Garden Assassin
Just after sunset on Wednesday last week I looked into a darkening garden and noticed a Sparrowhawk plucking and devouring a Goldfinch. I grabbed my camera and rushed upstairs and after carefully opening the bedroom window I rested a 600mm lens on the window sill at a distance of thirty feet from the still feeding […]
Hunting Kestrel
A couple of weeks ago I was watching the Kestrel which features on my blog when it suddenly took off in pursuit of prey. One photo captured the moment of take-off and like most wildlife photography there were no second chances. This weeks gallery is of Spitsbergen’s most famous sea-bird cliff at Alkefjellit. More than […]
Wader Feast
September is a good time to visit Morecambe Bay to film wading birds and this year water levels are just right. During the week I spent three hours one morning on the Bay and was treated to great action from Snipe, Greenshank and Spotted Redshank. In addition Little Egrets were everywhere and even Cormorants had […]
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 […]