Bluebells and Roe Deer

May 26, 2019 at 11:36 am

This Spring’s warmth and sunshine has produced fantastic carpets of bluebells. May is the time of year when Roe Deer give birth and I have spent some time following female Roe Deer hoping to find their fawns amongst the bluebells. I finally stuck lucky but, unfortunately, the Roe Deer and its fawn were not in the bluebells as shown in this weeks gallery. Click here
The highlight of the week in the garden was a visit by a Brimstone butterfly – the first we have seen in more than fifty years.

Home Sweet Home

May 19, 2019 at 6:05 pm

When you visit the same woodland all your life you get to know each tree present and are able to recollect where different birds have nested over the years. The old tree stump in this weeks blog has plenty of history – for the last ten years it has been used by Goosanders who have reared over one hundred young from inside the tree-stump . Before that for fifteen years Tawny Owls were in residence and reared over thirty young. Sadly the stump is about to fall down with age, having played its part in the success of two local species. Gallery photos click here

Hunting Shorties

May 12, 2019 at 2:00 pm

After many visits to the high Pennines it is pleasing to find that there are good numbers of Short Eared Owls present and hunting. After the disastrous fires of last summer and this spring I was pleasantly surprised to find Shorties present and breeding. This weeks blog photo is of a male that has just caught prey and is eating it by the roadside. As I was filming a cyclist rode past and the Owl crouched in fear showing its ear tufts which are not often seen in Shorties. Other hunting photos are in the gallery. Click here

The Stormcock

May 4, 2019 at 7:01 pm

It is several decades since I had the pleasure of filming Mistle Thrushes as they fed their young. The old English name for the cock Mistle Thrush is Stormcock because of its habit of singing at the height of a storm. He is the largest song-bird in Britain and regularly nests in our gardens and parks. Worms are the favourite food for their young but they are also partial to leatherjackets as can be seen in some of this weeks gallery photos. click here