Welcome to David Element's Wildlife Web Pages...1
See animals
portrayed in their natural surroundings....
Please click here to search for Species using their Common Names
Please click here to search for Species using their Scientific Names
News:
David
is delighted to be able to report that he was selected as the ‘Avalon Photographer
of the Month’ for January 2026, particularly
pleasing as so many other forms of photography are represented by this large
agency!
Please
see: https://t.co/YkFqEhQU4x
to view David’s rapidly expanding full Avalon gallery, now containing over 5,850
photographs.
New Books
David is in the process of publishing an ongoing series
of high-quality full colour photographic hardback books.
In order to cater for individual customer requirements some versions of these
titles are also available in smaller and/or softcover formats. Their
contents may be viewed in full on-line (for free, and without any commitment to
buy!) by using this hyperlink: https://www.bobbooks.co.uk/bookshop?page=1&search=david+element.
Any potential purchasers are advised to take full advantage of this preview
facility prior to buying, as niche books of this quality are not cheap as they
need to be published on demand. Some of these books are in essence ‘living
documents’, and they will therefore be updated to enhance their content when
new photographs become available. If potential customers are interested to know
about ‘work in progress’ then I can be contacted by e-mail.
RED
FOXES Vulpes vulpes (f, f, m)
IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT
For reasons beyond my
control, and in common with other loyal customers, I was forced into finding a
new host for my web site, more than 17 years after it was originally
established. Following two takeovers of the original host company, all support
for existing web sites was essentially summarily dropped in August 2018 - with
little advance notice, consideration, or apparent concern about the enormous
amount of work that might have been required by its customers to create and
maintain the affected sites. It has taken some time for the pages to be
reloaded, and for the numerous hyperlinks to be altered, but there are a couple
of advantages to be gained, principally the availability of additional space
for site expansion (this has been liberating as there was a significant
constraint on the amount of content that could previously have been displayed)
and the opportunity to upgrade the existing pages and simplify the hyperlinks.
Patience will be required, both by myself and for users of the site. This is a
complex process that applies to every page, and it is a painstaking task as
even a single incorrect character will cause an erroneous hyperlink to fail. At
this point in time (9/10/2026) I have finished reconstructing and tabulating
the site indexes and retrospectively correcting any errors that I have
discovered when checking every hyperlink (and there were more than I would care
to admit!). The format of these indexes undeniably needed updating, but as they
were first set up over 25 years ago using contemporary software and raw html
data (things have since moved on!) it understandably took time to achieve this
modification. Hopefully, these links should now be operating correctly, but the
change of ISP has meant that all the original searches were lost, and the
Google search engine seems to be less effective at finding them. As I work my
way through the pages, I am updating the photographs to include better quality
images, modifying the text, incorporating key words for internet searches, and
replacing non-functional hyperlinks or adding new ones. In consequence, the
pages for certain listed subjects may be temporarily unavailable, and if no
suitable good quality photographs can be located some could eventually be
removed. Each on-line web page can only be as up to date as the most recently
published version, so they are representative of the time that they were
written or updated, and it is recognised that classifications, terminologies,
species statuses, and indeed the climate may have altered in the interim,
perhaps contradicting the contents of older pages. I have also been adding hyperlinks to my videos of the same subjects on YouTube (see: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCFfP_L5WKGGl4iVcf-srBdg?view_as=public) so that these species may be seen in action,
although they can be also viewed independently. Just to complicate matters
further, some scientific names have been altered since the site was first
established, so these may require amendment. Species have sometimes been
reclassified or split since the photographs were originally taken. DNA sequence
analysis has proven to be a remarkably useful tool, indicating that the
examination of morphological features alone may not always suffice when
separating species. If there are any suspected identification errors these are
