Almost Extinct
When I started filming birds fifty one years ago the commonest moorland bird was the Twite or Mountain Linnet as it was locally called. You could walk the moors in July and come across half a dozen nests without really trying.The whole Pennine population must have been well over a thousand pairs.
Last week the RSPB announced that this year there may have been only a dozen breeding pairs in the whole of the Pennines. Its a sorry tale of overgrazing by sheep and cattle plus the loss of Hay meadows – the Twite feeds almost exclusively on seed. This weeks blog and gallery photos were taken a few days ago after constant baiting with Niger seed. Some of the birds in the flock of thirty would have come down from Scotland where they are still holding their own.www.facebook.com/gordon
The practice of Lapwings roosting on the roof of Industrial Units has been going on locally for more than thirty years. In fact it started in Manchester and has now spread throughout the whole of Britain. My local flock peaked at 350 last week and may well increase further as Winter progresses.
For more than thirty years we have had a week on Islay in Autumn to film the Swans and Geese as they arrive from the Arctic – but not this year. Why not this year you might ask and the answer is the stormy weather that prevails in Autumn resulting in closed roads, cancelled ferries and now Covid. It is a sad gap in my filming year for to me there is no finer sight in Autumn than to stand at the head of Loch Indaal, at sunset, and watch the Swans and Geese coming to spend the night on the sands against the backdrop of a classic Hebridean sunset.This year there is the added bonus of a dozen Sea Eagles trying to catch them as they come to roost – perhaps next year!!gallery www.facebook.com/gordon