Back from Islay and what a fantastic weeks weather and birds to return to.

This week’s photo is of a pair of Tawny Owls stood together after pairing off and before the female goes down on eggs. I have only ever witnessed this twice before and never in full sunshine like this pair I found this week. It is a rare moment to be able to film this .

During the week I also had my annual fix of Waxwings when I paid a quick visit to see eight at Bolton. They still remain to be my favourite bird but photographically there was not much I could do with them but I shall never tire of watching Waxwings.

I have spent two days on the moors above Glossop in deep snow trying to locate and film Mountain Hares. It was an hours hard slog to climb 1500 feet to the deep snow and then try to find a white object in the snow! However, the first day I saw a dozen and the second visit only four in conditions that produced -6°C at dawn.

In the garden there were eleven Magpies in a tree one day - a record. Long Tailed Tits have been feeding every day but not in pairs so their season has not yet quite started.

A moorland plantation produced a Wood Pigeon on eggs - the earliest I have ever found but three Long Eared Owls that were there last month have disappeared - perhaps they were Scandinavian migrants?

We are now home after another week on Islay with brilliant frosty, sunny weather and one day with another four inches of snow - just what the doctor ordered.

This weeks photos show the woods at Bridgend covered in snowdrops that have withstood days of minus 4º and four inches of snow. The Little Egret at Gruinart is also shown as it swallows prey taken from the ditches on the RSPB reserve.

During our travels around the island we have seen most raptors but no Eagles this time. Good views have been had of Brent Geese, Grey Plover, Purple Sandpiper, Twite, Whooper Swans and many more. Fours otters have been seen in total but only the one really performed for us.

We were so tuned in to looking for Hen Harriers that as we passed the Loch Fyne restaurant in Argyll on our way home we observed a female flying overhead!!!

We have just spent a week on our favourite Hebridean island of Islay with incredible Winter weather and four inches of snow on one day. It was an unique experience to walk around the lochs and woodlands with everywhere covered in deep snow and coated in frost

There have been good sightings of Hen Harriers, Merlin, Peregrine, Kestrels and of course the thousand of geese trying to feed in the snow covered fields. Good flocks of Golden Plover, Lapwings and Bullfinches have been seen. Yes, Bullfinches in a flock is almost unique but on one day we watched parties of four, ten and fifteen feeding together in the snow covered heather. They appeared to be eating the seeds deep inside the heather, something I have never witnessed before.

This year with the severe frost in January we arrived on Islay with the snowdrops in Bridgend woods at their very best. As usual it was a breathtaking carpet of white and on more than one occasion was covered in snow!

Two fantastic days were spent on Jura looking for Otters. On one of these days we followed an Otter for four hours. During this time it rested only thirty minutes and fished for three and a half hours with a success rate of one item of prey per minute. Conditions were perfect and some good video was obtained of it fishing, eating prey and sleeping. It is always a great challenge looking for Otters and the following day what was probably the same creature failed to give us any film!!

Yes this male Sparrow Hawk had his second Robin of the Winter in the garden this week. I know he has to live but I wish he would go somewhere else!

Last week I have been on my annual film show tour of South West Scotland with the best weather I have ever had for this tour in more than twenty years. The Kites at Loch Ken continue to increase annually with more than sixty coming to the feeding station each day. The number of young reared last year was apparently twice that of the year before and on that basis the prospects for the future look very good.

During my travel around South West Scotland I enjoyed watching a flock of one hundred and sixty Scaup at Stranraer, a Hen Harrier and Crossbills at Mossdale and on the last evening the spectacle of a million Starlings going to roost at Gretna Green.

Severe frost early in the week but now somewhat milder as I made a first visit to some of the moorland plantations. In one a single Long Eared Owl was found but only thirty foot away from it a pair were together and apparently ready for the breeding season ahead.

Whilst there are still Jack Snipe and Woodcock about there is now a steady passage of Skylarks returning towards the hills and perhaps they know that Winter has finished? We shall have to wait and see.

There has been some movements of Pink Footed Geese in recent days with skeins of up to two hundred generally moving in a North west direction.

In the garden a party of nine Long Tailed Tits fed briefly so these have survived the severe weather of the last six weeks and will pair off to breed in a little over four weeks time. ]]> http://www.gordon-yates.com/2010/02/08/signs-of-spring/feed/ http://www.gordon-yates.com/2010/02/01/survival-time-for-herons/ http://www.gordon-yates.com/2010/02/01/survival-time-for-herons/#comments Mon, 01 Feb 2010 08:48:50 +0000 admin http://www.gordon-yates.com/2010/02/01/survival-time-for-herons/

There is still no let up in the severe weather with keen frosts on most nights this week and I wonder how many Herons will be left to breed next month when the season starts.

