Gordon Yates

Short Eared Owl Success

It is always good to follow a nest right through to successful fledging. Well here is a picture of a young Short Eared Owl, four weeks old, that has just received a vole from the male. Shortly after I took this photo it ate the vole and flew off! It must have the most spectacular face of all our young owls.

We have just completed three weeks on Islay with hardly a drop of rain. It sounds fantastic and for us it was but let’s not forget that many young wading birds and young Chough cannot find food if the ground is like concrete and a substantial number will die if rain is not forthcoming soon. On the plus side the Skylarks have had a exceptional season in ideal weather and many young have fledged.

During the last week I had a two and a half hour encounter with a female Otter and her one young. I watched and filmed them during this period and finally left them both asleep in the seaweed without them knowing I had observed their every move. It was a rare privilege.

Also during this last week I filmed a pair of Black Guillemots with one young and continued filming the Hen Harriers that had still not hatched their three eggs - now three weeks later than last year.

One evening, while walking across a moor, I came across a sight I have never witnessed before. A Leveret suckling from the female Hare. It only happens once a day at dusk and I don’t know of anyone else who has seen this event. Sadly no film could be obtained as I had left my camera in the car!

Hen Harrier Stars

A week on Islay filming Hen Harriers is about as good as it can get in Britain from a wildlife point of view. When you spend hours in a hide looking directly at a female hen Harrier relaxed on her nest you realise what a magnificent raptor she is and what a privilege it is to be licensed to do this. Long may it continue.

One evening we had a fabulous encounter with a Corncrake that would not stop calling and showed up very well. In the dry weather Skylarks have been dust bathing along the roads and providing some good film.

One day we encountered a party of Turnstones that looked really impressive in their Summer plumage.

During our travels around Islay we have had good views of Golden Eagles, Short Eared Owls, Little Terns and Black Guillemots. Butterflies and dragonflies are now in abundance on the sunny days. With Islay’s orchids now appearing in profusion.

Islay Break

As promised last week this week’s photo is of a Nuthatch leaving its nesting hole, which last year was a Green Woodpecker’s nesting hole. Nuthatches use mud to reduce the hole to their size as can be seen in the photo.

We have just had a week on Islay with plenty of sunshine and no rain. Short Eared Owls had four young in a nest in the heather and the male provided me with some good film as he returned to the nest carrying voles.

One morning we saw six different male Hen Harriers hunting but finding the females on their nests involves a great deal of time watching for a food pass.

There were still Sanderling migrating North and with the ash cloud over Iceland now gone they should have a clear flight to Greenland.

A large female Adder was found basking in the sunshine and proved to be very aggressive and noisy with much hissing. I kept well out of its reach!

Following on from the severe Winter most flowers are still two weeks later appearing than normal.

Garden Visitor

The star bird of the garden this week has been this Greater Spotted Woodpecker who has been taking away large amounts of food to feed his young still in the nest on Hopwood.

I have spent the last eight nights filming a pair of Tawny Owls that had two young about to fledge. Normally it becomes quite cold towards midnight but on one occasion I filmed from the hide in a short sleeved shirt. I have never in forty years seen such exceptional weather in May and on the last night the full moon appearing at 10pm made it even more memorable. However, it did not stop the female Tawny Owl attacking me as I packed up my equipment in the moonlight.

On another day I filmed a pair of Nuthatches feeding young in an old Green Woodpecker hole that they had plastered with mud to reduce it to the exact size they required. Feeds were every few minutes and a photo will appear in next week’s blog.

Long Eared Owl Success

This weeks photo is of a fledged young Long Eared Owl with a vole in its talons. If last week was all about Dotterel then this week is about Long Eared Owls.

I have spent many nights under a camouflage cloth filming two male Long Eared Owls hunting and on some occasions they were passing over my head without realising I was filming below. If you read the books they say that Long Eared Owls are the most nocturnal of all the Owls but when they have young that is far from correct. One of the males I was filming passed six voles to three young before 7.30pm. That is one and a half hours before sunset. Seven young have now fledged from these two nests but when dealing with wildlife there is always a downside. A third nest had its young taken by a predator that I can only think was human.

With good weather all week I have had some successful filming from my hide of Oyster Catcher, Curlew and a cracking Ring Ouzel. I heard my first local Cuckoo calling whilst filming the later species.

In the garden a male Greater Spotted Woodpecker has been coming most days and taking food away in its bill to feed its young. We were awakened one morning by a Whitethroat which was perched at the back of the garden, it was in full song. A new bird and great to hear but not at 4.30am! The warm nights have produced three Pipistrelle bats at dusk and they were chasing one another around the houses.

Dotterel Magic

There are some days while watching birds that only come along once in a lifetime, Saturday 8th May was one of those days. I had been out in Bowland all day looking for nests to film in the coming weeks and was quite pleased with such things as, Redstarts, Tawny Owl, Great Spotted Woodpecker and Oyster Catcher. However, when I arrived home at 4.00pm there was a message that there were nine Dotterel on a small hill in Rochdale called Brown Wardle. There was no time to lose so it was on with the boots and a drive up to Whitworth. A quick scan of the hill through the binos showed five people sat together near the top, so the Dotterel were still present; it was just a case of a fifteen minute dash up with my equipment and by now tired legs! When I arrived at the summit the Dotterel were asleep and had been for two hours, so I took some film of them as they roosted out of the wind behind tussock grass. It wasn’t long before some cattle approached and coupled with a too close approach by one of the photographers and the rapid fire of his camera they all flew off in a Northerly direction.

With that all five people descended the hill leaving me sat there to contemplate my next move. Thirty minutes later I was about to leave when there was a quick call as all nine birds landed only fifteen feet away. Immediately they started to feed and within a minute I was surrounded by nine Dotterel feeding up to ten feet away. This continued for nearly an hour and was one of the most magical experiences I have ever had in more than fifty years of wildlife encounters. I left them where I found them, roosting behind tussock grass, as the sun set to the West at 8.00pm. I wished them well in their long journey North.