Category Archives: General

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 three species. On the 20th we had a record twenty Blue Tits feeding together, plus on the same day five Jays, which equaled our previous best. Today, the 23rd, at dawn a record fifteen Long Tailed Tits fed on the feeders before the male Sparrowhawk appeared and missed my head by inches!

Along the canal at dawn ,on the 19th, two Waxwings were feeding on Hawthorne berries but had gone ten minutes later. At Rhodes Lodges on the same day four male Goosanders were feeding.

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 roosting Long Eared Owl but I missed the Short Eared Owl that had been hunting the moors the previous evening. The Waxwings were a classic example of perseverance for only one bird was feeding on a tiny Rowan up to noon and then from nowhere twenty four others joined it to give a bit of sparkle to a perfect Winters day. None of them provided a photo like this one on the blog this week. This photo was only one out of more than two hundred that I took in Hulme two weeks ago. It begs the question is there a better one out there waiting to be taken?

On another sparkling day this week I visited Leighton Moss to look for Bitterns. It is my bogey bird and none were visible on the ice. At least seven Water Rails were squealing in the reeds but even these failed to show well enough for a photo. However, I did make a call on one of the major rivers on my return journey and was rewarded with my first ever Pennine sighting of an Otter with two young. Unfortunately they were only distant views and by the time I had approached closer, in true Otter fashion, they had disappeared.

In the cold weather our garden continues to star with more than twenty species of birds seen on every day this month. On the 9th we had a new species as a superb male Kestrel descended on a Blue Tit in the Hawthorne at the rear of the garden. Fortunately the Blue Tit escaped to live another day. Overnight on the 10th a Tawny Owl was calling – the first we have heard for several years.

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 yards from the spot where , in 1975, I caught and ringed a dozen roosting Long Eared Owls. It was the largest number ever caught in Britain at one time and was even more special when one was re-captured the following Spring, brooding young, in a forest just outside Oslo proving exactly where they had all come from.

For the first time ever we have had more than twenty species in the garden on each of the last seven days. The Willow Tit has been joined by Song Thrush, Reed Buntings and now up to three Bullfinches. Numerous apples have been spread around the garden in the hope of attracting Waxwings but unfortunately they all seem to have moved on. However, I did obtain last week the flight shot of a Waxwing I have always dreamt of and this will highlight next week’s blog.

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. Whilst spending hours during the week in Hulme I was amazed at the other birds that inhabit the estate. A female Sparrowhawk was always a threat, fourteen Long Tailed Tits fed in the gardens plus a wintering male Blackcap that was devouring the heavy crop of berries of a privet.

The highlight of the week was the return to the garden of the Willow Tit for the sixth Winter in a row. Where it goes for the rest of the year is a mystery. In addition on five days we had more than twenty species feeding,, peaking at a near record of twenty three species on the 2nd December, thanks to the re-appearing Willow Tit. On the canal nearby we also had a pair of Goosanders at dawn.

A drive to Wetherby on 2nd December produced sightings of five, Kestrels, four Buzzards and a Kite. Good to see the Kestrel was back on top.

That’s the number of Waxwings in one tree at 8.30am in Hulme, South Manchester on the 24th. Its the largest number of Waxwings that I have seen since the big invasion of 1996 when more than 300 were present in Stockport. I spent nearly an hour watching them feed on a white berried Rowan and it would have been good to film but there was no light available.

This weeks photo of a Jay shows what can happen when you are filming with fixed focal length lenses. I was set up in the garage hoping to film a Nuthatch at a range of only eight feet. When a Jay appeared it was a case of only head and shoulders with a 300m lens. For years I have used a zoom lens which would have easily coped with this situation. It just shows that by obtaining a better quality fixed lens other considerations come into play, such as image size.

On 21st November we had twenty one different species in the garden including eight Long Tailed Tits, two Goldcrest and a Reed Bunting. Whilst there are more birds beginning to feed we still have only a handful of Goldfinches feeding and one male Bullfinch. Perhaps when the snow comes we will see an increase?

My latest DVD ‘A Bird for All Seasons’ is now available to purchase through my website.

The Waxwing invasion is now under way. Well, in some parts of Manchester it is but a daily search of the thirty Rowan trees that I monitor in the Rochdale, Oldham, Middleton area has produced no Waxwings. In fact there were only three trees with berries on and most of those have been eaten by Mistle Thrushes. I therefore decided to check some Rowans in Salford that were used by Waxwings in the 1996 invasion and I was not disappointed. Ninety Waxwings were feeding at 11am. With no other birders present it was ideal and I even had time to chat to a man walking a dog and tell him what they were. He was quite interested until I noticed his dog was lubricating my expensive photo trekker that was lying on the grass. End of conversation!

On Hopwood during the week two more Woodcock were present together with the regular Green Woodpeckers. On two occasions a Dipper has been making territorial song flights along part of the stream.

In the garden on the eleventh of November we had a near record twenty two different species feeding during the day.

I promised the Macclesfield RSPB group that I would post on my blog page what I used to combat midges in Scotland . Since talking to two fishermen on Islay a few years ago I have been using a product from Avon. It is a dry oil body spray from their Skin So Soft range, it has nothing to do with midges but like the fishermen I find it very effective.