also being investigated and corrected within the limitations of the existing
reference material (which may be limited or patchy). Feedback from experts in
any field is always welcomed if discrepancies are spotted, as nobody can
realistically be expected to have a comprehensive knowledge of all aspects of
the natural world, and particularly of animal behaviour! Fortunately, there are
many excellent specialist reference works written by experts, both in print and
on-line, that have assisted with the creation of species accounts (links have
been provided on subject-specific pages), and the hard work of all concerned is
appreciated. To be honest, it is simply impossible for any single individual to
observe every species in detail, or to be able to ascertain much about a life
history by taking a photograph of a static subject as we humans simply don’t
live for long enough! It is worth noting that maps published in
reference books may already be out of date if a range has been extended or
reduced in consequence of anthropogenic global warming or artificial
introductions – and their accuracy may be limited by the intensity of recording
by those with sufficient expertise able to identify the species unequivocally. Having never counted them I have also
discovered that there were many more pages than I thought! However, since 17th August 2018, over 1,200 pages have
already either been replaced or added to the site, so steady progress
has been made, and it has already been significantly expanded. There is still a
long way to go (as I have photographs of many more subjects for future
inclusion) and users will understand that I need to devote time to other
projects including taking, identifying, and labelling the numerous photographs
that are required to construct a web site like this one, supplying photographs
to an agency (all of which require detailed metadata to be inserted) or for
producing publications or films. In essence this is a never-ending task, and it
wasn’t helped by an external hard drive failure, although thankfully no data
was lost (never forget to store irreplaceable data on more than one drive!). Birds, pages (1 – 284)
are now all on-line, and more are being added or revised. It has recently
become possible to incorporate a larger number of images within a single web
page, so some existing pages are also being expanded as new material becomes
available. Additional Beetles pages are
currently being added in a major effort to expand coverage of these not always
easy to identify insects, and there are now more than 90
on-line. Several Mammals pages have been added
or updated. The Moths pages have also been
significantly extended – once more work in progress, with 125 pages now uploaded. Dragonflies,
Hymenoptera and Flies
are still receiving my attention as major projects for species-rich orders
still to be expanded upon – there has been recent progress with the latter,
with 78 pages now on-line, comprehensive
coverage should not be anticipated as there are over 7,000 British species,
many of which are difficult to identify! This also applies to Arachnoids (mainly spiders) as these may be
impossible to identify to species purely from photographs, meaning that only a
limited selection will be posted. Nevertheless, progress is being made with
these pages. Please be aware that hyperlinks may have been inserted for pages
that have yet to be written, and that warning messages will be received if they
are opened. Once these pages contain content these messages will disappear, and
there are no issues with site (in)security. Note that the BOU vernacular names
have been used to identify birds in the Common Names
Index so some of these species will be found with prefixes – for example
‘Eurasian’. Scientific names are unaffected unless they have been modified
recently, but Common Names Index searches will need to be performed using the
generic names. If a species lacks a vernacular name, then the generic name will
need to be used for searches. Most of the original invertebrate pages have been
rewritten, and in some cases the coverage of these subjects has been, or will
be, expanded significantly to allocate individual pages to each species. The
site contents may be accessed by using the Common
and Scientific (Generic) Name Indexes. At the time of writing many of the
revised URLs may now be found using Google searches and most of the picture or
web page searches that will come up are now relevant. Be warned that there may
be unscrupulous web sites offering illegally obtained
copies of my photographs or films!
The eventual net result of this upheaval has been a more up-to-date and
better illustrated site incorporating images of a wider range of subjects, but
this is still work in progress as the site is expanding at a previously
unprecedented rate, and it can, of course, never be finished!
