Fallen Apples

When you visit Islay in November and you have been more than one hundred times you do not expect to photograph a species that you have never filmed before. However, that is exactly what happened this November as I sat in my hide facing three Apple trees that had just shed their apples.Up to a dozen Blackbirds fed together and I waited in the hope of a Redwing or Fieldfare arriving but none appeared. Out of the blue a Blackcap appeared, then another and another until three males and two females were eating the apples! In summer Blackcap breed in the Islay woodlands but the Blackcap that I was filming were different, not in plumage, but where they had come from. It has recently been proved that the Blackcaps that we see in winter have come from Germany in contrast to the summer visitor Blackcaps who have now headed south to Africa. click here