Category Archives: General

One of the most charismatic bird-songs of late spring is that of the Wood Warbler. They love mature Beech woods and were once to be found all over Greater Manchester. Sadly, not any more, with the male in this weeks blog and gallery being the only one in the County. He has been singing now for more than a week, within three miles of the Town Hall, but to date has not found a mate. The problem is repeated throughout the whole country and no one has the answer so the Wood Warbler continues to decline. click here
The hot weather of the last couple of days produced five different butterflies in a 400 yard stretch of our local canal. Hedgehogs have now returned to our garden with two feeding most nights.

Its hard to believe that a pair of Herons in my local Heronry have just fledged three y oung despite the Spring that we have just had. Laying their eggs in January, in a nest fifty feet off the ground, has left them open to all the elements especially the regular snow showers that this year has brought. Somehow they have overcome this with the female covered in snow on several occasions as she incubated. This weeks photo is from the same Heronry in 2005. It was the first digital photo that I ever took and I have never bettered it!! Others are in the gallery.Click here

What a difference a few warm, sunny days have made to the vegetation and the numbers of migrants arriving. In Bowland, where this weeks blog photo was taken, there were Redstarts and Pied Flycatchers singing in the woodlands along the River Hodder with quite a few Common Sandpipers on the river. Swallows were back in the farm-yards with Wheatears in the fields. Click here
The best of the week was reserved for the Pennine hills with Merlin back in their breeding valley and a Short-Eared Owl wing-clapping over the open moor.
On the 20th I was treated to a twenty minute encounter with a Cuckoo and watched it as it continually dropped to the ground and flew up with a caterpillar in its bill. It was my first local sighting of a Cuckoo in more than ten years.

This weeks photo of a female Woodcock settling on her eggs in a bluebell wood is just a past memory. It was taken as a colour print in 2005 when I spent five hours a day in my hide for three weeks waiting for the eggs to hatch. In those days Woodcock bred in most woodlands but today those very same woodlands have none. Instead there are now Buzzards in each of the woods. The birding hierarchy don’t seem to be able to link the 50% decline in Woodcock numbers, over the last ten years, to the more than 50% increase in Buzzard numbers over the same period.
One day before the eggs of this Woodcock hatched I had direct evidence of this threat. Our Woodcock had been relaxed on the eggs for several hours when all of a sudden she crouched flat out in the nest and froze  Seconds later she exploded off the eggs with a Buzzard two foot behind her in full chase. Remarkably twenty minutes later she walked back onto the eggs and continued to incubate as if nothing had happened. The following day the eggs hatched – but Woodcock have not nested in that wood since the close escape.
If you are thinking about holidays then how about three weeks camping in one of the most spectacular places in the high Arctic – the North-east Greenland National Park, a place where the sun never sets in summer. click here

There is little doubt that the most exciting time to photograph Long Tailed Tits is when they are lining their nests with feathers. The only problem of course is that you have to find a nest at the time when it is being lined which takes less than ten days. This year , because of the extended winter weather, nest-building is about a fortnight later than normal and last week I managed to locate a nest, in a gorse bush, that was being lined. Visits were made by both birds at approximately ten minute intervals and they particularly liked white feathers. click here
On a fabulous day of sunshine this week I found my first butterflies of the year with both Small Tortoiseshell and Comma enjoying the warmth. Chiff-chaffs are now singing in many localities so lets hope that Spring has finally arrived.

There is no doubt that the top bird on any birdwatcher’s visit to Speyside is the Crested Tit. Normally by late March they are nest-building and very hard to find in the forest. This year, because of the extended winter weather, some were still coming to feeders and I was able to obtain some shots of this forest gem along with some other Caledonian forest birds.
During our short visit to Speyside we had a classic example of how you should always have your camera readily available to take a photo. A full day in the Findhorn valley failed to find any Golden Eagles so the camera was put away as we returned to the Spey valley and called at Boat of Garden community hall to visit the toilets. As we got out of the car anxious calling from Black Headed Gulls caused us to look up and less than thirty feet above was a full adult Golden Eagle with five Gulls mobbing it!! A passing lady, walking her dog, then informed us that it flew over regularly! Click here