Dead Wood
This weeks blog photo shows a remote Welsh valley with the centre piece a decaying old Rowan tree. Further down the valley are some vibrant pine forests and these are home to one of our most colourful and secretive birds, the Crossbill. What then is the connection between the rotting Rowan tree and the Crossbills? Well for at least five years now small parties of Crossbills have made their way each day from the forests to the Rowan and found food among the mosses and peeling bark on this tree. On one occasion last week five Crossbills were present and although the weather was poor you never turn down the chance to photograph these colourful birds. www.facebook.com/gordonyateswildlife
We have just returned from a short break at Rivercatcher on the River Dee in Wales. The undoubted highlight of our visit was watching, for thirty minutes, an Otter as it fished and dived along the edge of the river. As they normally feed nocturnally it was a privilege to film this very wary animal as it worked its way along the river giving us good views. www.facebook.com/gordonyateswildlife
How many times have I set off to film a certain species of bird and ended up with something else that was totally unexpected? This happened last week when I visited Yorkshire in search of Marsh Harriers and ended up with a fly-past calling Wigeon and a Buzzard doing what Marsh Harriers should be doing i.e. hunting the reed-beds for prey. An excuse for a re-visit perhaps! www.facebook.com/gordonyateswildlife
After all the recent gales it was good to spend a few hours with my local Herons.On all but two nests the Herons were already incubating eggs. However, in an Alder tree one pair were still in the early stages of nest-building and I filmed what I was after with plenty of sticks presented by the male to the female .www.facebook.com/gordonyateswildlife
Despite enduring three storms last week on Islay one thing did not suffer – the Snowdrops at Bridgend were as good, or even better, than ever as shown in this weeks blog.As always the attraction of Islay is that you never know what is around the next corner. We had everything from five Herons roosting together, Sea Eagles flying overhead and disturbing Greenland White-fronted Geese or Sanderling and Turnstones flying along the beach into the gale. Wild Goats, Chough, Fieldfare and of course Hen Harriers were the support acts.
We have just returned from eight days on Islay during which there were three named storms! While on some days no film was taken there is always a bonus from raging gales- as the forests were battered by 80mph winds the Red Deer stags came out into the open to get away from all the noise. The result was seven stags that provided some wonderful portraits in perfect light. www.facebook.com/gordonyateswildlife