This weeks photo is one of the garden Jays taken during last months harsh weather. Its colours seem to stand out better in the snow,

Not much birding done this week as I have had a very heavy film show schedule with two shows during the afternoon. However, the garden has again produced twenty species on two days. On the 26th we had fifteen Greenfinches and a garden record of six Bullfinches ( three males and three females). A friend called with a female Sparrowhawk that had just broken its neck through flying into his window. We were examining this in the garage when he exclaimed that he had just seen a Willow Tit on one of our feeders – a first sighting in Rochdale for him but a bird we now take for granted.

A visit to the hills on the 28th produced a Kestrel and two hundred Pink Footed Geese flying westwards. On 29th even though the temperature dropped to minus four overnight no Snipe or Woodcock were encountered locally. I received a report from golfers on Hopwood that on the 22nd they released a large hawk that was caught by its jesses on a barbed wire fence. It is a pity they didn’t remove the jesses at the same time to give it a sporting chance.

The BTO now inform us that following last months severe weather over one hundred Barn Owls have been recovered dead, twice the number that would have been expected in a normal period of snowy weather. These of course are ones that have been found so there will be many times that number still lying out there. The photo above shows the river Hodder in Bowland on Christmas Eve and as you can see it is completely frozen. As I film Kingfishers and Dippers on the river it remains to be seen whether any have managed to survive.

Whilst over at Bolton during the week I came across a flock of one hundred Waxwings. It was of course impossible to drive past without spending half an hour watching them. There were few berries around so they will be moving on soon.

On Hopwood on the twenty first of January two Woodcock were present plus a Green Woodpecker trying to find ants. A visit to Dovestones produced good views of Siskins and at least half a dozen Bramblings.

During the week the garden has been exceptional with twenty or more species recorded feeding on four consecutive days. Willow Tit, Nuthatch, Song Thrush and Long Tailed Tits have been the highlights.

This weeks photo is of one of the Fieldfares that were feeding on a single hawthorne bush at the rear of our garden last month. The garden has certainly starred this week with two Buzzards overhead on the 11th January, five Bullfinches on the 13th ( two females and three males) and eighteen Blue Tits on the 5th. Having seen Waxwings eating apples on a tree down the road I decided to put some red apples on branches in the garden. I didn’t have to wait long for on the 12th at 9.00am I walked out of the back door and heard a Waxwing. Two of them were at the back of the garden looking at the apples. Unfortunately at that very moment the window cleaner appeared with his ladder and they flew off! However it shows that it will work and more apples have been put out and I await their arrival.

During a short walk around Tandle Hill on the 13th we heard a Green Woodpecker calling for some time.

It didn’t take long into the New Year before the male Sparrowhawk struck in the garden. On the 4th of January, in the snow, he caught a Collared Dove and although I chased him off he returned after ten minutes to finish it off. It then took two hours of feeding before he was able to fly off with what was left of the carcass. I always feel bad about a kill in the garden but I suppose he has to survive Winter as well. To rub it in he returned in the afternoon looking for another meal!

The New Year started well with eighteen Fieldfares and fifty Redwings on Hopwood ,together with a Dipper on the stream. The day improved when I found seven Waxwings feeding on an apple tree at the bottom of Thornham Lane. The Fieldfare that had been present on these apples all Winter eventually chased them off but it was a good start to the year.

Today, the eighth, I found two other Waxwings feeding on rose hips along a hedgerow at Milnrow. Because of their size rose hips are the last resort and it will only be a matter of days before the Waxwings have moved out of the area.

On the fifth of January we had a record number of eighteen Blue TIts in the garden. Up to eight Long Tailed Tits have been coming daily along with the Willow Tit.

This year closes out in mild conditions but it will be remembered for its extremely low temperatures in January followed at the year end by the coldest December in more than a century – hard for the birds but excellent filming conditions.

In January I visited Finland to film Golden Eagle in the snow. What I endured was the coldest day I shall ever film birds in with a temperature of minus 31°C at the start and nine hours later it had risen to only minus 26°C! Whilst I was in a wooden hide the extremely low temperatures froze the milk for the tea in my flask and the two Mars bars I was supposed to eat were like house bricks. I am still amazed the cameras worked and I obtained some amazing film with the only legacy being frost bite in a finger tip which lasted about a month.

