With the arrival of the freezing weather at the year end I was finally able to search for one of the most illusive of all winter visitors the Jack Snipe. It took five mornings before I made contact with one and in typical Jack Snipe fashion it flew off when I was only three feet away. Last winter with no prolonged frost or snow there were none in the marsh where they have appeared during the last forty five years, conditions have to be severe to bring them in from the surrounding fields.

On Hopwood there are very few Woodcock this winter with only one being seen on the 5th. The corvid roost continues to grow with more than five hundred being present most nights.
Along the motorway link road in the last couple of days both Buzzard and Kestrel have been seen to catch prey from convenient low down trees.

This weeks gallery is of Merlin that I filmed under licence in Bowland a couple of years ago. Can you spot the flat fly on the male? Click here

Best wishes and a Happy New Year to you all for 2015 What a twelve months 2014 has just been. Almost eight thousand photographs later I am able to look back on a year that will surely never be surpassed.

In the early part of the year I was filming Bramblings as they drank from a forest pool, something I had never done before. Our February visit to Islay produced more Chough and Otter photos but not the pristine winter weather that we had hoped for. That came in the Cairngorms in March when I got my best ever photos of Mountain Hare, Ptarmigan and Snow Bunting.

After returning to the Pennines in late March my local farmer informed me that his Barn Owls were incubating eggs on the ground in his barn! In disbelief I checked and this was the start of the most amazing year for Barn Owls, with a second brood not fledging until mid October. I never dreamt that on our Wedding Anniversary (21st September) I would be taking my best ever pictures of Barn Owls!

With the brilliant summers weather Kingfishers have also done well and the three pairs that I monitor have reared a record twenty five young between them. For the first time I was able to film copulation and the food pass. By spending many early hours along the streams I was also treated to good views of a dog Otter and better still two young Otters, the first I have ever seen in the Pennines. One day, perhaps, they will come within camera range.

However, the bird of this summer has to have been the Nightjar. Not one but two nests were found in a remote Pennine forest and six weeks were spent in my hide filming and admiring these amazing birds. It was an experience I will never forget and will probably never see again. Inbetween the Nightjars I managed six days on Mull and came away with great film of Sea Eagles and Otters – its a place I intend to return to. Not forgetting that we spent three weeks on Islay with great weather and my best ever encounters with Hen Harriers and Corncrakes.

The sad event of the year was the passing of our Golden Retriever Robbie, featured with me in last years yearly newsletter. He came with us to Islay fifty four times and no doubt enjoyed every minute of it having spent more than two years of his life there.

The target birds for 2015 remain the same as last year being Bittern and Marsh Harrier plus anything else that comes along!  Click here to view  12 selected photos from 2014

The visitor from Lapland was not Father Christmas this time but a Shore Lark that has spent the last couple of weeks on the Fylde coast. I only twitch Arctic birds and the trip to Fleetwood was well worth while with some great views of a very confiding bird. A couple of Snow Buntings were also present plus a small group of Sanderling that were crouching on the beach away from the strong westerly wind. Click here

The motorway journey to and from Fleetwood provided a reversal of the normal trend with six Kestrels seen and only three Buzzards. I know the Kestrels have had a good breeding season but the more likely reason for seeing more Kestrels was that the Buzzards were avoiding the strong wind by not flying.

Locally a pair of Goosanders were on the canal on the 22nd and on Christmas day we had a record four Dunnocks together in the garden plus 2 Reed Buntings.

Yesterday in the Ribble valley I had a chance encounter with a Great Grey Shrike or Butcher Bird as it is sometimes called. It was some way off on top of a pole and was watching the same five Goldcrests that I was watching along the edge of a pine forest. Once it catches prey it impales it on hawthorne bushes in a sort of larder then comes back to eat it when it is hungry hence the name Butcher bird. They are not that common in winter but one did appear at Watergrove reservoir last year. I only wish it was possible to approach it closer to get a better picture on something more natural.

Whilst I was in Bowland I also came across some Bramblings feeding with the roadside Chaffinches. You tend to forget how colourful these finches are and this weeks gallery includes some drinking shots as a reminder. click here

During the week a new bird was almost added to the garden bird list when a Buzzard flew to within ten feet of landing in our pine tree. A Grey Wagtail fed on the lawn one day and it is good to see that the Willow Tit and both Nuthatches are still feeding daily.

A day trip to Lapland in search of Father Christmas gave only one hour of daylight and only one bird seen. It was however my favourite bird, a Waxwing, feeding just before it went dark on rowan berries. There were masses of rowan berries in the township of Rovaniemi and this was the obvious reason why no Waxwings have come to Britain this Winter.Plus the strange fact that it was two degrees colder in Manchester when we left than it was in Lapland when we arrived three hours later! My blog photo of this week was taken in Manchester during the big Waxwing invasion of two years ago.

Five years ago, with the temperature 30° below freezing, I spent eight hours in a wooden hide in the Finnish forests filming Golden Eagles and thus suffering with frostbite afterwards! I have included some of those photos in this week’s gallery. Two very different and unforgettable days in the Northern Arctic but both very magical. Click here

On Hopwood this week there was a flock of thirty five Redpolls feeding in the tops of a group of birches. A flock of eleven Cormorants flying past was a weird sight to record in the middle of a golf course.

On Wednesday the coldest place in Britain was Leighton Moss at minus 5 °C and I was in the hide there before 8.00am. Everywhere looked superb in the hoar frost and better still as an Otter fished in a far off bay. Two Bitterns were seen but as usual they were too far away to provide a photo. A Kingfisher flew past the hide several times so for this weeks gallery I have provided some of the shots I took of Kingfishers this summer. Click here

Last Sunday dawned a perfect winters day as I walked along the Pennine Way at Blackstone Edge. I was hoping to encounter Twite or Snow Bunting but saw neither only Red Grouse were active plus a low flying skein of Pink Footed Geese. In the garden we still have Willow Tit and Nuthatch feeding plus an out of season Reed Bunting.