Category Archives: General

Any visitor to Islay in March has to be impressed with the numbers of Geese and boxing Hares. Some years ago I counted 68 Hares in one field and when I mentioned this to the crofter he said” Thats nothing there is usually over one hundred”. He then qualified that by saying “I will have to thin them out” which I viewed with horror. This weeks gallery is the final one from our recent visit to Islay.Which in the present circumstances may have been the last for some time! click here

This weeks blog photo was taken at Port Askaig and shows the fishing boats, Calmac ferry and on the right the Paps of Jura covered in the deep snowfall of last month. It is a perfect winter scene but would our visit to Jura produce the wildlife to match? It was exceptional and three hours later when we returned to Islay we had seen 7 Buzzards,4 Sea Eagles, 4 Hen Harriers, 3 Crossbills, 1 Merlin and 2 Otters. The Otters were two dog Otters that came together and fought for ten minutes before resting side by side in the sun!! click here

When we first visited Islay in 1976 we never even saw a Buzzard there were so few of them. Now, more than forty years later, there are more than one hundred pairs. They are so common because on Islay there is no persecution and they will eat almost anything. This weeks gallery includes both Barnacle Goose and Hare as prey, neither of which had been killed by the Buzzard. One was a road casualty and the other had hit a power line. There is more to this than meets the eye as both were provided by me in the hope of attracting a Sea Eagle! – instead all I got was the ubiquitous Buzzard!! click here

A week on Islay with gales, rain and snow with very little sun. What we did not expect to see was two Red Deer stags that were still rutting. This is normally an autumn activity but these two stags remained together with regular interlocking of Antlers. There were no female Deer anywhere around to impress.More Islay photos in the gallery. Click here

This weeks drake Goldeneye was photographed on a Pennine reservoir where it is happy to spend winter before probably returning to Scandinavia. A small population do breed in the Cairngorms but most of the Pennine birds come from further afield.
During the last fifty years that I have been filming birds some years have been better than others, but 2014 was exceptional. Not only did I photograph two pairs of Nightjars, two pairs of Kingfishers, Hen Harrier and Buzzard all at the nest, I also filmed a pair of Barn Owls with six young that were nesting on the ground in a barn.One or two photos of this unique event are included in this weeks gallery. Click here

Whilst on the Fylde last week what should fly into the photo was this juvenile Purple Heron. Apparently it had been in the area since November and spent all its time catching Voles in the fields. It was the first that I had ever seen and was a weird looking subject. Sadly it never caught anything in the hour that it was in view.The Pink Footed Geese that I went for were very impressive and are also in this weeks gallery.Click here