Snowy Owls
It is always a special and rare moment to come across a roosting Long Eared Owl. To come across two is even more special and to find them after a heavy snow fall is almost unknown. I have never seen a photo of roosting Long Eared Owls in the snow so this week’s photo may […]
Winter Magic
During the week we have had fantastic Winter weather culminating with a snow cover of eight inches this morning. Everyday I have been searching for wild life, mostly close to home, having encountered one Woodcock, twenty four Snipe and ten Jack Snipe. Best of all was the close encounter with one of the Jack Snipe, […]
Winter Strikes
How ironic that after featuring a Woodcock in the garden on my blog of two weeks ago one should fly up from under our hedge on 18th January. This bird was of course a truly wild bird sheltering from the freezing South East wind and was a first for the garden. It was a perfect […]
Sun At Last
Today the 12th is the first day this year that we have had some decent sunshine. Earlier in the week, with the mild weather, both Song Thrush and Mistle Thrush were in full song. On Hopwood Woodcock are still being seen and I flushed only my second Jack Snipe of the Winter along one of […]
New Year Wish
A Woodcock in your garden would be high on most peoples New Year wish list. The one in this week’s photo is in my garden but the circumstances surrounding its arrival are not what you would expect. I was walking through Hopwood woods when a Carrion Crow and a Magpie that were attacking something on […]
Newsletter 2012
Last year’s newsletter started with the problems caused by rain. As we are all by now aware this year has even surpassed that by producing the wettest year ever recorded. However, despite all the odds I have had an exceptional years filming. It started back in January by finally getting to grips with the Pennine […]
New Garden Records
Whenever we have wet and windy conditions birds flock to the garden feeders and this last week has been the best in the forty four years that we have lived in Castleton with two new records and one equaled. Firstly we had a minimum of twenty two species per day and on three days twenty […]
Winter’s First Grand Slam
In has taken up to now this Winter to locate my first Jack Snipe in the Thornham fields, coupled with two Woodcock at Unsworth and twenty five Waxwings in Ramsbottom. I was able to chalk up my first grand slam of the Winter on a perfect day on the 13th. Added to this was a […]
Hedgerow Surprise
While searching for Waxwings along the hawthorne hedges last week I came across this roosting Long Eared Owl. It is always a wonderful moment to encounter such a bird that has almost certainly come to us for Winter from Scandinavia and may have crossed the North Sea with the Waxwings. Ironically this Owl was only […]
Killer Magpie
This Magpie was seen to take a Waxwing from the flock at Hulme this week. Always an opportunist feeder it made a quick move and sadly there was one less of my favourite birds to savour. Having said that at 8.15am on the 28th November there was an incredible 230 Waxwings present in one tree. […]