This week’s photo is of a hunting Kite filmed in Dumfries and Galloway, where I toured last week. We have been on Islay enjoying an abundance of Iceland and Glaucous Gulls. As usual Islay is good for Raptors and we have watched Hen Harriers, Merlin, Sparrowhawk, Peregrine and Golden Eagle. Good numbers of Chough have been seen but only one Snow Bunting has been found. Like back home there are only a few Redwing and Fieldfares this Winter.

One Otter has been seen even though we have not made any special effort to look for them as the tides have not been favourable.

Last weekend’s snow brought a new bird to the garden in the form of a Pied Wagtail and produced a record seven Bullfinches together (four males,three females) In addition the first Siskin of the Winter appeared and there were fourteen Blackbirds feeding together on one occasion. The Willow Tit is now a daily visitor.

I travelled the two hundred and forty miles to Stranraer on Tuesday to commence my four day lecture tour of the Scottish Ornithologist Club. As last year I counted the Raptors on this journey with the Buzzard continuing to increase at nineteen sightings compared to the Kestrels two and Kites one. Last year it was fourteen Buzzards, three Kestrels and two Sparrowhawks.

Loch Ryan at Stranraer was brilliant for Scaup and Pintail and I spent a good two hours at high water filming them close in shore with plenty of Turnstones even closer to hand. At Mossdale a pair of Crossbills were present, with the female collecting nesting material and being escorted back to the forest by the male to build her nest. The young forest at Laurieston produced four Blackcocks that flew over the car. These being the first I have seen on tour for many years. A good afternoon was spent filming the Kites that had now built up to more than eighty following another good breeding season.

In a wild part of moorland forestry I was able to admire my first Great Grey Shirke for years. Better still were eight Crossbills that were bathing and drinking in a roadside pothole that had the ice broken by passing forestry venicles. I sat for an hour under the camouflage cloth awaiting their return but falling snow forced an abandonment in case I became stranded in the back of beyond without the luxury of a four wheeled drive vehicle. Another one that got away!

Just when we had given up all hope of seeing the Willow Tit this Winter it turned up on the twenty ninth of January for the fifth consecutive Winter. Perfect timing as it was the RSPB Garden Count day and it knocked our total up to twenty one different species in the hour slot. Not bad for a garden less that thirty foot by fifteen foot.

At long last we have had a week of superb Winter weather. I have visited Leighton Moss on several occasions and finally found a feeding Bittern. Unfortunately it was four hundred yards away and out of reach of the camera. I did however obtain film of a Marsh Harrier hunting the reed beds and even saw an Otter on the same day.

On Hopwood Jack Snipe and Woodcock have been present despite the low temperatures. The Dipper is still on the stream and a Green Woodpecker was encountered looking for ants in some frozen mosses.

In the snow of the fourth we had our best species count of the Winter with 22 recorded. These included Willow Tit, Goldcrest, Reed Bunting, Sparrowhawk and Great Spotted Woodpecker

Whilst at Leighton Moss during the week I took the opportunity to watch a Glossy Ibis that was feeding in the corner of a field. I have never seen one before and whilst it was interesting to see I would have preferred a Bittern any day. At high tide Black Tailed Godwits left the shore to feed in a flooded field by the reserve. They were feeding at a rapid rate and as soon as the tide turned they flew back to the shore line. As for Bitterns, there were none visible once again!

Along the canal during the week were a pair of Goosanders, a Grey Wagtail and up to eight Pied Wagtails . A Fox was also present. On Hopwood was a Dipper, feeding along Trub Brook, the first I have seen there for more than a year.

The garden has been very active this week with three days when twenty one species of birds were feeding. Included in those were eight Long Tailed Tits, two Reed Buntings, four Bullfinches, Wren and the first Goldcrest for more than a year.

