Africa Bound
This weeks photo shows a September brood of Swallows at my local Golf club. The nest has been built on metal netting that was put up to stop them nesting!! It didn’t work and several broods of Swallows have already fledged and are heading south to Africa. The Swallows had a major problem in that […]
Resplendent Cock Linnet
By late August most birds have finished breeding but not the Linnet. Gorse is a favourite place to find their nests and whilst the male does not build the nest he always escorts the female as she does the necessary work. He usually perches on the highest gorse by the nest and this is where […]
Kingfisher Surprise
As a result of the flooding on Boxing Day last year two of my three regular Kingfisher sites have been washed away and with them the Kingfishers that had occupied these sites for more than thirty years. So it was to my third choice site, deep in the heart of Bowland, that I went this […]
The Golden-Crested Wren
More than sixty years ago when I was learning about bird-watching from my father he used to mention this tiny bird which he called a Golden-Crested Wren. At the time my Observers Book of Birds made no mention of this bird and it was some years later when I had a more detailed bird-book that […]
Late Breeding Dippers
After weeks of entries from Scotland and Spitsbergen it is good to get back to the local scene and the Pennines. In the last decade Dippers are regularly breeding through into July, something that was unheard of in the past. It would be nice to think this late breeding was second broods but that may […]
Hen Harrier Day
This weeks blog photo is of a female Hen Harrier returning to her nest with nesting material and is my favourite photo from my work this year and coincides with today’s National Hen Harrier day. I attended the Bowland meeting which re-iterated the appalling fact that only one pair of Hen Harriers this year nested […]
Gone Fishing
I have always wanted to film Ospreys catching fish in the Scottish lochs and a short visit to Speyside last week provided the perfect opportunity. The only problem is that you have to be in a hide overlooking the feeding loch before the Ospreys arrive and that meant before 5.00am! It is absolute pot luck […]
Triplets!
The significance of our finding a female Polar Bear on the Spitsbergen ice with three cubs did not seem that remarkable until the ships captain’s address at the end of the cruise. He told us that in twenty three years of guiding his ship through the summer pack-ice he had never seen a female Polar […]
There She Blows
I have never classed myself as a whale fanatic but all that changed on the Spitsbergen cruise when we twice encountered Blue Whales – the largest creature ever seen on Earth! At more than thirty metres long and coming close to the boat it was an incredible experience to watch them blowing and breaching unconcerned […]
Polar Bear and Ivory Gulls
Since concentrating on digital still photography over the last five years I have always longed to return to Spitsbergen with its Polar Bears and Ivory Gulls. Holding me back of course is the high cost and popularity of the Polar Bear cruises. Whilst on Islay last month an opportunity arose to join one of the […]