Another Waxwing No Show
Last October tens of thousands of Waxwings were waiting in Scandinavia to cross the North Sea to Britain. We were promised one of the best invasions ever and all birders waited with baited breath. It never happened!! It took me over 40 years before I saw my first Waxwing. It was instantly elevated to my […]
Young Raptors
Looking back on last year it was a very good year for finding the young of Owls and Raptors. It is always a privilege to examine the nests of Hen Harriers so this weeks blog photo is of four healthy young in a moorland site. Other young this week include Little Owl, Short Eared Owl, […]
The Assassin
Each winter we acquire a Sparrowhawk that hunts all the birds that come to feed in our garden. Last year he was a superbly marked male and it looks like he has come back this winter, even though this weeks photos were taken through double glazing! It is a well know fact that Sparrowhawks are […]
2022 Favourites
It is now time to show my favourite photos from last year which turned out to be a pretty good year photographically – so good that instead of the top ten there are twelve in the gallery as I did not know which two to discard! Three visits to Islay produced Red Deer stags, a […]
Hide And Seek
A happy new year to all our readers with this weeks blog photo of one of my hides in a neighbours garden last month.This is what a proper hide should look like and I always have a good laugh at the hides that some of our television experts use – they would blow away in […]
Christmas Berries
Last weeks sub zero temperatures and sunshine were perfect conditions for filming Fieldfares – if you could find any! A Hawthorne bush in a neighbours garden was full of large red berries and out of the blue three Fieldfares descended to gobble them up. I had a memorable two days filming these and some other […]
Jack Snipe 180
There is no doubt that the most illusive winter visitor to the Pennines is the Jack Snipe. Most people will never see one but I like the ultimate challenge. In the last two winters I have encountered 179 – all have flown off at close quarters and have provided me with no photos. All that […]
The Disappearing Green Belt
I took this weeks landscape photo early one morning this last summer as I sat waiting for a Long Eared Owl to hunt.It seemed to me to illustrate what is now happening to our open countryside – one last refuge for the horses as the industrial sprawl encroaches all around! Next to where I was […]
Redwing At Dawn
Once again it looks like its going to be another winter with very few berries and even less Redwings. At dawn on Monday I found four Redwings, along the canal, finishing off the few Hawthorne berries that were left.It was the only day this last week when the sun appeared and their colours were transformed […]
Summer Nights
For three months last summer I spent time in the hills filming three different hunting male Long Eared Owls. They were memorable nights and I took hundreds of photos so lets have a look at some of the also rans. The blog photo is interesting in that the eyes look yellow and not orange as […]