If you are wondering where all the Jays have gone from your garden then you only need to walk to the nearest Oak wood. Following the recent high winds the ground is now covered in the largest fall of Acorns I have ever seen. It may be some time before you see a Jay in your garden again.
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During the last ten years I have spent many hours in my hide filming female Hen Harriers returning to their nests with prey that the male has just provided in a mid-air pass. It is part of a fifty year project on the prey of Hen Harriers that I have been working on.
As the female Harrier leaves the nest after the feed I have occasionally taken a photo of her and thought nothing more of it. However, just recently I noticed that she regularly had something in her bill. Upon enlarging the photo I realised that she was in fact removing from the nest pellets that the young had regurgitated after their feed. – something that I believe has rarely been filmed before.
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For more than fifty years I have spent many days searching the Hebrides for Golden Eagles to film under the appropriate Licence. I have found many eyries but none as spectacular as this weeks blog photo – the female Eagle is incubating eggs in an eyrie on a sea-cliff and is surrounded by Red Campion and Roseroot – can it get any better than that?
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The warm and sunny summer has been the bonus that our butterflies have been waiting a long time for. Our garden sunflower has recently attracted Red Admirals with the local Golf course providing home to an incredible 260 Ringlets in August. Better still were 6 Wall Browns sunning themselves by the edge of a moorland reservoir.
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It never ceases to amaze me how, when you go out with your camera to photograph something, another subject appears that might give you a better picture. That’s exactly what happened the other week when I was sat under the camouflage cloth waiting for the Foxes to appear. Suddenly, two Roe Bucks came charging across the field and as they ran past me I was able to take a couple of photos. It was only later when I downloaded the photos that I realised one had three not the usual two antlers
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For the second successive year our local Barn Owls have reared five young. It’s a long process and has involved the male catching hundreds of prey items over the last six months. In his favour of course has been the best Spring and Summer weather in living memory. It won’t be long now before he is able to rest for a few short months before it all starts again!!
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