Siskins Galore

One of the commonest birds that we encountered in Wales the other week was the Siskin. Wherever there were woodlands flocks of Siskins could be heard and seen amongst the tree tops, especially the Alders. In one or two localities we also found Bramblings that were getting ready to return to Lapland – as soon […]

Dead Wood

  This weeks blog photo shows a remote Welsh valley with the centre piece a decaying  old  Rowan tree. Further down the valley are some vibrant pine forests and these are home to one of our most colourful and secretive birds, the Crossbill. What then is the connection between the rotting Rowan tree and the […]

Fresh Water Otter

We have just returned from a short break at Rivercatcher on the River Dee in Wales. The undoubted highlight of our visit was watching, for thirty minutes, an Otter as it fished and dived along the edge of the river. As they normally feed nocturnally it was a privilege to film this very wary animal […]

Angry Wigeon

How many times have I set off to film a certain species of bird and ended up with something else that was totally unexpected? This happened last week when I visited Yorkshire in search of Marsh Harriers and ended up with a fly-past calling Wigeon and a Buzzard doing what Marsh Harriers should be doing […]

Collecting Sticks

After all the recent gales it was good to spend a few hours with my local Herons.On all but two nests the Herons were already incubating eggs. However, in an Alder tree one pair were still in the early stages of nest-building and I filmed what I was after with plenty of sticks presented by […]

White – Out

Despite enduring three storms last week on Islay one thing did not suffer – the Snowdrops at Bridgend were as good, or even better, than ever as shown in this weeks blog.As always the attraction of Islay is that you never know what is around the next corner. We had everything from five Herons roosting […]

Sailing To Islay

We have just returned from eight days on Islay during which there were three named storms! While on some days no film was taken there is always a bonus from raging gales- as the forests were battered by 80mph winds the Red Deer stags came out into the open to get away from all the […]

Fishing Ospreys

Any visit to Speyside is not complete without time spent filming Ospreys as they catch trout in the numerous lochs. It is almost impossible to determine where they are going to fish and even if you guess which loch they will visit they are going to be a long way off your camera so the […]

Red Squirrels Galore

There is little doubt that the best place to see Red Squirrels is the Caledonian pine forests of Speyside. They are found in virtually every forest and thankfully do not have to compete with the more dominant Grey Squirrels. If you are going to visit Speyside then make sure you have a pocketful of Hazel […]

Osprey Magic

No trip to Speyside is complete without time spent with its Ospreys – either when they are catching fish or better still when they are at their nest.One of the most magical days I have ever spent with wildlife was when I was in a hide overlooking the nest of a pair of Ospreys.I spent […]