Our fortnight on Islay in February continued the cold theme with severe frost on most mornings and one day producing four inches of snow. The island in deep snow is breathtaking and we only wish we could have been there in December when there was a repeat performance.

All of this years filming at home was directed towards the completion of the new DVD on Pennine Birds. I had to find a good Tawny Owl site and Little Owl site for the filming and in the end came up with two good sites, perfect weather and young fledging before the camera. The Summer also produced Long Eared Owls hunting before sunset and together with more Barn Owl film has ensured that fourteen species of raptor are included in the DVD.

In all the glorious weather of June I spent five hours a day for ten days filming a pair of Kingfishers and waited for the magical moment when the young would fledge and stand next to each other on a branch. Frustratingly this only happens on BBC films for whilst I did get each young leaving the tunnel they all sat in different places! Try again next year.

In July I returned to Finland to film Ospreys at the nest. I had a magical two days in a tree hide opposite the nest and on one of those days the male returned, with fish, nine times during my eleven hour stay. My visit also coincided with a record high temperature of 34°C making a variation of 65° from my visit in January.

Our visit to Islay in May/June was once again blessed with fabulous weather and good birds. Most of our time was spent on Hen Harriers and we finally filmed a male Hen Harrier visiting the nest with prey, something that has always eluded me in the past.

Having missed going to Islay last Autumn we spent two weeks there in late October. The Geese had just arrived and better still the island was full of my favourite birds, the Waxwing. Much time was spent searching them out. Whilst the weather was pretty wild we did have three fantastic sunsets and the Geese landed exactly in the right position!

During the year the garden has provided me with some good film of such birds as Bullfinches,Jay and Sparrowhawk. The highlight has to have been the return on the 24th December of the Willow Tit. Four times in the last five years this bird has fed in the garden but the question is of course is it the same bird?

For four months, at the later part of the year, we have been editing the new DVD entitled ‘Pennine Birds” It is the culmination of five years of video filming and is the most spectacular film I will ever produce and includes all the special birds you would expect to see in the Pennines. It can be ordered through my website

I would like to wish you all the very best for the New Year. Gordon

Thornton Force that is, as seen in the photo taken from behind the waterfall with most of its falling water frozen. In the last eight days we have had seven nights when the temperature dropped to below minus 10°C. This has never happened in my life time before and with most days sunny and still below zero it has produced fabulous filming conditions. So much so that in the last two weeks I have taken over three hours of video something I might only do at the height of Summer.

The star turn has to be the re- appearance of the Willow Tit in our garden on the 24th . It is now feeding daily and making its fourth annual visit in the last five years. The question is of course where has it been in between its visits to our garden and is it the same bird than originally came in November 2006?

One day I visited Leighton Moss to look for Bitterns, all to no avail. However, I did see several Bearded Tits and better still filmed seventy Waxwings feeding in the snow on fallen apples. It was a magnificent sight and one I have not filmed Waxwings doing before.

On Christmas Eve we drove around the Ribble and Hodder valleys with both rivers being mainly frozen over. Again it was something I have never seen before and you have to feel sorry for the Dippers and Kingfishers and hope they have somehow survived these exceptional conditions.

At 10am on Christmas Day we had our customary walk around Hopwood with the temperature still only -12°. Sparkling frost covered the snow in conditions normally only seen in Scandinavia and the Alps. We did see three Roe Deer, Woodcock and Jack Snipe together with a solitary Goldcrest but what chances of its survival?

Locally this Winter Fieldfares have been in short supply but on the 22nd I noticed a group feeding on a single Hawthorne only a few hundred yards from my home. It was in the middle of a snow covered field and my greeny brown hide was not exactly camouflaged. However, I thought I would give it thirty minutes to see if they would return to feed. What happened in the next two hours was sheer magic as they all fed on the snow covered berries in full sunshine. I took forty two minutes of video in what was the best filming of Fieldfares I have ever had in forty years!