At this time of year Stonechats move off the high moorlands of the Pennines, where they bred in summer, and relocate at lower altitudes. Just recently I have seen plenty on lower-level wildlife reserves, parkland, and regularly on my local Golf course. It will take severe winter weather to finally push them onto the coast. Is that to come soon?
There is one bird that absolutely delights in eating acorns and that is the Jay. Normally it is difficult to film them eating acorns as it usually happens deep in a Pennine wood. However, last week I had a lucky break when I came across two Oak trees on an Industrial estate that had just shed all their acorns.Despite the constant traffic the local Jays could not resist and I had a field day with the camera.
When the wind blew from the east on the 17th October I was not surprised to see my first Redwings of Winter. What did surprise me the following day was to find a female Brambling feeding in the garden, with a handful of Chaffinches. I have never before had a Brambling in the garden during October so it all augers well for a good Winter to follow , especially as there are already Waxwings in Yorkshire!
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After three months off it is time to charge the camera batteries and find my fishing stool! The new hip is in place and I now able to put my sock on and fasten my shoe-laces!!
The big event of the last three months has been the appearance in the garden of a Badger. It has taken more than fifty years but we now have both Fox and Badger competing for food put out for Hedgehogs – of which we have none!! Wildlife moves in a funny way! www.facebook.com/gordonyateswildlife
When you have spent thousands of hours per year for 60 years sat on fishing stools filming wildlife eventually there is bound to be a pay-back time. It happened the other week when I had a hip replacement operation and I am now convalescing. This weeks fox photos were taken from the bedroom window before Pauline spotted me and confiscated the camera – I should have been resting!! So after more than 800 continuous weekly blogs I now propose to suspend them until late September when I hope to be able to walk the hills again – and get my camera back! www.facebook.com/gordonyateswildlife
On the face of it the evening of the 23rdMay looked like any of the other twenty before it – sunny, warm, calm and perfect for a hunting male Long Eared Owl. I was set up under my camouflage cloth by 6.30pm and shortly after the male Long Eared Owl flew out of the forest and set off over the moor in search of Voles. All I had to do was await his return and hope that he flew past me on his way back to the nest where the female was waiting with four large young. What happened next made all those hours of waiting worth while!
At 7.30pm the female left the nest and alighted on top of the tallest pine, calling continuously for food.This was the moment I had been hoping for as I knew that if the male Owl came back now with a vole there would be a food-pass, perhaps within camera range. I only had to wait a couple of minutes before I spotted him coming off the moor, low over the ground, with his vole. I focused on him as he came closer but on which fence-post would the food-pass occur? She flew in to him, I guessed correct and in a second I had my ten photos that I had never seen on film before. It never happened again!!