Wanderer Returns
Just when we had given up all hope of seeing the Willow Tit this Winter it turned up on the twenty ninth of January for the fifth consecutive Winter. Perfect timing as it was the RSPB Garden Count day and it knocked our total up to twenty one different species in the hour slot. Not […]
New Tick
Whilst at Leighton Moss during the week I took the opportunity to watch a Glossy Ibis that was feeding in the corner of a field. I have never seen one before and whilst it was interesting to see I would have preferred a Bittern any day. At high tide Black Tailed Godwits left the shore […]
Marsh Tit On The Red List
The crisp weather of last weekend extended to Monday so I decided to go to Leighton Moss to seek the Bitterns that had been showing very well over the weekend. Unfortunately minus five degrees centigrade overnight completely froze the reserve water and there wasn’t a Bittern in sight. I did , however, watch the Marsh […]
Winter At Last
Two superb frosty and sunny days with very little wind. Just the conditions I had been waiting for to venture onto the top of the Pennines in search of Red Grouse and Mountain Hares. Saturday was the best of the two with good numbers of hares resting in their forms in the pleasant sunshine. As […]
Wait Is Over
What a start to the New Year. After forty years of trying I finally obtained film of the elusive Hawfinch. On the one good day of the week I journeyed to the Northern Dales as I had done on many occasions before to try to locate Hawfinches. This time, shortly after dawn, up to five […]
Newsletter 2011
Following two record breaking years of filming there had to be an anti – climax and it happened this year due mainly to one thing – RAIN. The year started with only the occasional snowy day and little in the way of frost, we had been spoiled by the exceptionally cold conditions of December 2010. […]
Christmas Cracker
On the seventeenth of December it was a cold day with sleet showers in a North West wind and the hills around were covered in snow as I went for a walk on Hopwood hoping to see a Short Eared Owl. I encountered a brown raptor quartering the rushes and as it was flying into […]
Himbrimi
An Icelandic name for the Great Northern Diver is Himbrimi. One of the photos shows it on its nest in Iceland displaying its magnificent Summer plummage. The other photo is the same species taken at Castleshaw reservoir this week, in its Winter plummage. It is hard to believe that they are the same species. The […]
Raptors DVD Available Online
The good news is that the Raptor’s DVD is now available to buy through my website . This last week I have been out showing films every night so I have had little or no time for filming. Despite the Winter weather there have been some good audiences with a record 153 people attending Monday […]
A Winter Bath
Whilst searching the pine forests this week I came across Greenfinches bathing in the only water around, which was a puddle in a car park.Not many people realise that in order to keep their feathers in good condition birds have to bath almost daily, even in Winter. The pool was visited by Siskins, Greenfinches , […]