It is always difficult to choose the best photos from a year, especially a year that was dominated by perfect photographic weather! During this last year I also photographed two subjects that I had never captured before – Red Necked Grebe and a Weasel so they had to be included in the list.
As always my Spring was dominated by moorland Owls so Barn, Short-Eared and Long Eared are included. The highlight has to be a Long Eared Owl taking off with a vole in its mouth on a rather wet Pennine evening.
I don’t usually enter many photographic competitions so the Kingfisher photo, taken in Bowland, was a pleasing result as it won their annual competition!
What will 2026 bring along? We can only pray for good subjects, good weather and good health.
So all the very best to all our readers. www.facebook.com/gordonyateswildlife

Having stalked our garden all winter this male Sparrowhawk finally paused briefly, during the week, so I was able to grab some quick photos in appalling light. He is a magnificent specimen and may be he will come on Christmas Day, in the snow, to make my day?

The big question is where are they? This is the first Autumn when I have not yet seen either a Redwing or a Fieldfare. Instead, in a local bog, I encountered 5 Jack Snipe that had just arrived from Finland for our Winter! Is it all down to Global warming?

What better picture could there be to summarise the Summer of 2025 than a Fox sunbathing on top of a bale of hay?
The sun was just setting when I drove past the field and I could not resist a few photos of this lazy Fox. Harder times are just around the corner!

This weeks photo typifies our last summer – one of fields full of thistles and Goldfinches. More than
one hundred Goldfinches are in the photo devouring the seeds of thistles.
At the end of this year it will be fifty years since the long hot summer of 1976. It was a year that I will never forget having caught and ringed more than a thousand Greenfinches within one mile of my home in Castleton- How times have changed!

If you are wondering where all the Jays have gone from your garden then you only need to walk to the nearest Oak wood. Following the recent high winds the ground is now covered in the largest fall of Acorns I have ever seen. It may be some time before you see a Jay in your garden again.
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