This April’s fantastic weather enable many species of birds to start breeding earlier than normal. Grey Wagtails have all had second broods by now but this is the only year in the last forty when I have had Kingfishers in the course of rearing a third brood. At present their third clutch of eggs are due to hatch and subject to no major flooding their young should fledge on or about 11th August. It will be a remarkable achievement if they manage to pull it off.

With last weeks good weather I spent a day around Morecambe Bay. Spotted Redshank and Greenshank were on the RSPB reserve but remained well out of reach of the camera. The limestone nature reserves held good numbers of butterflies and one of my favourite flowers, the Dark Red Helleborine.

On another day I drove up to the Red Kite feeding station near Loch Ken in South West Scotland and along with many other people admired more than fifty Kites that were attracted to the free food put out for them at 2pm each day. For anyone who hasn’t been it is well worth a visit.

At dusk on the 16th I was pleased to hear a reeling Grasshopper Warbler on Hopwood. It is some years since I have heard this elusive bird locally.

The status of the Whinchat in the Pennines is very precarious and another year has gone without me encountering a breeding pair. It is a bird that I look forward to seeing when I go to Islay where they are still relatively common. Why there has been a drastic decline in the Pennines is open to conjecture but over grazing and global warming must come into play.

After forty years of filming birds I thought that I had encountered everything that could possibly go wrong in the pursuit of a photograph but events this week couldn’t possibly have been scripted. I had seen a Long Eared Owl out hunting over a moor between 8pm and 9pm and then feeding three fledged young in the forest nearby. To film this hunting male I would have to hide under my camouflage cloth and await his flight, which hopefully would take him past me. The only drawback was that in the forest there was a well used public footpath but perhaps the dog walkers would have gone home by that time of night? Filled with excitement of the challenge I arrived on night one in perfect conditions and by 8pm I was hidden away under my cloth waiting for him to commence hunting. However, at 8.10pm, a lady arrived with four dogs which she liberated to run amok along the forest path. Ten minutes later she walked back to her car with three dogs, one having gone missing. Over the next twenty minutes she shouted incessantly for the missing dog which finally returned to her. During this period the young Long Eared Owls stopped calling for food so there was no chance of the male hunting, as it is the calls of the young that trigger his hunting to fulfil their hunger. I went home dejected and no film! I was not going to be beaten so the following night I was back under the cloth waiting. Unfortunately so was the woman with the four dogs and yet again one dog failed to return with her so she spent another twenty minutes shouting its name which echoed through the forest. If that wasn’t enough the whole area was inundated with police as a body had been found in the reservoir. Failure again! Night three was perfect – sunshine, no midges and no people. The young owls started to call and the male was about to hunt when all of a sudden a van came over the moor and pulled off the road directly above where I was hidden. The passenger window was slightly open and the couple inside started to distribute the proceeds of the drug sales that they had achieved that night ! I prayed that they did not get out of the van otherwise there might have been another body in the reservoir, ie mine. Needless to say I failed to obtain any film and have given up on this family of Long Eared Owls.

After filming on Islay for three weeks it was back to checking any nests that might be active in the Pennines. The Kingfishers that were on a second brood had fledged these also. Second choice was a pair of Kestrels that should still have had young in the nest in the wall of a ruined barn. As I approached the barn it was clear that all four young were on top of the barn and well able to fly! The third and last possibility were the Ring Ouzels who were just starting to build their second nest four weeks ago. This nest had progressed no further and the Ring Ouzels had moved on else where for their second brood, so it was back to nest finding!

Two pairs of Little Owls were found with large young, one in a pipe nest site which was made especially for them in a new house and the other at the base of a dry stone wall. The pipe family were brilliant and the young provided some good video, with the male feeding three fledged young. The second site was a nightmare and I spent two hours in a hide looking at the top of a post waiting for the male to land with prey and of course he didn’t. As if I hadn’t already spent enough unproductive time on Islay looking at the top of posts waiting for birds to alight.

Three nights have been spent on the moors waiting for a male Long Eared Owl to start hunting at dusk. On one night he performed well but the other two nights produced nothing but midge bites. This season has certainly been the most frustrating I can remember.

The good news of the week was that whilst I was trying to relocate the Green Woodpeckers in a moorland Oak wood I flushed, from between my feet, a young Woodcock that was well able to fly. This was only fifty yards from the nest I filmed, with four young, in May. So at least one of those young has made it to the flying stage and perhaps all four have?

Our last week on Islay and still the cool weather prevails. It Is difficult to believe that after being here for three weeks we have not seen a temperature in excess of 18°C and have had in total seven days of rain.

After some searching I managed to film a Corncrake calling away in the open at 10pm one evening. There were good numbers of Corncrake on Islay this year and one was seen with twelve young on the 24th.

During the last three weeks I have spent in total seventeen hours in a hide hoping a female Hen Harrier would alight on a post near her nest. On most days it did not happen but then on one occasion she spent ten minutes on it preening. It was a long time to spend looking at the top of a post but when it works it was all well worth while. However, on one occasion when we arrived at the nest site the male Hen Harrier was on the post and of course he did not return while I was in the hide.

The flower season on Islay is very late this year and as we were leaving we found incredible numbers of Frog and Pyramidal Orchids at Killinallen and one hundred and seventy one Greater Butterfly Orchids flowering in one small area at Bruichladdich.

Another week on Islay and everywhere you go you are reminded of the gale in May with Westerly facing woodlands looking like they have suffered a nuclear blast.

I took the opportunity of visiting the seabird colonies on the West coast to ascertain what damage had been incurred in 100mph gale. Guillemot numbers were only half what they normally are and Razorbills were only slightly down on normal. However, whilst initially Kittiwakes looked to be in normal numbers a close inspection through the binoculars revealed another story. At least half the birds present were sat on empty nests and must have had their eggs blown out of their nests in the storm.

The weather has been very mixed and generally poor for Islay in June. Two sessions looking for Otters failed to find any. Hen Harrier sightings have been well down and even these ground nesting birds may have suffered in the gale or perhaps the recent days of pouring rain.

Flowers are now beginning to appear in good numbers with sixty four Lesser Butterfly Orchids in flower in one field. It is also good to see Roe Deer with their fawns at the just able to walk stage.

We have had another week on Islay. Some time has been spent trying to film a male Short Eared Owl as he brought prey to a brooding female, her nest being deep in the heather. The photo was taken through the video camera and was the only one I took, although I did obtain some spectacular film. Some days he did not alight on the post at all and then one day he brought four items in two hours alighting on the post each time. Nothing is predictable in wildlife filming and this is the first time in forty years that I have succeeded in filming a male Short Eared Owl, with prey away from the nest.

Since we left Islay a month ago there has been a hundred mph gale which has had a devasting effect on all wildlife. The woodlands look like Autumn with the leaves dead and shrivelled and many on the ground as a result of salt spray damage. Coming at the height of the breeding season there will be no caterpillars for young birds to be fed on or butterflies to follow and no one knows what the long term effect of the gale will be.