One important point
that needs to be made is that none of the photographs that you will
find on this web site have been generated using artificial intelligence (AI). Some may have been
cropped (most haven’t), and dust-shadows may have been removed (mainly for
invertebrate photographs taken using small apertures) or contrast-adjustments
made (occasionally), but there has been no attempt to represent wild subjects
in anything other than authentic, wild and free conditions unless otherwise
stated. It is unfortunately the case that a plethora of artificially created
images, some quite nonsensical, has been uploaded to the internet, and
particularly to social media recently, and these contrived fantasy pictures may
give totally misleading impressions of how wild animals really behave. This
does nothing to help with their conservation (how could it?) and merely
contributes to the often-malevolent misinformation and disinformation that have
been flooding the internet and undermining its educational value. Please be
wary of this, and if something doesn’t add up, search for further information
on-line to obtain consensus opinions or refer to textbooks or web sites written
or compiled by authoritative authors. Please also note that I am not (and have
never claimed to be) an “award-winning photographer”, as erroneously reported
by a rather hyperbolic AI synopsis that I discovered on-line recently! This account
may be flattering but some of the content simply isn’t true, although I have genuinely
been a finalist in the ‘Wildlife Photographer of the Year’ competition,
and certain presumptions have also been made without any substance. I have
recently given up entering wildlife photography competitions because trail
camera images are now considered to be a legitimate representation of a
photographer’s skill, an opinion that I am unable to share. Their output is
certainly scientifically valuable, but in my view, a fundamental requirement of
competition wildlife photography is the presence of a photographer behind the
camera.
For
those with an interest in transport, David’s Railways,
Aircraft and Boats
pages (essentially parallel web sites with their own indexes) may be accessed
by using this link: COPYRIGHT
- new pages are added when new material becomes available (and when time
allows!).
Please note that
although the original URLs for this web site http://www.david.element.ukgateway.net and http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/davidelement/ are no longer
operational these links have been included in some publications and would-be
users of this site may still be trying to use them. Therefore, they have been
included on this page for detection by search engines as no redirection pages
have been provided by the previous ISP! If you have managed to find this page,
then you are in the right place!
Best regards to all,
David
HAIRY-FOOTED FLOWER BEE Anthophora plumipes
(m)
RUDDY DARTER DRAGONFLY Sympetrum sanguineum (m)
YouTube
David has uploaded more than 1,100 short films to YouTube
(since February 2013) on the 'DavidPElement'
channel at: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCFfP_L5WKGGl4iVcf-srBdg?view_as=public.
These films may be located by searching for "david element" in the YouTube search engine': http://www.youtube.com/, and David is delighted to be able to report that these
films have been viewed over one million times.
The videos have been edited to illustrate authentic animal behaviour as you
would expect to see it - i.e. you will be able to observe wild creatures
behaving naturally in their own habitats as opposed to seeing artificially
concentrated and dramatically edited bursts of activity so typical of
television wildlife films. The film clips have been made using small digital
video cameras, often positioned at very close range to the subjects. Any
background noises are incidental and often of human origin. There is a short
descriptive introduction for each film, and they are presented without any
verbal commentary. Note that some of David’s films are now being
exclusively marketed by Newsflare (see company web site for details of terms and
conditions).
LITTLE EGRET Egretta garzetta
COMMON
KINGFISHER Alcedo atthis (m)
Photographic Agency Galleries
An
ever-expanding gallery of David’s
photographs available for purchase at high resolution from the Avalon/NHPA
Agencies may be viewed at: https://www.avalon.red/editorial?blob=at.DAVID+ELEMENT (N.B. New link with
effect from June 2021).
Social Media
David is a regular
contributor to Twitter and many of his most recent photographs are on display
in his gallery at: https://twitter.com/davidelement1. See also: https://x.com/davidelement1
https://twitter.com/davidelement1/media. More recently, he has opened a Bluesky account
here: https://bsky.app/profile/davidelement.bsky.social.
Personal Profile
Please see
https://www.linkedin.com/in/david-element-68b11129/. David’s LinkedIn profile contains photographic/video
galleries
and a list of
publications including books.
Illegal Copying!
It has become apparent that certain other web sites have been advertising illegally copied images from these pages and from other photography web sites as 'royalty-free' wallpaper. No permission has been sought for the use of these photographs and none has been granted (their use is therefore in breach of international copyright law and it may be considered to be an act of theft that could lead to possible prosecution). There are two legally acceptable processes whereby the photographs shown on these pages may be obtained at high enough resolution for reproduction, namely by contacting the photographer directly by e-mail or by purchasing them from a legitimate photographic agency (full details are available by using the hyperlinks provided). It is perfectly acceptable for the images to be printed at low resolution for non-profit-making personal or private educational use but they may not be reproduced on other web sites or in any other form of publication without the express permission of the photographer. There is also another ethical aspect regarding the reproduction of photographs of animals that have been taken in wild and free conditions, namely that they should be portrayed in an authentic and non-manipulated manner if they are reproduced in any format.
