Gone Fishing
No visit to Speyside is complete without a visit to the lake where Ospreys come to fish. Unfortunately as this is situated in the centre of Aviemore the Ospreys come to fish early, very early, in the morning. I was in the hide before 4.30 am and by 5.00am three Ospreys had already left with […]
Dream Fulfilled
In making forty full length cine films I was never in a position to film hunting Long Eared Owls at dusk. I did, on two occasions, film them at the nest feeding their young, through the night, involving twenty foot of scaffolding and using lights to illuminate the nest. It was a magical experience and […]
Shortie Success
The warm, dry, sunny weather of this summer has provided exceptional conditions for breeding Short Tailed Field Voles. The knock-on effect is that Short Eared Owls have been breeding all over the Pennines, although some will have lost their young in the two devastating fires. However, many have been successful and this weeks photo is […]
Fancy A Frog
This weeks Little owls are one of the three high Pennine Owl species, the other two being Short Eared and Long Eared Owls. The abundance of voles this year has enabled the latter two species to have a bumper year but the Little Owls have not been as successful due to the drought. Worms form […]
A Steep Learning Curve
In the last three weeks I have spent thirty seven hours in my hide at the nest-site of a pair of Kingfishers. Every session has been in unbroken sunshine and in forty five years of filming Kingfishers I have never seen such settled conditions. I have been waiting for the young to fledge and this […]
Catch-Again
My recent Hen Harrier food -pass photos have always been popular so this week I have included another series from our recent visit to Islay. The weather during our three weeks was fantastic with just one storm that produced high winds and half an inch of rain. This week’s gallery also includes photos of Black […]
Corncrakes and Whiskey
This weeks blog and gallery is dominated by one of Islay special birds, the Corncrake. Twenty years ago there were only eight calling birds and the future of the summer visitor looks bleak. Scottish Natural Heritage stepped in with various grant monies and brought this bird back from the brink to more than one hundred […]
Catch
This weeks photo is the result of weeks of preparation, a four hour wait for the male to bring prey and one perfect shot out of the ten taken in the next second. The other nine in the sequence are in this weeks gallery together with more of the spectacular Hen Harriers. There is little […]
Starlings Galore
Famous for its Whiskey galore no one ever goes to Islay to photograph Starlings. However, wherever you go on Islay there are breeding Starlings – in the holiday cottages, in the deciduous woodlands and even in an old whiskey barrel! Once fledged the free flying young can be seen and heard all over the island […]
Marsh Harrier Magic
After more than fifty years of photographing birds there are not many birds left on my “to do” list. one has always been the Marsh Harrier so last month I spent three consecutive mornings at Leighton Moss filming male Marsh Harriers as they gathered nesting material. It was a wonderful experience and took me back […]