Swan Lake
Last weekend was the annual BIrd Fair at Martin Mere and as I had not been for a few years I decided to attend together with my camera. I was parked up by 8am and enjoyed the spectacle of more than a thousand Whooper Swans together with Lapwings and Ruff.Click here. Three peregrines on fence […]
Bearded Gems
Having visited Leighton Moss once this Autumn and failed to even see Bearded Tits I could not resist another go in the quest to film a bird I have never filmed before and only seen once. Conditions were perfect but after standing around for two hours I was already expecting another blank day. However, calls […]
Autumn Flash
Last Sunday, after a clear and frosty night, I made an early morning visit to Pennington Flash. Although there was not much bird life about the colours were absolutely superb with mirror reflections of the reeds in the calm water. Apart from five Whooper Swans on the main area of water I spent most of […]
Costa Snow Bunting
It is ironic that even in the wildest of the weather that Islay threw at us last week the best bird turned up in the car park of Islay’s remotest cafe. As we drove onto the gravel at Sanaigmore in anticipation of a much needed coffee a Snow Bunting flew up onto the wall. The […]
Goose Feast
Islay in October is always wild but this years weather was in the extreme. Gales and torrential rain prevailed and our walks had to be undertaken in-between the showers, with fingers crossed. Despite this the spectacle of 50000 Barnacle Geese on one Hebridean island is not to be missed and regarded by many as […]
Salmon On The Run
I have never gone looking for Salmon before but after a day of heavy rain on the 23rd there followed a superb Autumn day on the 24th so I knew that if Salmon were going to come up the Ribble they would be in the right position to jump the falls at Settle that day. […]
Redwings And Jays Everywhere
The first Redwings of Winter appeared on Hopwood on the 12th with three separate parties totalling twenty eight birds. This paled into insignificance in comparison to how many passed over Winter Hill during an eight hour watch on the same day by three birdwatchers when more than nine thousand three hundred were recorded. Clearly the […]
A Season Of Plenty
Today’s cold North East winds have probably brought to an end one of the finest late Summer and Autumn periods that we have ever had. Everywhere you look there is an abundance of fruit and I couldn’t resist this week’s photo showing the Horse Chestnuts cracking open to reveal every school boy’s dream, the conkers. […]
Surprise Visit By Ibises
During the week I paid a visit to the Horwich moors to observe the four Glossy Ibises that had appeared a few days before. They are part of an influx that included a dozen at one locality in the Lake District and should have migrated in the opposite direction down to Iberia. The Ibises in […]
Long Tailed Tits On The Move
Until this last week I have seen very few Long Tailed Tits this Summer and I attributed this to an abundance of food in the woodlands. On Hopwood on the 25th at least a dozen were passing through the birches along with all the other tits so I would suspect that they have also had […]