It
is hoped that these pictures will help to stimulate an interest in the Natural
World. Some of the images may also be useful for identification and certain
pages have been deliberately formulated with this purpose in mind. Other pages
simply present general illustrations of their subject matter.
Accurate
identification to species level is not always possible from photographs
(see below) and serious students of Natural History will be aware of the need
for academic reference material. Most of the illustrations are of
British species with some additional images from France, Northern Spain, Italy
and Switzerland. Comprehensive coverage should not be expected - for example
there are almost 24,000 species of insect in the UK alone and no individual
could reasonably be expected to find, identify, and photograph them all!
BLACK GUILLEMOT Cepphus grylle (m)
- The
photographer accepts full responsibility for any misidentifications and
would be grateful for any feedback via
e-mail at david.element@ukgateway.net
from authoritative sources if any
incorrect captions are noticed as this helps to improve the quality of the
data on this site.
- Please
note that unsolicited e-mails will be deleted without being opened
if the subject message is unclear or if the sender has not been fully
identified as the author does not wish to import computer viruses. Any
e-mail photograph attachments should be of low resolution only,
sent as individual messages for each photograph and the date (if known)
and location should be given.
- Correct
identification of such a wide range of subjects is very demanding and
although all of the included subjects have been carefully vetted some
errors will be inevitable. Classification of species is under constant
scrutiny and certain scientific names may have been modified since the
source reference works were written. Correspondents
should note that it is impossible to identify many invertebrates even with
the aid of a good quality reference photograph or a detailed description
unless they are particularly distinctive. There are many examples
on-line of erroneous identifications based on superficial resemblance to
entirely different species. Several of the linked websites provide much
more extensive and expert coverage of particular groups (see below).
- A short
bibliography has been given at the end of each title page. The listed
works are mainly British reference books which will provide an in-depth
analysis of their subjects. There are others that need to be added when
time allows and standards are improving all the time. Certain books may be
out of print but these may sometimes be available from libraries or the
second-hand book market. Recommended suppliers like
- Pembury
Books http://www.pembooks.demon.co.uk/
- E.
W. Classey http://www.classeybooks.com/
- NHBS
http://www.nhbs.com/
or
- Subbuteo
http://www.wildlifebooks.com/
will send free catalogues upon request although much of the information
contained should also be available on the suppliers' websites. Some areas
of Natural History are very demanding and they may therefore be less well
studied than the popular subjects and poorly represented in print with
very few good books currently available. The above suppliers also
advertise many top quality Continental publications and these are
often illustrated to a very high standard.
- There
are ever-increasing numbers of excellent websites covering a broad range
of Natural History subjects. Strongly recommended is the series of Flickr
pages provided by Steven Falk,
one of the UK’s most authoritative entomologists and natural historians: https://www.flickr.com/photos/63075200@N07/albums.
The illustrations and interpretive notes are of enormous value to
entomologists. In many cases these sites contain links of their own and
these will open up access to a wealth of useful information. Hyperlinks to
this site are also being provided by an increasing number of
other websites from Britain and abroad.
These links are welcomed although the content of these sites is outside of
the editorial control of the author and the accuracy of the information
given cannot therefore be guaranteed. External links may become obsolete
without the author's knowledge. The book and website lists are updated
periodically.
- The
names of specific locations have deliberately been omitted to protect the
more vulnerable species from disturbance or collection.
Please click here to search for Species using their Common Names
Please click here to search for Species
using their Scientific Names
- One other important issue - please read the COPYRIGHT page for an explanation of the legal issues associated with the use of Internet website material.
None of the photographs or text
from this website may be reproduced in any form without the express permission
of the author.
This would constitute a breach of intellectual copyright law and legal action
may be taken.
© David Element: david.element@ukgateway.net
Site established December 2000, Relaunched August 2018