Gordon Yates

What Happened To Summer?

During the week I continued the search for Woodcock and Golden Plover hoping for better luck than last week. On the 11th at 1000 feet the temperature was only 4°C and coupled with the strong wind it was impossible to contemplate a walk on the moor. In fact it was the worse day I have ever seen on the moors in May in forty years.

The only good day of the week was on Sunday 6th May and as this was the Bank Holiday weekend I decided to ignore a walk up Pendle Hill to look for Dotterel and instead searched the top of Brown Wardle, a local hill in Rochdale, where nine Dotterel have turned up in two consecutive Springs. The photo above shows what a perfect morning it was but sadly no Dotterel could be found. In the evening I checked a birding website and admired some wonderful photos of five Dotterel that an eleven year old girl had taken on Pendle HIll that very same morning. Clearly, I went up the wrong hill!

Whilst searching an Oak wood for Woodcock I heard a tapping sound coming from inside a tree. The culprit was a Great Spotted Woodpecker chipping the nesting chamber.

With the cold weather it is not surprising that the garden continues to attract a good variety of birds and on three days this last week twenty or more species have fed during the day. The highlights have been up to four Redpolls and a pair of Great Spotted Woodpeckers.

Depression Sets In

When you have been filming birds for forty years you expect good and bad luck but this week’s events have been the most trying I have ever experienced. Firstly, last year I had three pairs of Long Eared Owls that between them raised at least nine young. This year one of those pairs is missing and another one has already deserted its eggs due to the annual problem of campers in the wood. One pair left and the other night I spent two hours under the camouflage cloth hoping to film the hunting male for by now they should have had half grown young in the old Magpie’s nest.There was no sign of the male so I decided to check the nest and as soon as I saw the pine tree I knew why he was not hunting. Some of the branches had been snapped off by someone climbing the tree to the nest and removing the contents.

As if the Long Eared Owl situation wasn’t bad enough I checked my Tawny Owl site in the hollow tree . The nest was empty and as I saw a Stoat nearby that was obviously the culprit. Hopefully the female Owl will have left the hole before the Stoat predated the two young. It is a very disappointing outcome after many successful years in this hollow tree and it is bound to discourage her from ever using this site again.

At least I still had my Kingfishers that had small young and both birds catching fish for them.On a perfect morning I spent two hours at the site and only saw one adult and it was not carrying any fish. So I took my torch and looked up the tunnel to the nest chamber, finding that it was empty. The reason was in the mud below the hole, where one could see the footprints of a mink. What a sad outcome for the Kingfishers and a diabolical week for me!!

The only good news of the week was obtaining the Whimbrel photo which I took in Bowland and was a new pennine bird for me.

On The Post

After last weeks sunshine on Islay it was back to normal at home with more rain and a cold North East wind. I came across a pair of Oyster Catchers that had finally laid their eggs in a shallow depression on the top of a post. It was no chance finding as ten years ago, with the farmers permission, I hollowed out the top of the post anticipating just such an event. Unfortunately it took ten years to happen!

On one very wet morning I came across a brilliant male Merlin on a rock by the road as it eyed up a Meadow Pipit. It was only a brief view but what a subject, they really are the star of the Pennine birds. A single Ring Ouzel was singing at a breeding site nearby but its female could not be located so hopefully she was sat tight on eggs in the poor conditions.

Another day out produced two pairs of Little Owls on dry stone walls. Both were at the same stage with the male courting the female by presenting her with prey and then preening her. She returns the compliment by preening him in what is called allopreening, an event that is seldom filmed. Sadly both pairs were too far away for me to capture on camera but just to witness it makes it a special occasion.

Despite the poor weather the breeding season marches on and I now have had two pairs of Dippers that have fledged young. Meanwhile Pied Flycatchers and Redstarts are flooding into the woodlands and let’s hope we see more Wood Warblers this year.

Sixty Hours Of Sun

After last year’s poor weather on Islay we have just had a week on the island that produced well in excess of sixty hours of sunshine. It was like the Islay of old with spectacular sunrises and sunsets and the only rain falling during the night when we were asleep.

April on Islay is a fabulous time to visit because of the mix of both Winter and Spring migrants. Nine thousand Barnacle Geese left for Greenland the day after we arrived, with Swallows and Wheatears in many parts of the island having just flown up from Africa. On the eighteenth we found the first migrant Corncrake which was followed the following day by the first Cuckoo. In contrast Brent Geese and Great Northern Divers were still present before their long journeys North as were Purple Sandpipers and Sanderlings.

Nine species of Raptor were encountered, with the male Short Eared Owl, above, performing very well as he hunted most evenings. We had some good encounters with both Golden Eagle and Sea Eagle.

A female Adder was watched in the sunshine at Ardnave. However a trip to Jura, in perfect conditions, failed to find any Otters. Our success rate in locating Otters in now about fifty percent and I have great respect for this creature that is never predictable.

Garden Excels

This week’s photo is of the male Brambling that fed for one day only last week. The snow fall stopped him migrating back to Lapland but it couldn’t stop his plumage coming to its Summer best when he will have an all black head. The only birds missing from the garden this Winter have been Redwing and Fieldfare. At the moment we still have feeding at least a dozen Reed Buntings, six Bullfinches and for the first time ever three Redpolls.

A search in the hills failed to produced Woodcock and Merlin but I did see a Snow Bunting and a Twite which are elusive birds these days. Even walking the dogs along the canal yielded a feeding male Goosander and a Green Woodpecker yaffling.

Winter Returns

After last week’s heatwave it is typical that Winter should return with a vengeance and one inch of snow covered the garden on the fourth. As a result of the harsh weather we had a superb male Brambling visiting the garden on that day and the following day a female Brambling. (photo next week). It was eight years and a day since we last had a Brambling in the garden and it was totally unexpected in a Winter that has had very few Brambling in the country. In addition to the Bramblings we had two Redpolls, fourteen Goldfinches, six Bullfinches and possibly up to a dozen different Reed Buntings that are all coming directly from the golf course.

A trip out into the hills on the fifth had roads just passable and massive drifts of snow. One of the Woodcock sites was snow covered and it was somewhat weird to see my first Wheatear on the snow. Just as strange was watching a male Ring Ouzel gathering nesting material around drifts of snow and then flying back to its traditional cliff that was thankfully snow free.