Record Breeding Season
Here is a photo of the young Greater Spotted Woodpecker that visits our garden on its own, now that it has been abandoned by the adults.During the week the Collared Dove record has gone up to twenty feeding together. What is it going to finish at? In a moorland plantation I heard my only young […]
Four Into One
This week I have had several sessions on the local Sand Martins and todays photo shows four young crammed into the entrance of their nesting hole. They have had an incredible breeding season with twenty five/thirty pairs fledging two broods each. It all adds up to more than two hundred young fledged from this one […]
Dinner is Served
It is always good to film Barn Owls but this week’s photo has come from a special pair. Thirty eight years ago I sat in the same barn and filmed my first ever nocturnal birds – Barn Owls. So here I was again, much older and wiser than last time but still with an exciting […]
Osprey Excursion
A quick trip to Finland during the week and two days spent filming the eyrie of a pair of Ospreys. On the first day I spent eleven hours in a hide on scaffolding just above the height of the eyrie and twenty meters away. It was a magical experience during which there were nine visits […]
Little Owls Fledge
Here is a photo of a Little Owl that is now able to fly but is still using the nest hole in the wall as a safe diurnal rest place. Hole in the walls are not only useful to humans but nobody knows how many pairs of Little Owls use them as nest sites in […]
Kingfisher Success
It all comes to he who waits. Well in this case eight mornings sat in a stream for four hours at a time finally came good when four young Kingfishers decided it was time to fly the tunnel. For the second time in my filming career I witnessed the young flying straight out of the […]
A Unique Photo.
A final photo from Islay and one that may be unique. No bird book that I have ever seen shows a photograph of a Black Guillemot with its young. The reason is that they normally nest under boulders and out of reach of any cameras. This pair are unique and every year lay their eggs […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]