I am afraid that, for a number of reasons, one being a shoulder injury requiring surgery and a long recovery, I have taken the hard decision not to run these workshops this year.
As many of you will know, I have a very long history with harvest mice, having studied them for a MSC in the 1970s and worked with them ever since.
I also know that they are very popular workshops and people really enjoy them, but after 22 years of running them, I do think the time has come to take a break.
Workshop Synopsis
As Britain’s smallest British rodent, harvest mice are the only old world mammal to have truly prehensile tails, which they use to help them climb. They are extremely active and agile climbers, feeding in the stalk zone of long grasses and reeds. I was introduced to this little mouse nearly 40 years ago and studied them as part of a university degree and I have been fond of them ever since.
Harvest mice are truly fascinating and attractive subjects for wildlife photography and a project I first undertook nearly 50 years ago and regularly ever since. To ensure the mice are kept healthy and fit, I have established a breeding colony and work with two other projects in the UK exchanging breeding stock for release projects to increase the numbers of this once common mammal in the wild.
This is a chance to capture some really stunning images and to have some fun as well as learn more about your camera and wildlife photography. The workshops are ½ day and I limit the numbers to 2 or, if a group of friends, 3. As a professional zoologist and wildlife photographer, this enables me to provide as near 1-1 tuition as possible. I offer the 1/2 day workshops at my house in the north of Northamptonshire within easy access to all the main routes. Morning sessions run from 10am to 12:30pm and afternoon sessions run from 2:00pm to 4:30pm.
As a naturalist and zoologist as well as a professional wildlife photographer, I only use natural plants that are around at the time of running the workshop and plants that harvest mice would be found on in the wild. There are many hundreds of photos on this website that previous guests have achieved which can give you some ideas of what you can too. There is also much feedback from previous attendees as this is a very popular workshop. The photos and feedback can be accessed by clicking the orange buttons below or accessed via the following button Info.
Just a word of warning – photographing harvest mice is addictive !
DEFRA Operators Licence 19/01834/AWEA