Category Archives: General

When you are keyed in to wildlife you never know when a photo opportunity will arise.
Last week I was sat in my car outside a Corn Mill in Accrington awaiting for an employee to give me a bag of sunflower hearts that I had just paid for.On a spillage of grain by the car was a Wood Pigeon .Suddenly, in a split second, a female Sparrowhawk grabbed the Pigeon and commenced to pluck it. It paid no attention to me so I took some photos with my phone from less than five feet away!! You never have your proper camera when you need it!

It is easy to see why, looking at this weeks blog photo, the Jack Snipe is the most illusive Winter v visitor to the Pennines. Without frost and snow they are almost impossible to find but last weeks conditions were in my favour with snow followed by a min temp. of minus seven.I knew that any Jack Snipe present would be feeding along the edge of my local stream but would they fly off when our eyes met through the frost?
In a normal winter, on average, only one Snipe freezes and allows me to film it from as close as ten feet. What happened last week is almost impossible to believe when six Jack Snipe all froze where they were and allowed me to photograph them on a 400 yard stretch of the stream. In their eyes they were happy that they had not been found and I walked away having experienced an event that would be difficult ever to beat in the Pennines in Winter!

At long last we have had some classic winter weather with frost and snow to bring the wildlife into the garden. As a result Badger and Fox come daily together with 6 Bullfinches,10 Blackbirds, 8 Long Tailed Tits, 8 Goldfinches and even a Fieldfare – the first for years. www.facebook.com/gordonyateswildlife

Once again, following the second hottest year ever recorded, we are reminded that the summer ice in the arctic may disappear within the next few decades due to global warming.It is only eight years ago that I took these unique shots, in Spitsbergen, of a female Polar Bear leading her three young across the pack-ice. If seeing a Polar Bear on the Arctic pack-ice is top of your bucket list then now is the time to go before it is too late.Whether you see one with three cubs is unlikely as the Captain of our ship informed me that in more than twenty years of sailing the Spitsbergen summer pack-ice he had never seen one with three cubs.I counted myself lucky to be the only passenger on board to film her as all the others were inside the boat enjoying their evening meal!! Can you believe it? www.facebook.com/gordonyateswildlife

Just after sunset in Winter a special event occurs in Hopwood woods. From miles around hundreds of Corvids begin to settle for the night in the woods surrounding the Spire.It is an amazing sight to witness against a winter sunset when up to a thousand Carrion Crows, Rooks, and Jackdaws all settle in the tree-tops. As darkness descends they fall quiet and you would never know that they were there. www.facebook.com/gordonyateswildlife

Another year comes to a close and while I lost several months of filming due to hip replacement the rest of the year has produced some good photos – top of the list has to be the night I filmed the male Long Eared Owl passing a vole to his female.It was the only time that she left the nest to receive prey from him and I have yet to see any other photos of a food pass between a pair of Long Eared Owls away from the nest. Months of observations also produced other photos of this very special male Long Eared Owl with deep orange eyes.
In May I finally came across two pairs of Black Necked Grebes with three young each. Conditions were perfect and in two hours I shot more than 500 photos – the second most photos I have ever taken in one session( the most being 800 on a Polar Bear surrounded by five Ivory Gulls).
A single male Waxwing in March produced better photos than the present big influx has. On Islay a Roe Deer with two fawns amongst emerging Royal Ferns provided a unique backdrop.Scotland also produced my best ever encounter with Black Throated Divers and in Wales a Crossbill with fledged young was another first. Finally, our resident male Sparrowhawk posed briefly for his photo while I was in recovery and before Pauline chased him away!