David White is “chuffed to bits” to have been judged Highly Commended in this year’s British Wildlife Photography Awards. His stunning photograph of a pair of great crested grebes entwined during their mating ritual was entered in the Animal Behaviour section.
It is the biggest, most prestigious wildlife photography competition in Britain: “In previous years I’ve bought the Awards book and been to the exhibition. But I never in my wildest dreams thought I’d be in the exhibition. This is a major accolade and specially rewarding as a lot of the photographers are professionals.”
David White told Marlborough News Online: “I’ve always been interested in photography – more especially so in the last two or three years when my son has taken over the farm. I’m an enthusiastic amateur – certainly not a professional.”
David White’s family has farmed at Berwick Bassett since 1906 and he has spent his life farming there. They now have 1,350 acres of arable land. They are also managing other farms and cultivate a total of 4,000 acres.
With more time for his photography, he travels to find subjects to photograph – especially birds: “I’m very keen on birds of prey.” His last trip was to Norway where he took some amazing shots of capercaillies in the snow – “Those shots took 12 hours in a hide.”
He has trips planned to the Czech Republic (for birds of prey), Hungary (for eagles) and Florida next spring (for ospreys.) But many of his most cherished photographs of wildlife are taken on his doorstep. He is especially keen on birds of prey.
As we pass a straggly hedge David says: “We don’t like a tidy farm – we like a farm that’s friendly to wildlife.” And hedges left through autumn are part of the reason the farm is home to yellow hammers and bramblings.
It is a conventional, commercial farm. But he has always been keen on promoting wildlife by planting trees and hedges. Then three years ago he was a founding farmer of the Marlborough Downs Nature Improvement Area, which covers over 25,000 acres of the Downs.
This government-backed scheme has had a major impact on the Marlborough Downs as regards wildlife conservation and access: “The NIA has spurred us on to the next level.”
David White’s farm now has 70 acres totally devoted to wildlife and 150 acres of grasses that give good cover for voles and mice – and so attract birds of prey. The NIA has made a specialty of looking after what was a dwindling population of tree sparrows. It is a very successful project that has seen the number of tree sparrows grow hugely.
On the downs, while David was explaining the flowers that would produce the seeds to keep the small birds fed during the winter, he spotted overhead three red kites, a buzzard and a hobby – circling one above the other. “It’s nice when you manage land for wildlife and you can see what you’ve achieved.”
David works closely with the NIA’s co-ordinator, Jemma Batten, planting strips of flowers that produce the right sort of seeds – such as a variety of phacelia (the blue flowers in the photo), quinoa (a cultivated version of the arable weed, fat hen – now found in health food shops as a wheat-free source of protein), triticale (a hybrid of what and rye that looks like an upstanding head of barley) and millet.
Although David White is a bit blasé about the buzzards on the farm, they still mean a great deal to him as part of the wildlife population: “The more you photograph wildlife, the more you get to know about it and the more you know about it, the more you want to photograph it.”
The day before Marlborough News Online met him, he had taken some outstanding shots of buzzards in flight. He knows so much about their habitats, behaviour and local habits, he can almost always find a photograph when he is out on the farm with his camera.
On the way up to the office to see his photographs, we went into the farmhouse and through the ‘boot room’, stepping over a small stalagmite of bird droppings – and there overhead, tucked into the corner against the ceiling, was a swallow sitting on her nest.
David White said it was her third brood of the summer. And though these young had fledged that morning, it was very late in the year for very young swallows who would soon need to start their journey back to Africa.
You got the distinct feeling that this photographer/farmer would dearly like to follow them and photograph them in Africa – so adding them to his huge archive of amazing wildlife photographs.
To enlarge photographs click on one and then <&>
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