Wildlifeinsight offers a glimpse of the natural world as seen through the camera lenses of Steve and Claire Ogden who have shared a lifetime interest in wildlife, travel and photography.

Wildlifeinsight.com began in 2010 with the very simple aim of providing an online gallery of our wildlife images that friends and family could easily access – we reasoned it would be a less time consuming way of staying in touch with those liberally dispersed around the world than sending Emails!

It is an understatement to say that we were unprepared for the wider interest the site would generate! At peak times in excess of 5000 unique visitors a day now visit the site, with over 1 million a year being forecast for 2014.

Latest Sightings

Latest sightings not only include our most recent photographs taken in our home county of Cornwall but now also feature interesting sightings received from others.

Wildlife Galleries

In line with our expanding interests the content on the site continues to build and now the galleries of moths, butterflies, birds, caterpillars and other creatures contain thousands of images.

Identifications

While we wouldn’t claim to be experts about anything in particular, we will always try to help with any identity requests – thankfully we also have access to some real experts covering many different fields.

As many as 20 identification enquiries a day are received in the summer months from all over the world – just at a time when we are supposed to be out taking photos!

Caterpillar and moths are subjects that we find particularly fascinating and which make up most of the identification requests received. Never knowing what amazing creature will feature in an Emailed image has been one of the unexpected delights of the website.

Please note

There is still much to learn about the early stages of many moths and butterflies. Whilst every effort is made to provide accurate identifications and information errors can occur. Should an error be spotted please let us know.

Foreign wildlife holiday reports

We are fortunate that our lifelong interest in the natural world and photography has taken us to many different countries.
Although the aims of our holidays are to see as much different wildlife as possible they are actually conducted at a fairly leisurely pace. Manically driven twitches that leave one exhausted and often frustrated are not our scene – having said that, there are occasions ….!

We’ve begun adding our wildlife holiday reports to the site starting with South Africa and will shortly include Australia, Florida, The Alps, Hong Kong, France, Spain and Majorca.

These holiday reports are hopefully written in a manner that are entertaining as well as informative. And it should, of course, be appreciated that our opinion and experience of a destination, formed during a brief visit, may not necessarily be shared by others.

Photography

We have both always shared an interest in photography. However, it wasn’t until digital cameras arrived that capturing consistently acceptable images of a wide variety of wildlife became a practical option for us. And now we no longer feel fulfilled on seeing a special bird or butterfly unless preserving it in pixels. Memories certainly dull with age but images don’t.

Macro Photography

We enjoy all forms of nature photography and particularly like the challenge of macro photography. Capturing images of tiny insects, sometimes no more than 3mm in length, to reveal their true splendour and which often help their identification can be very rewarding – or very frustrating!

Wildlife images

Our images have appeared in a wide variety of publications and we are pleased to support worthwhile causes with free use of images upon request subject to compliance with certain criteria.

PLEASE NOTE

that without written consent no photograph or any content appearing on Wildlifeinsight.com may be copied, reproduced, published in any format or appear on any website.

Chough (Pyrrhocorax pyrrhocorax)
Chough (Pyrrhocorax pyrrhocorax)
Broad-bodied Chaser
Broad-bodied Chaser

Public Events

We have been pleased to respond to requests by a number of organisations over the years to put on public moth events. In the past, combined bat and moth nights have proved popular, the moth trap lights attracting moths and so feeding the bats. In the bright light the bat responsible for the echo transmitting sounds picked up by the bat detectors can often be seen clearly as it swoops by and grabs a moth. Having a soft spot for moths this is an act we’re not entirely comfortable with but tolerate in the name of education, though the moths may disagree!

Devon Wildlife Trust staff event at Marsland
Devon Wildlife Trust staff event at Marsland
Devon Wildlife Trust public event at Volehouse Moor
Devon Wildlife Trust public event at Volehouse Moor

School Projects

We enjoyed a most rewarding two years helping St Mark’s CE Primary School in Morwenstow with a variety of nature projects which included parent and local community events, school activity days, species life-cycle studies, biodiversity surveys in the school grounds, after school nature club, web site/blog development and participation in the nationally run Garden Moth Scheme (the first Cornish school to take part). We helped with their Wild About Science Project (WASP) that was supported by a grant from The Royal Society.

Oh, how we wish our own school days had been such a stimulating learning experience. No wonder St Mark’s recently received an ‘outstanding’ accreditation from Ofsted and that was despite a five year old correcting an inspector, in no uncertain terms, on the identity of a moth!

Garden Moth Scheme recording
Garden Moth Scheme recording
Biodiversity survey
Biodiversity survey
Life-cycle project
Life-cycle project
Emperor Moth (Saturnia pavonia) - mating
Emperor Moth (Saturnia pavonia) - mating

Thanks

We are indebted to the many conservation bodies for the valuable work they do to restore, preserve or improve the various habitats. Much of our photography and recording is carried out at sites managed by organisations such as the National Trust, Cornwall and Devon Wildlife Trusts, English Nature, Cornwall Bird Watching and Preservation Society and local Councils.

Links

We are pleased to include links to other sites where the content is seen as being compatible and a reciprocal link is requested on an appropriate page.