Early Second Clutches
I mentioned Dippers in my blog two weeks ago and I was amazed when checking the first nest that I found on the 8th March to discover that two eggs have been laid of a second clutch. In some years there is no second breeding but this year is proving exceptionally good for Dippers due […]
Record Spring Sunshine
With sunshine all day and daily temperatures in excess of 20°C this Spring is set to break all records. It must be an unique contrast to have Dotterel on Pendle Hill and the same day (22nd) Waxwings in Rochdale! Surely that has never happened before? A day out in Derbyshire produced dales full of Cowslips […]
Successful Dippers
It is now six weeks since I found my first Dipper’s nest of the season and the young have just fledged. During that time less than one inch of rain has fallen leading to probably the most successful breeding season they have ever had. I have spent several days awaiting the young fledging but as […]
Green Woodpecker Drills
In forty years of filming birds at the nest I have only ever found five Green Woodpecker’s nests and only then when they had large young ready to fledge. It would be too much of a risk to try to film them at any other time. On the 9th April in a high Pennine Oak […]
Another New Garden Bird
The thirtieth species to visit the garden this Winter proved to be a new bird in the form of a male Pheasant. Where it has come from is a mystery as none have been seen in the forty three years we have lived in the area. Its life expectancy is probably not that long if […]
An Early Record For Tawny Owls
On the 17th March two young Tawny Owls fledged from a nest box in Castleton making them the earliest I have ever recorded in the last fifty years. The first egg would have been laid on or about the 15th January and it begs the question did the owls know when they laid their eggs […]
Cairngorm Winter
We have just returned from spending five days in the Cairngorms where we hoped to film some good snow scenes for a future DVD. What we had was fifteen inches of snow as we arrived and five days of breath taking Winter scenery. At the ski center car park, high up Cairngorm, Snow Buntings were […]
New Bird For The Garden
It has taken forty three years but finally a male Blackcap has appeared in the garden to feed. So the apples I put out to attract the Waxwings have proved useful after all! Three days this week we have had more than twenty species feeding including a record four Reed Buntings on the eleventh. The […]
Garden Record
We have had more than twenty species of birds in the garden, on any one day, on two occasions this week. On the 3rd March they peaked at twenty four different species, a garden record. Amongst these were a record five Siskins along with three Reed Buntings, a Willow Tit, Nuthatch, Great Spotted Woodpecker, Sparrowhawk […]
Whiteout
The severe weather of December on Islay delayed the flowering of the Snowdrops but this worked to my benefit as they were at their best during our last week there. After I had taken the still photo of the Snowdrops the scene was made even better when I was using my video camera as a […]