Category Archives: General

To you and I this weeks photo might look like a rotting tree in the middle of a wood. For a Goosander it is just what she has been looking for as a nest site and a place to lay her eggs.
There have been very few photos taken of the female Goosander coming and going to her nest. As she has to feed at least once a day my challenge was to capture a photograph of her as she left the hollow tree. Many hours were spent waiting for it to happen but with no luck. When she did appear she was carrying a piece of dead wood which she threw into the air before going off to feed! Click here

When you go out to film wildlife you never know what the final outcome will be. During the week whilst driving down a country lane in Bowland I noticed a sheep in a field with two lambs stood on its back. I reversed back down the lane, placed my camera and big lens on the passenger seat and drove back until I was level with the sheep. Unfortunately as I picked up my camera a vehicle appeared from the opposite direction and of course I was blocking the road. I reversed back down the road to allow the vehicle to pass and then rushed back to the sheep – the lambs were now on the ground and the photo opportunity was gone. As I was regaining my composure I noticed a flock of waders rising from beyond the sheep and realised that these were in fact Whimbrel. It was a rare moment to see a flock of twenty five Whimbrel migrating North through the Pennines. Click here
This week has also seen a passage of waders locally. On one afternoon I was able to film two new birds for me being Little Stint and Kentish Plover.

It is hard to believe that this weeks Short Eared Owl has just spent four months hunting voles only five miles from Manchester Town hall. It left on the 30th April and is now on its way back to Scandinavia with others of its kind after the biggest influx of Short Eared Owls in living memory. Apparently on one day last October thirty eight Short Eared Owls were on a sea cliff on Fair Isle sheltering from the wind!

Despite the snow cover on the 29th my first Whitethroat of summer was singing away on Hopwood! A night on the local moors did not produce any hunting Long Eared Owls but did provide a spectacular moon-rise. Click here

This morning we had the worst spring blizzard in more than fifty years. Several inches of snow fell, with drifting in the hills, and even at noon the temperature was still below 3°C. It will be a disaster for all the wading birds that breed in the Pennine hills with only the Dunlin not yet incubating eggs.

The bonus in the garden is that all those birds featured in last weeks blog were still present but this time in more arctic conditions. The highlight being a male Redpoll with superb crimson plumage.

The abiding memory of this mornings blizzard was watching two Swallows as they struggled to fly into the driving falling snow – did they survive? click here

The cool and sometimes snowy weather of the last few weeks has brought a big influx of birds into the garden. We have had 35 House Sparrows, 36 Goldfinches and new records of 16 Redpolls, 5 Siskins and 6 Reed Buntings. For the first time this winter we have had more than 20 species each day with the best being 21. I have spent some time filming them on Teasel and drinking from a pool. Whilst doing this a Redpoll flew in with a ring on its leg. An unusual visitor was a Lesser Black Backed Gull that took scraps off the garage roof. Click here
On the 22nd April I had the best spring bird locally for some time when a male Whinchat was present. His colours were superb and its a great pity that they no longer breed on our neighbouring moors.

The ultimate challenge in springtime is to find a Woodcock incubating eggs. The camouflage when it lays them amongst leaves and bracken is superb as is shown by this weeks sitting  female. She laid her eggs on or about the 20th March which is exceptionally early and means she had to sit through two periods of snow! In more than fifty years of searching for Woodcock nests this nest is only the 13th that I have seen – it is the greatest Pennine challenge in springtime and becomes harder each year as the Woodcock has declined by more than fifty percent in the last twenty years.
Since last weeks blog on Goosanders ten were present on our local canal three days ago and this is certainly a local record.