Breeding Season Begins
After the harshest Winter for years I have finally found two pairs of Long Tailed Tits building their nests in Hopwood woods – only seven days later than last year. On the 12th a Pipistrelle Bat was active at dusk as eighty Fieldfares went to roost at Pilsworth – the biggest flock I have seen […]
The Villain Returns
This male Sparrow Hawk on the bird bath was one of twenty species in the garden on the third March. A pair of Bullfinches also fed and there was a welcome return of the Willow Tit. On Hopwood a Woodcock was still present plus a drumming Great Spotted Woodpecker. A yaffle from a Green Woodpecker […]
Roe Deer At Dawn
An incredibly mild and dull week for our last week on Islay with a maximum temperature of eleven degrees on one day and a Small Tortoiseshell butterfly on another We saw a further two Otters but both vanished and gave no chance of filming. The four Roe Deer in the picture were present every day […]
A Winter Break
We have spent the past week on our favourite island of Islay.The snowdrops at Bridgend and along the banks of the river Sorn were at their best, having been delayed this year through the cold weather of last month We watched an Otter on our first day and had good sightings of Hen Harrier, Merlin […]
Sixty Kites Are Flying
This week I have been on tour in South West Scotland showing films and birding in between. A magnificent afternoon was spent at the Kite feeding station at Loch Ken where more than sixty Kites gather at the 2pm feeding time. It’s only three and a half hours drive from Rochdale and I would recommend […]
Forty Year Wait Is Over
Yes I have spent the best part of four decades trying to photograph Jack Snipe and on the fourth of February it all came good as I achieved my fourth Grand Slam of the Winter. The day started with twenty eight Waxwings in Middleton in the morning followed by two Woodcock on Hopwood and then […]
Grandson’s First Twitch
Just imagine seeing your first Waxwing at eleven weeks old. That’s forty three years earlier than I saw my first Waxwing! Well I couldn’t resist taking my grandson,Marcus, two hundred yards from his home in Heywood to see twenty seven in a tree in the next avenue. What a privilege but will he remember? On […]
Lapwings Refuel At Tesco
This photo shows part of a flock of one hundred and forty Lapwings that spent several hours on the roof of Tesco’s petrol station in Oldham. They are normally on the roof of the Indian Ocean restaurant nearby! It was good to see the return of the Willow Tit to the garden this week with […]
Whilst Walking The Dog
Who would have thought that after intensively watching an area for more than forty years you could find a new bird whilst walking the dog. Well, on the sixteenth at dusk, I threw a biscuit into the local Trub brook to encourage my golden retriever to dive in to get all the dirt off him. […]
Wanderer Returns
Since last weeks entry we have had eight wonderful frosty and sometimes snowy Winter days. The highlight has got to be the return of the Willow Tit to the garden on the second after an absence of more than two years. It came daily until the sixth but has not been seen since. Blackbirds peaked […]