Waxwings – At Last
Last weekend I finally caught up with two Waxwings in Salford. The weather was foul and the birds were sub-adults but as they are my favourite birds I could not let another winter go by without seeing them.One is this weeks blog photo and just to remind you how good they can look I have […]
Peregrine Surprise
Its always a nice surprise when a Peregrine appears from nowhere and flies past you at breakneck speed. This happened during the week when I was exercising our two dogs along the local canal. It had its sights on a Canada Goose but veered off at the last minute and gave a high pitched call […]
Bird Watching 2019
What better way to start the new year than watching Kites from a Hot Tub in the valley of the River Dee in Wales. Its that time of the year again when I look back and choose my ten favourite photos from 2018. Every year it becomes more difficult and no excuses from the weather […]
Xmas Lunch
On Christmas eve, flying against the back-drop of Manchester flats, my local Barn Owl is carrying its lunch back to the barn to devour. This was its second attempt as 30 minutes before this it had been dispossessed of its vole by the local Kestrel! Not every pair of Barn Owls hunt during the […]
Waxwings Are On Their Way
If there is one bird species that excites bird-watchers it is the Waxwing. None came to us last winter as there was an abundance of berries in Scandinavia so they stayed over there, but this winter the situation is different. At present there are hundreds of Waxwings in Scotland eating their way south . This […]
Acrobatic Goldfinches
The long hot summer has produced an abundance of thistles which have been an absolute bonus for our Goldfinches. During the many hours that I have been waiting for Long and Short-Eared Owls to appear the charms of Goldfinches have kept me entertained with their acrobatics as in this weeks blog photo. click here All […]
To Intervene Or Not To Intervene?
Much has been said in recent weeks about the BBC cameraman’s declared policy of not intervening in any wildlife event that they are filming. That rule was broken last week when Emperor Penguins were helped out of a glacier to enable them to return to their rookery. Death would have followed if the cameramen had […]
The Dive
I have always maintained that in wildlife photography your results are directly proportionate to the time that you put in and last week I had a perfect example of this with my local Barn Owl. I spent days watching the hunting pattern of this bird and noted that it started to hunt around a field […]
Goose Feast
As predicted the first International Goose count on Islay last week has produced a lower than expected count of just over 30,000 birds. The reason for this lower number is that very few juvenile birds have returned with the adult Geese due entirely to a devastating Spring blizzard in eastern Greenland. It was already known […]
Whooper Swan Spectacular
There is one bonus of wild weather on Islay in Autumn, you may be treated to a spectacular sunset at dusk. That is exactly what happened on our recent visit – six days of stormy weather then two sunny days that produced incredible colours at sunset. Add to that thousands of roosting Geese then a […]