Category Archives: General

As a keen schoolboy naturalist living in Bury I once came across a sign on my local moors which read”Beware of Adders”.It fired my imagination to find that Britain’s only venomous snake could be found locally. I searched and searched over the years but failed to find any and it was decades later in Scotland before I was to see my first Adder.
In recent years the big Adder challenge is to capture on film the combat dance of two males as they fight over a female. This dance occurs after male Adders have moulted their skins and go in search of a female to mate with. Day after day in April I waited for six male Adders to moult and then mate with the two female Adders that were nearby. Finally, one morning, five of the males had moulted their skins overnight and two were soon in combat. The fight lasted about five minutes and it was very difficult to photograph in the long grass.
Once the fight finished three of the males joined the female and provided me with some amazing photos as all their heads were visible on one occasion, as shown in the gallery photos. One of the males appears to have impaired vision. Click here

This years dry Spring has been a big bonus for Pennine dippers with most now having fledged their first brood of young. This weeks photos are from one of those first broods and both adult birds were feather perfect. Spate flooding is always a problem for Dippers and it remains to be seen whether their second brood attempts will be as successful. Click here
During the last few weeks a great deal of time has been spent searching for Dotterel, Woodcock and Long eared Owls. One morning I was standing on the top of Pendle Hill before 7.00am but I was all alone with no dotterel present that morning. You can’t win them all!!

Wood Warblers are summer visitors to Britain and in the last twenty years their numbers have declined by up to 90%. In fact forty years ago I could have found them breeding within one mile of my home in Rochdale. Sadly not any more, only a handful return to the Pennines each year. The male starts to sing immediately he arrives but in most cases he fails to attract a female and so moves on. No one knows why there has been a catastrophic decline in this stunning little Warbler and unless we can find an answer we have no chance to help reverse the current downward spiral. This weeks photos are of a single male in Bowland last week. Click here
In the garden this week we have had more than twenty different species coming to the food offered. These have included a male Great Spotted Woodpecker who has taken food away to a nestful of young somewhere nearby. On another day twenty three Starlings dropped in to devour the fat-balls.

One of the attractions of Islay in Spring are the vast numbers of wading birds that breed at places like Gruinart. My favourite is the Snipe and the male carries out a display flight called drumming. In the evening he takes wing high in the sky then descends at more than 50kilometers per hour. As he reaches this speed, or more, he extends his outer two tail feathers at right angles and it is the vibration of these two feathers that produces this amazing drumming sound. Prior to digital cameras it would have been almost impossible to capture this display on film but last week on Islay conditions were perfect and I managed one or two acceptable photos.
I have always maintained that in wildlife photography you results are directly proportionate to the time that you put in. You make your own luck and a classic example occurred last week. I was hidden away on a sea cliff filming Ravens when suddenly a young Peregrine from last year flew past and gave me some unexpected photos that are in this weeks gallery together with others from a most memorable week. Click here

A visit to Islay in Springtime is a wonderful experience. The island is a mass of yellow from the gorse and the woods are deep blue from the bluebells.Add to all this ninety hours of sunshine in six days and I cannot think of anywhere better to visit at this time of year.
Last week migration was in full swing with hundreds of Whimbrels feeding and moving through as Corncrakes called from the nettle and Iris beds. I had the unique privilege of spending two hours watching a single Corncrake feed and call from a distance of less than fifteen feet( I was in my car!). This weeks gallery includes photos of this single Corncrake. click here
Many of Islay’s resident birds performed well last week and coupled with some fabulous sunsets they will be included next week.

During the last two months there has been an increasing number of Reed Buntings and Redpolls coming to feed in the garden. A minimum of five male and two female Reed Buntings have been feeding together but the number of individual birds could well be into double figures. Redpolls have peaked at seven and have included a ringed bird. It would have been interesting to know where it was originally ringed but only part of the ring number could be seen. A pair of Siskins and more than a dozen Goldfinches added colour to the garden. The close proximity of the Golf Course has no doubt helped provide a safe haven for all these extra garden birds. Click here
Although still cold the sunshine has brought out more Orange Tip butterflies. I have never seen so much Hawthorne blossom in April!!