Why the North Rewards the Squirrel Photographer

Red squirrels have retreated to a handful of strongholds, and the north of Britain holds most of them. The pinewoods of the Scottish Highlands, the spruce and larch plantations of Dumfries and Galloway, the wooded valleys of Northumberland and Cumbria, and the mixed broadleaves of North Wales all support genuine populations. Conifer woodland suits them particularly well: Scots pine, Norway spruce and larch provide a reliable crop of seeds, and the canopy tends to keep grey squirrels — their larger, pox-carrying rivals — at lower densities. Choose your woodland carefully and your chances improve enormously.

Autumn is arguably the finest season. Reds are busy caching, their coats are at their thickest, ear tufts fully grown, and they return again and again to the same stump. Late winter and early spring bring chases and courtship behaviour, which produce the most energetic images you will ever take of the species. High summer is slower and the foliage is dense, though a well-used feeding station will still deliver.

Choosing the Right Telephoto Set-Up

You need reach, and you need speed. Something in the 300mm–500mm range on a full-frame body, or a 100–400mm zoom on a crop-sensor camera where the field of view is multiplied by roughly 1.5 or 1.6, is ideal. A 1.4x teleconverter adds useful length at a cost of one stop, which is often a fair trade in decent light.

• Fast glass helps. A maximum aperture of f/4 or f/5.6 lets you keep the shutter speed high under the canopy.
• Support matters more than you think. A beanbag on a log or a gimbal head on a tripod steadies a long lens and lets you wait without aching arms.
• Carry a cloth. Northern woodlands are damp; condensation on a cold front element can ruin a morning's work.

Start at 1/500sec for a sitting animal and 1/1000sec for anything on the move. Set auto ISO with a ceiling of 3200 and trust the sensor. Red squirrels have pale bellies against dark bark, so dial in around minus one-third to minus one stop of exposure compensation to protect the highlights, and always shoot RAW — you will want the latitude when you get home.

Find a Feeding Area, Then Give It Space

Reds are creatures of habit. Many northern woodlands have established feeding stations where hazelnuts are put out through the winter, and these are the most reliable places to begin. Where you are working a site of your own, look for a mossy stump, a fallen trunk or a low branch with a scatter of nutshells and stripped cones beneath it. That debris is the surest sign of regular use.

Settle yourself five to eight metres away, ideally with a clear line of sight and a background of soft, distant foliage. Take care never to leave food that might draw grey squirrels in, and follow any local guidance on feeding — in some reserves it is discouraged entirely. The welfare of the animals always comes before the photograph.

Fieldcraft: Sitting Still Is the Whole Skill

Arrive at least forty minutes before sunrise. Setting up in the dark means the wood settles around you rather than being disturbed by your arrival. Wear dull colours, break up your outline with a hide or a draped scrim, and silence your phone properly — not merely on vibrate.

• Avoid noisy fabrics. Crisp waterproof jackets rustle at exactly the wrong moment; a soft fleece outer layer is far better.
• Do not stare down the lens. Use your peripheral vision to watch the canopy, then raise the camera slowly when something moves.
• Give it forty-five minutes. The first twenty are effectively wasted while the wood readjusts to your presence. The best encounters almost always come after that.

Move in slow, deliberate gestures. A red squirrel's alarm call is a sharp, rattling chatter, and once you hear it you have perhaps a minute before the animal is gone.

Working with Early Morning Light

The first two hours after sunrise are gold. Low sun rakes through conifer trunks and catches the fur along a squirrel's back and tail, giving you that luminous rim that separates the animal from a dark woodland background. Position yourself so the light comes from behind or slightly to the side, and expose for the bright edge rather than the shadow.

Overcast mornings are excellent too, offering soft, even light that flatters reddish-brown fur without blowing out the white chest. What you want to avoid is harsh midday sun filtering through the canopy, which produces distracting dappled patches across the face. Wherever possible, get low and shoot at the squirrel's eye level; a portrait taken from above looks like a snapshot, whereas one taken from level looks like a portrait.

Comfortable Habits That Extend Your Patience

Patience is a physical discipline, and cold, wet, uncomfortable photographers go home early. A closed-cell sit mat or a small folding stool transforms a two-hour wait into something genuinely pleasant. Take a flask, a spare battery kept warm in an inside pocket, and thin gloves with exposed fingertips so you can still work the dials. In late summer, a midge net is not optional in the Highlands.

Leave the wood exactly as you found it, take every scrap of litter home, and keep your distance from nests and dreys. Do those things well and the squirrels will reward you with the sort of natural, unhurried images that no amount of equipment can buy.