Category Archives: General

A visit to Islay is always good but especially so in late April when hundreds of wading birds are on the move. This week’s photo illustrates the spectacular setting as Bar Tailed Godwits get ready to migrate to the high Arctic against the backdrop of Islay’s pounding surf. They were new birds for me as I have never managed to obtain film of Bar Tailed Godwits on either cine, video or still as they are always very flighty birds.
During the week there has been a massive movement of Golden Plover with flocks of up to four hundred or more all bound for Iceland. Whimbrel are now beginning to arrive with groups of up to forty present and constantly on the move.
The weather this week has been fantastic with good periods of sunshine, although always with a cool Easterly wind. It has been a pleasure to watch displaying Hen Harriers a bird that may have disappeared as a breeding species in England. There are not many place in Britain where you can see more Golden Eagles than Kestrels but Islay is one of them.
It continues to be an early breeding season on Islay with Cuckoos calling in many localities and the first two Corncrakes having just arrived. Click here for some of this weeks photos.

Wherever you have been in the last two weeks Redpolls have been singing. In the garden the maximum number we have had at any one time has been eight but there must be at least a dozen or more Redpolls coming to feed. Click here. One has a ring on its leg and it would be very interesting to know where it was previously captured. Reed Buntings are also feeding in good numbers and a Brambling was still present on the 15th.
On a perfect day during the week I visited the hides on Morecombe Bay. Fifty four Avocets were present and ready to breed. Black Tailed Godwits were leaving in a North West direction as they headed to their breeding grounds in Iceland. Six pairs of Bearded Tits were ready to fledge their young so the early breeding season continues.

In Twitchers terms dipping out means failing to find the bird you set off to see. This happened twice to me on the 9th when I failed to find the Two Barred Crossbill at Dovestones and the Great Grey Shrike at Watergrove reservoir. Fortunately I had already seen both earlier in the week and this week’s photo of the Shrike was taken from one hundred meters away and is only a record shot. I did, however, spend an enjoyable hour watching the Shrike catch bees that were attracted to the willows and I think I can now declare that my days of twitching are over!

On the 10th I sat under the camouflage cloth by the hawthorne hedge at the rear of our garden to film whatever appeared in the fresh greenery. I was surprised to find that two Bramblings were present plus all the other garden birds. Click here.

As expected this breeding season is remarkably early with a Barn Owl already incubating eggs on the 29th March, the earliest record I have ever had in more than fifty years of monitoring this species.

In late March I visited Weir Street in Blackburn to have a final look at the four Waxwings that had spent all Winter feeding there. They were still present and feeding in the Rowan next to the one I last saw them on several months ago! The tree they were roosting in was now covered in blossom and made an unusual but delightful picture complete with the Waxwing.
During the week I notched up a new bird in the form of a Two Barred Crossbill at Dovestones. All Winter I had been filming Brambling at Dovestones in relative peace and quiet. Now the area has been inundated with twitchers and my days there have come to an end.
On Hopwood four Long Tailed Tits now have nests and both Sand Martins and Willow Warblers have returned and a female Mallard was incubating thirteen eggs which is as many as I have ever seen in a Mallards nest before. A Woodcock was flushed on the second which is interesting as this bird was only thirty feet from where I found one incubating eggs in 1998. This nest was the only one ever found in Greater Manchester last century so who knows?
This weeks gallery includes more photos from Cairngorm. Click here

At 10am on the 26th March I stood on the top of Cairngorm one of Britain’s highest mountains at more than 4000ft. The views in every direction were spectacular and there was hardly any wind which is a rarity on this mountain as it has recorded Britain’s highest wind speed at nearly 200mph. I had of course not come for the view but to film Ptarmigan and I was not disappointed. During my two hours around the summit I encountered more than a dozen individual birds with the males already moulting from their pure white Winter coat. It was extremely icy at this high altitude and on one occasion I slid more than twenty foot still clutching my equipment. With a chip on the lens Cairngorm has now left its permanent mark!
Two days before the successful ascent I tried to walk to the summit from the ski center below but was beaten back by a strong wind that produced white-out conditions. On the way down I encountered Red Grouse and Mountain Hare both of which provided some good photos. Click here The ski center car park had over fifty Snow Buntings feeding on the 24th but all had gone by the 26th.
This Spring has come early in Speyside with several Ospreys already back at their nest sites. Crested Tits were very elusive as most had returned to the deep forests to breed. Even on the coast all the Long Tailed Ducks were out on the sea ready to fly back to their breeding grounds in Scandinavia. There is no doubt that this area is a very special place for the wildlife enthusiast and to have the weather we had was exceptional.

This week’s photo is of a Kingfisher regurgitating a fish bone pellet following its last fish supper. It was taken this week as I spent three hours on my birthday sat in my hide in a remote Pennine stream with a pair of Kingfishers digging out their nest chamber, What better birthday present could you wish for than a pair of Kingfishers perching in exactly the right place in full sunshine? My elation was further enhanced as I heard a splash in the next pool and upon checking discovered it was a fishing dog Otter, my first ever sighting on a Pennine stream. The only down side was finding an enormous Mink further down the stream as I left. I understand once an Otter appears on a stream it gets rid of any Mink so let’s hope so. Click here

During the week I have spent time in the Pennine forest searching for breeding Long Eared Owls. So far I have failed to find any but pellets under one tree may indicate that migrant owls have been using that forest and have now set off back to Scandinavia.

On the 18th five Adders were enjoying morning sunshine with a Peacock butterfly doing the same on a drystone wall .