With the continued Winter weather both Woodcock and Jack Snipe are still around trying to find somewhere to feed that is not frozen. On Hopwood a Green Woodpecker was watched twice on the 31st trying to find ants in the ground. A Buzzard was also present.

In the garden both female and male Sparrowhawks have been present during the week, the male catching prey and devouring it on the 30th. However, neither were present for the National bird count on the 31st which was highlighted with the presence of twenty seven House Sparrows and two pairs of Bullfinches.

On the 30th at Ogden we watched a Little Owl sunbathing in the afternoon sunshine on the best day of the week.

I have just returned from four days in Finland filming a pair of Golden Eagles that were feeding at a baited site in the forest.

When I flew into Helsinki the temperature was minus 16°C and it went much, much colder. When I entered the hide at 7.30am the following morning the temperature registered a mind blowing minus 31°C and when I left the hide nine hours later it was still only minus 26°C!! In those nine hours I had incredible views of a pair of Golden Eagles as they came to search for food buried in the snow and ice. Unfortunately I had also to concentrate on keeping myself warm and alive! It was a bad start when I reached for my first cup of coffee and upon opening the milk bottle to pour it in I found it frozen solid. Several hours later it became worse when I bit into a Mars bar only to find it frozen like a rock.

I did, however, see a new bird for me whilst I was in the hide as four Grey Headed Woodpeckers fed on fat placed in a pine tree by the hide.

The following day I was due another nine hours in the hide but as the temperature at 6.30am was minus 32°C and I was still suffering from the after effects of the day before, and I still am, I declined and we returned to Helsinki.

There was a bonus in returning to the airport early for as I walked alongside a woodland I found twenty Waxwings feeding on Rowans. As Waxwings are my favourite bird I spent nearly two hours in minus 16°C filming them. My memories of Finland are of a very cold place!!

]]> http://www.gordon-yates.com/2010/01/24/golden-eagles-and-hypothermia/feed/ http://www.gordon-yates.com/2010/01/16/jack-snipe-star-of-the-big-freeze/ http://www.gordon-yates.com/2010/01/16/jack-snipe-star-of-the-big-freeze/#comments Sat, 16 Jan 2010 08:12:25 +0000 admin http://www.gordon-yates.com/2010/01/16/jack-snipe-star-of-the-big-freeze/

This week’s photo is one of the five Jack Snipe in a local ditch that have gathered all this week. Renown for being difficult to locate two to five birds have fed all week in the ditch and now with the snow rapidly clearing, the Jack Snipe have gone with it!

On Hopwood Buzzards are struggling to find rabbits and Woodcock are now down to one bird.

In the garden we have now had continuous snow cover for thirty days. On the thirteenth January twenty two species fed during the day with a record nineteen Blue Tits, three male and one female Bullfinches and both Moorhen and Fieldfare being present nearly all day. However, both female and male Sparrowhawks are also making daily visits but thankfully we have only seen one catch.

What a week of severe weather with record low temperatures and a foot of snow on one day

During the extreme conditions a Moorhen appeared in the garden feeding with the thrushes and then today, the 9th, a Fieldfare started to feed on the apples and chase off all the Blackbirds. It was pleasing to have regular visits by a pair of Bullfinches and Reed Buntings. Twenty species came to feed on the ninth.

On two days the snow has been so deep that I went out on foot locally. A Woodcock was still present feeding in a ditch along with Snipe but a Skylark calling as it flew South was definitely out of place!

The best sighting of the week goes to a record five Jack Snipe all feeding together in a ditch of iron water - the only area not frozen for some distance around.

This week’s photo, taken through the video camera, is of a Water Rail on the ice at Elton reservoir - a fitting climax to my best ever season in thirty nine years of filming wildlife. On the same day I also had great views of two Kingfishers that desperately tried to find somewhere that was not frozen. The last two weeks have proved to be a severe test of their survival into the New Year.

On the twenty first of December , whilst waiting for the train at Castleton railway station a male Blackcap was looking for food in the bushes - the only over wintering Blackcap I have ever seen locally.

After last weeks comments about Long Tailed Tits three appeared in our garden on January the second, in the blizzard. I fear for the large numbers that are missing from the post breeding flocks.

Virtually all the Woodcock that were present several weeks ago have now left the local woods, due to the deep snow, and are probably now along the coast.

I would like to take this opportunity to wish all my readers a Happy New Year.