hedgehogs to voles, squirrels and robins. There is an inevitable ‘cute’ value to many of his images – who can resist a wild bank vole popping his head through the snow? – but there is a serious message to Simon’s work.

“I really want to use my images to expose the beautiful, fragile yet enduring nature of British wildlife and really raise awareness of the creatures that we live beside.

“While the weather might be against you in the winter, it can actually be one of the easiest times as a photographer. With food in short supply, if you can load a bird feeder then you are pretty much guaranteed that there will be some activity and often it can be just knowing where to look.”

While Simon, who lives in Wetherby, makes the job of wildlife photographer sound easy, it isn’t. Highly commended in both the British Wildlife Photography Awards and International Garden Photographer of the Year competitions, when he is not staking out his back garden he can often be found in the Askham Bog nature reserve on the outskirts of York.

A survivor of Yorkshire’s ancient fenlands, it occupies the site of a lake, left behind by a retreating glacier 15,000 years ago and in winter it is home to huge twittering flocks of goldfinch, lesser redpoll and siskin.

“It’s amazingly abundant in wildlife. As well as the birds you can see roe deer and foxes and the pond is a great place to watch water voles, so many of which were killed off when there was a mass releases of mink from fur farms in the 1990s,” he says. “In fact in order to be a good wildlife photographer all you really need is patience.

“It’s funny because in pretty much all other aspects of my life, I’m actually not that patient, but when it comes to waiting for the perfect moment then I can sit for hours. I guess for me it is still the same escape as it was in childhood.”

The only animal which has so far eluded Simon’s lens is the fox which lives in and around York Cemetery.

“I once caught a glimpse of its tail, but within a second it was gone,” he says. “But the one that really got away was an image of a roe deer in a field of bluebells. The time when bluebells blossom is exactly the same as when deers molt, so they tend to not look their best. However, one time I saw this buck who was so incredibly handsome standing right in the middle of a carpet of blue. It would have made a fantastic image, but unfortunately he ended up being obscured by a tree and that was it, opportunity gone.

“Sometimes it’s frustrating, but I like the fact that you can’t pose a picture, it’s much more of a challenge that way.”

Entirely self-taught, Simon, who also runs photographic workshops, says that along with a healthy amount of patience, there are a few simple steps to capturing the best wildlife images.

“What I always says to people is buy the best camera you can afford as the gear you use can make a big difference. The second thing is get to know our camera so you can operate it with your eyes closed.

“The one thing I have learnt is that when you a photographing wildlife the difference between a great photo and a terrible one can be a split second.”

Yorkshire’s wetlands come alive in winter as thousands of geese, ducks and waders come to over winter on flooded grasslands, reedbeds and lakes. Staveley (near Boroughbridge, North Yorkshire), Potteric Carr (Doncaster, South Yorkshire), 
Wheldrake Ings (near York, North Yorkshire), Bolton-on-Swale Lake (near Catterick, North Yorkshire) and North Cave Wetlands 
(near Brough, East Yorkshire) are all great places to visit to observe the spectacle of mega-flocks. Starling murmurations are a spectacular sight 
and the last couple of years has seen a murmuration of thousands of these glossy birds gathering over Potteric Carr during the 
winter evenings. Potteric Carr is particularly special for its bitterns and for hearing their evocative boom over the reserve on a quiet morning. Woodlands may seem quiet in 
winter, but on closer inspection you will find roving flocks of tits and finches flitting amongst the branches as they gather in feeding flocks, possibly to avoid predation. 
As you walk along the boardwalk at Askham Bog (York, North Yorkshire) or through 
Chafer Wood (near Ebberston, North Yorkshire) look out for these flocks, and
if you walk quietly you may even spot a roe deer. Come February, woodlands become dotted with delicate snowdrops, 
a welcome sign of warmer weather to come.