The crisp weather of last weekend extended to Monday so I decided to go to Leighton Moss to seek the Bitterns that had been showing very well over the weekend. Unfortunately minus five degrees centigrade overnight completely froze the reserve water and there wasn’t a Bittern in sight. I did , however, watch the Marsh Tits on the bird feeders and remembered how I used to encounter these birds in the Ribble and Hodder valleys. It is sad that I have not seen one in those localities for more than two years and so quick is the decline of this bird that it has now been added to the Red List making it one of Britain’s most threatened species. At present there are no apparent reasons why they are decreasing so quickly, so all the people who go to Leighton Moss to look for Bitterns should spare some time to admire the Marsh Tit before it is too late.

It always amazes me as to how everyone’s individual gardens attract different species and numbers of birds. A friend from Huddersfield phoned during the week and invited me to come and have look at his garden. What was so special about his garden? He just happened to have more than fifty Redpolls feeding on three large niger seed feeders hung outside his conservatory. There was no light to film but just to witness this spectacle was amazing. Why were they attracted to his garden? Well it was on the edge of a mature undisturbed wood, an enormous amount of niger seed was put out for them and there were no cats or Grey Squirrels. All other reasons are known only to the Redpolls themselves!

Two superb frosty and sunny days with very little wind. Just the conditions I had been waiting for to venture onto the top of the Pennines in search of Red Grouse and Mountain Hares. Saturday was the best of the two with good numbers of hares resting in their forms in the pleasant sunshine. As usual they do not allow too close an approach but with careful stalking they may be approached to about thirty foot. One allowed a much closer view but unfortunately it was in such deep cover that only its eye could be seen in heavy white frost.

As I was about to leave the moor a white movement caught my eye and this was no Mountain Hare. It was an Ermine ( White Stoat) and only the third I have ever seen. I was certainly not expecting such a creature at an altitude of one thousand two hundred feet. Unfortunately, though I saw it on three occasions it was searching a rushy gully for food and failed to perform for the camera. I checked the same area the following day but there was no sign of it. Whilst I was on the high tops three skeins of five hundred,two hundred and one hundred Pink Footed Geese flew over in a North West direction.

At dusk, on Hopwood, both Woodcock and Jack Snipe were present in areas that remained clear of ice.

What a start to the New Year. After forty years of trying I finally obtained film of the elusive Hawfinch. On the one good day of the week I journeyed to the Northern Dales as I had done on many occasions before to try to locate Hawfinches. This time, shortly after dawn, up to five Hawfinches fed on the ground on the seeds of Hornbeams. It was a magical sight I thought I would never see and film and although they only fed for a matter of minutes it was a moment I shall remember for ever. That enormous bill and the way they can take off vertically will brighten up what has so far been an abysmal Winter.

In the garden a very large female Sparrowhawk caught a Starling and flew off with it still squawking. Three Wood Pigeons fed together on one day and a Fox walked along the rear of the garden in the middle of the afternoon on another day. Sadly a cat was seen to vacate the garden with a bird on another occasion. Grey Squirrels have now peaked at three which is, of course, three too many.

Following two record breaking years of filming there had to be an anti – climax and it happened this year due mainly to one thing – RAIN. The year started with only the occasional snowy day and little in the way of frost, we had been spoiled by the exceptionally cold conditions of December 2010.

We enjoyed our annual February visit to Islay but it was the wettest we had ever had and as a consequence filming was less than normal. This was made up for in March when we visited the Cairngorms, hopefully to film them in deep snow. It was absolute perfection as more than a foot of snow fell on our second day. The scenery was spectacular and we enjoyed filming Snow Buntings and Crested Tits in their true environment. We were so impressed with the Grants Arms at Granton on Spey that we are going back there in March.

April arrived and produced the only decent weather of the year with record breaking temperatures and sunshine. The breeding season was under way and I obtained some great film of a Green Woodpecker as it started to drill a hole in a living Oak tree. It is something I have not even seen on television and it was amazing to witness its first attempt to chip its way through the bark before the real digging began.

