Escort Duties
The last few weeks I have spent many hours on the moors looking for Long Eared and Short Eared Owls. Whilst sat still waiting I have seen good numbers of Red Grouse. The male Red Grouse does not incubate the eggs but twice a day he escorts the female while she feeds before returning to […]
Bluebells and Woodpeckers
Last week I spent a glorious couple of hours sat in a local bluebell wood whilst filming a pair of Great Spotted Woodpeckers feeding young that were about to fledge. The blog photo of the bluebells also shows in the top right-hand corner the Alder tree with the Woodpeckers nest-holes. Feeds of the young […]
Bluebells and Roe Deer
This Spring’s warmth and sunshine has produced fantastic carpets of bluebells. May is the time of year when Roe Deer give birth and I have spent some time following female Roe Deer hoping to find their fawns amongst the bluebells. I finally stuck lucky but, unfortunately, the Roe Deer and its fawn were not in […]
Home Sweet Home
When you visit the same woodland all your life you get to know each tree present and are able to recollect where different birds have nested over the years. The old tree stump in this weeks blog has plenty of history – for the last ten years it has been used by Goosanders who have […]
Hunting Shorties
After many visits to the high Pennines it is pleasing to find that there are good numbers of Short Eared Owls present and hunting. After the disastrous fires of last summer and this spring I was pleasantly surprised to find Shorties present and breeding. This weeks blog photo is of a male that has just […]
The Stormcock
It is several decades since I had the pleasure of filming Mistle Thrushes as they fed their young. The old English name for the cock Mistle Thrush is Stormcock because of its habit of singing at the height of a storm. He is the largest song-bird in Britain and regularly nests in our gardens and […]
Orange Tips In Abundance
The hot, sunny weather of Easter has had an amazing effect on butterflies especially Orange Tips. A short walk near Heywood produced a record 22 Orange Tips, 13 Peacock, 12 Small Tortoiseshell and 4 Speckled Wood butterflies. The following day, over new ground, another 20 Orange Tips were seen in just half an hour and […]
Singing Bramblings
A Brambling in full song is normally only heard on its breeding ground in Lapland. This last winter brought many to Britain and the return passage has been delayed due to the weeks of easterly winds.The recent warm weather has encouraged them to start singing which is what the male in this weeks blog is […]
Spot The Tree Creeper
Without the white feather this weeks Tree Creeper is superbly camouflaged against the background tree and would be very hard to spot. Like the Long Tailed Tits of last week Tree Creepers like white feathers to line their nests with. Unfortunately Tree Creepers nests are much more difficult to find than Long Tailed Tits nests. […]
Searching For Feathers
One of the most delightful events in March is filming Long Tailed Tits as they bring in feathers to line their nests. In many years I start my breeding season off with this activity and this year I have been spoilt for choice having found ten nests that were all ready for lining. They are […]