There are now so many people taking digital photos of birds that whatever photo you take someone somewhere has got a better photo. You have now got to create your own challenge and keep at it until you have a decent shot. To find a Jack Snipe is never easy but to photograph one in flight – impossible? Well, as far as I know no one has achieved it so I have been working on this challenge and finally this weeks image is a starting point. It is still very much a work in progress.
During the week Lapwings have increased in number on the local Industrial estate and have now peaked at two hundred and thirty. Some of these feature in this weeks gallery. Click here

The Red Deer stag in this week’s blog stands proud in the Islay landscape. He has had a hectic time during the last few weeks and he can now rest, until next season that is. The fact he came to look at me may also mean that he now knows the season for shooting Red Deer stags finished on the 1st November!
This weeks gallery includes more of my recent photos from Islay. Geese always feature heavily on an October visit and the drama of ruined crofts adds to the scene. Judging by the number of young Whooper Swans arriving with their parents from Iceland they have had an exceptional breeding season this year. A Grey Seal pup and a Dolphin that looks like its applauding just add to the Islay wildlife scene but a hunting female Hen Harrier always takes some beating click here

If you see any photo of a hunting Hen Harrier with Jura in the background you are bound to be on Islay.
We have just come back from our Autumn week on Islay which has been surprisingly mild but with a distinct lack of any sun. Unlike back home Islay has had a bumper crop of Hawthorne berries this year and it was good to see thousands of Icelandic Redwings devouring them with good numbers of Fieldfares – my first this winter! Whilst waiting for the thrushes both Robin and Wren posed on a fencepost by the car.
I will include some photos of the Geese and Swans next week.Click here

.The spire of Hopwood Hall college is a well known site in north Manchester. The woodlands around the hall are good places for birds but what is not generally known is that the bird-watching gets even better as the sun sets.From miles around corvids (Jackdaws, Carrion Crows, Rooks and Magpies) fly in to roost in the trees around the college spire. At peak times over winter up to a thousand are present and it represents quite a spectacle in the north Manchester urban environment. Click here
During the week four Grey Wagtails together on the canal was an unusually high number and may have been a family party on the move. It looks like we are going to have another Autumn with no Fieldfares with us before the first of November.

At dusk on the 2nd October I heard my first Redwing of Autumn but it took until the 19th before I found a flock of sixteen feeding on hawthorne berries. In complete contrast to last year there are very few Rowan or Hawthorne berries available to them this year so we are unlikely to see any large gatherings. Even more unlikely are visits from Waxwings and you have to say that we were spoiled by last winters phenomenal numbers of berry eating birds. The unanswered question though is how do they know from Scandinavia that we have no berries for them in Britain? Click here
The Common Snipe of last week have now moved on but on the 16th I encountered eight Jack Snipe in my local marsh, which was another autumn record. All week there have been some big movements of Pink Footed Geese and a party of eighteen Tree Sparrows was a good local sighting. The return to the garden of two Reed Buntings indicates more local bird movements.

During the last ten days there has been a massive local passage of Snipe, helped no doubt by the many waterlogged fields. On the 10th in my local marsh I had a record count of seventy one Snipe and two Jack Snipe,  they were the earliest I have recorded in more than fifty years! Click here
In the garden on the 4th a Wood Pigeon, had a close shave as a Peregrine flew over looking for a meal. On Hopwood a party of ten Long Tailed Tits were the first I have seen for a long time. A Peacock butterfly was still active on the 12th.