Our 117th visit to Islay was blessed with unbroken sunshine and a max temperature of 28C! For a wildlife enthusiast Islay has everything to offer and it was good to see the great variety of Waders still present when we arrived. Sanderling and Turnstones were bound for Greenland and some were now in summer plumage. Snipe were displaying and Common Sandpipers seemed to be found on every hundred yards of coastline.Redshank and Curlew were also present in good numbers and now all had young to look after. www.facebook.com/gordonyateswildlife

Last month I drove through the fog on the high Pennines to reach that special place in Yorkshire where the Black Necked Grebes breed. I had been before this spring but failed to find any pairs with young but all that was about to change. Not one but two pairs of Grebes had three young each and I settled down on a public footpath for a magical hour of filming – they were superb!! www.facebook.com/gordonyateswildlife

While I was filming the Kingfishers recently a party of Dippers came within camera range. I could only see one juvenile, but there may have been more, and the male was already in song and contemplating breeding for a second time.

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On the 24th May 1973 I sat for six hours in my hide, in the Forest of Bowland, photographing my first pair iof Kingfishers at the nest.It was a magnificent moment and I enjoyed every moment in the company of Britain’s most colourful bird.
On the 24th May 2023 I was in my hide, less than a mile from the earlier site, and once again I was enthralled by the comings and goings of Kingfishers. In those fifty years I have repeated the experience at least thirty times for you can never get enough of those halcyon birds of summer. www.facebook.com/gordonyateswildlife

A visit to my local Sand Martin site had dozens of them digging out their nesting tunnels. They are quick moving birds and from the camera aspect the best photos are some time off yet when their young are leaning out of their tunnels.

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While many of our garden birds have left to breed in the woodlands we still have up to four Redpolls coming to feed several times a day. There are two pairs and the males have very impressive areas of red feathers. On the other hand our resident male Sparrowhawk has only been once in the last month when he perched on the Nest-box before he was seen off!! www.facebook.com/gordonyateswildlife