Category Archives: General

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 and form an important food source for Hen Harriers and Peregrines. This week’s gallery is of a pair nesting in our cottage but for the real gems of Islay you will have to wait until next week – its well worth the wait!! Click here

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 more than thirty years to the day I spent guarding the nest of the first pair ever to breed there. This week’s gallery is full of male Marsh Harrier photos and there is even a record shot of the food pass at a nest more than 400 yards away – it looks to be in the farmers field! Click here

Whilst Hedgehog numbers are plummeting nationally it has been most pleasing to see this last week at least four in our small garden. Each night we have put out a handful of Hedgehog pellets and then we have sat close by to watch and listen to their antics. There is a considerable amount of grunting and snorting so we are hopeful that in a  couple months  we might see some young hogs as well. Click here

What a fantastic three weeks of weather we have just had with the heat and sunshine producing a phenomenal number of Orange Tip butterflies. A walk on Arnside Knott near Silverdale had us admiring the masses of Cowslips and Early Purple Orchids. On a roadside verge nearby were two Fly Orchids, the first we have ever seen and aptly named. click here

While you would expect Long Tailed Tits to eat caterpillars and grubs not many people realise that Little Owls also enjoy them, together with worms, mice and voles. During the warm, sunny weather of this week I have watched a male Little Owl, for three hours early each morning. He has provided some wonderful filming opportunities as he provided prey for his female , who was still incubating eggs. Enjoy this weeks gallery. Click here

Once the eggs of Long Tailed Tits have hatched the adults have to find enough food to feed up to ten young. It is an enormous task and to help them they sometimes enlist other Long Tailed Tits that have perhaps been predated earlier on. This is what has happened with the birds in this weeks blog and gallery, the same pair that I showed weeks earlier collecting feathers. As many as four adult birds were bringing a great variety of grubs and insects to the young and always trying too avoid the unwelcome attention of Magpies. With a week to go to fledging lets hope they are successful. Click here