Last Night’s Fish Supper
Late February’s superb weather encouraged Kingfishers back to their nest-sites and thoughts turned to the breeding season ahead. I spent a glorious ten hours watching a pair that included the bird in this weeks photo. Suddenly she appeared to be choking which, having witnessed this before, I knew was the start of her regurgitating a […]
Rough Seas
While up in North East Scotland last week we paid a quick visit to the Moray Firth hoping to film Long Tailed Ducks. None came within reach of the camera but the rugged coastline did provide good views of Turnstone and Purple Sandpipers battling the wild surf. The Caledonian forests around Loch Garten provided good […]
Arctic Songster
If there is one bird that typifies the high Arctic it is the Snow Bunting. It is a rare breeding bird in Britain and generally only occurs at an altitude of four thousand feet, where the climate is similar to the high Arctic!! Having filmed them in Greenland, Alaska and Spitsbergen I tend to associate […]
Jet Stream Disaster
Everyone enjoyed that fabulous warm, summer last year but, unfortunately, it came at a price for Islays Barnacle Geese in Greenland. While we had the good weather all the Atlantic weather fronts that we usually have ended up on the east side of Greenland. As they were so far north, it was still very cold, […]
Goose Feast
The one bonus of thousands of Geese on Islay in winter is that there are always sick and injured birds available for Islays raptors. The commonest of these is the Buzzard as shown in this weeks blog photo. This winter there are good numbers of juvenile Sea Eagles on Islay with some of these coming […]
Well Chough-ed
Any visit to Islay would not be complete without time spent with their special member of the Crow family – the Chough. Despite inclement weather and strong winds I was able to spend time with forty seven Chough at Ardnave Point. Supplementary feeding has helped juvenile birds to survive to adulthood but even with this […]
Jack Snipe At minus 8c
All winter I have been waiting for some severe weather to have any chance of filming Jack Snipe. I have several bogs that don’t freeze up in severe frost and occasionally Jack Snipe will remain in situ if you approach cautiously. This happened last week when late one afternoon I spotted a Jack Snipe but […]
Snowy Owl
Well not quite a true Snowy Owl but a Barn Owl hunting in the snow. When this winter started I never thought that I would be in a position to photograph local Barn Owls during the day let alone take photos of one hunting in the snow. Nothing is predictable in wildlife and you never […]
Snow At last
This winter we had our first snowfall on the 18th January making it the latest arrival date for more than fifty years. At long last we have had some classic sunny, frosty days and it was good to be out with the camera, some of the results of which are in this weeks gallery.Click here
Eclipse-Barn Owls
Thick cloud and mist negated any chance of seeing the eclipse of the moon last week so I have included, for this week’s blog and gallery, photos taken three to four years ago when we had the last one. Still only two years to the next one but over twenty years to the next Wolf […]