In May we returned to Islay for our Spring visit, again it was the wettest we have experienced at that time of the year. It was a very welcome break, as it is always good to visit Islay, but it didn’t produce much filming. The rain continued when we returned home but thankfully it didn’t prevent me from obtaining my best filming of the year when I found a Woodcock brooding young in a Pennine Oak wood. Knowing the young would not be in the nest the following day I had to wait three hours for the rain to ease before commencing filming from my hide. As there are now only half the Woodcock that there were ten years ago this might have been my last chance to film one at the nest. The female and four young performed magnificently and within ten minutes they had all left the nest and disappeared into the surrounding Oak leaves.

Even though the wet weather was still with us for our June visit to Islay I obtained some fantastic film of a male Short Eared Owl carrying prey back to the female in her nest. Just before he reached the nest he transferred the vole from his talons to his bill so that he could pass it to her in the nest. I spent more than ten days filming just the last ten foot of his journey and besides obtaining the video I wanted I was also taking still photographs and finally captured the shot I was after.

Back home in the Pennines it continued to be wet. My regular pair of Kingfishers, having survived the extremely low temperatures of last December, attempted to raise three broods of young. This is something I have never proved before. They would have been successful but the day before the young were due to fledge a flash flood drowned the young whilst they were in the nest chamber. Still, rearing two broods in the year I suppose is good enough.

Most of my year’s filming has been directed towards my lastest DVD on Raptors. There are sixteen species of Raptors on the DVD having been filmed in the Pennines, Cairngorms, South West Scotland and Islay for a in depth look at that exciting family of birds. The response so far from the people who have seen it has been tremendous, with all saying it is the best production yet. When you considered that I have spent three hundred hours working on it and Pauline has spent one hundred and fifty hours then perhaps our time has not been wasted!
It can be ordered through my website. www.gordon-yates.com

It was a sad time in the garden in late Summer when most of the finches were affected by Trichomonosis. Feeding had to be stopped and we are now only just back to normal and it was pleasing to see that four healthy Bullfinches have been feeding together this week. The Willow Tit has not returned this Winter but perhaps there is still time.

Sadly, during the year two of my long standing photography colleagues have died. Colin Smith was a supreme technical expert and always clarified any problems I had over the years, especially recently in the digital era. Gordon Langsbury was always enthusiastic and brightened up many a dull Winter’s day with his telephone calls. Both will be sorely missed.

I would like to take this opportunity of wising you all a Very Happy New Year

On the seventeenth of December it was a cold day with sleet showers in a North West wind and the hills around were covered in snow as I went for a walk on Hopwood hoping to see a Short Eared Owl. I encountered a brown raptor quartering the rushes and as it was flying into the wind its white rump caught my attention. To my amazement it was a Ringtailed Harrier and flew close by on several occasions giving me a good view of its yellow eyes, indicating it was a female Hen Harrier. It was the best bird I have seen on Hopwood during the last thirty years of watching and a bird I could have only dreamt of seeing within view of the center of Manchester. The day was completed with the sighting of a male Merlin, a Jack Snipe and four Woodcock, making it the best Winter birding I have ever had locally. Needless to say the Harrier had moved on within the hour and further visits in perfect weather produced nothing.

The cold weather also improved the birds coming into the garden with individual Reed Buntings coming and a welcome pair of Bullfinches. A Song Thrush was in full song on the twenty first and on another day the male Sparrowhawk had to release a Starling from its talons as we came to its rescue. Not in my back garden being the appropriate comment!

An Icelandic name for the Great Northern Diver is Himbrimi. One of the photos shows it on its nest in Iceland displaying its magnificent Summer plummage. The other photo is the same species taken at Castleshaw reservoir this week, in its Winter plummage. It is hard to believe that they are the same species.

The Wintry weather has now brought an influx of birds into the garden. During the week we have had maximum counts of eighteen House Sparrows, fifteen Starlings, two Song Thrushes, one Reed Bunting and a garden record of eleven Chaffinches.

On the Hawthorn berries along the canal has been one Fieldfare and ten Redwings.