Over more than fifty years I have met many  wildlife photographers but have not met one who has rose to the ultimate challenge of spending a full night in a hide filming Owls (Tawny,Little, Barn or Long Eared). Entering a hide in the evening at 9pm and not leaving it until 5am the following morning is not to be taken too lightly. It requires no sleep and 8 hours of total concentration to perhaps take only a couple of photos.Thirty years ago I spent nights on all four of the above Owl species and this weeks blog photo was taken at 2am as the male Long Eared Owl arrived at the nest with his catch, only to find that the female was still feeding the young on his previous catch! These nights were the most exciting I have ever had in wildlife photography but, sadly, all my photos were on colour negatives , like this week’s blog photo of the nest. The others were not suitable to use for Gallery photos. So this weeks Gallery is of my favourite digital flight photos of a male Long Eared Owl taken in the last few years.

gallery photos http://www.facebook.com/gordonyateswildlife

It is amazing what you can find in your local countryside now that we are still facing travel restrictions.
Along my local canal, among the throngs of Canada geese , I came across a Pink Footed Goose happily feeding with them..Had it come from Iceland? We shall never know. Grey Wagtails are now commonplace on the canal and even stopped to breed last year. Our local woodlands have a good population of Roe Deer that can easily be filmed if you are up early enough!!
Last month we had the so called “Snow Moon” which I filmed as it rose behind the pines of Tandle Hill Country Park. gallery photos

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Herons are usually the first local birds to start nest-building and this year was no different.In glorious sunshine early this week I paid a quick visit to Queens Park in Heywood and had a lot of action from a pair that had only just started to build their nest. The male was breaking branches off nearby trees and passing them to the female who placed them into the base of the nest. Conditions were perfect and I was able to obtain some good images in the short time that I was there.gallery photos see link below http://www.facebook.com/gordonyateswildlife

All winter, in a neighbours garden, there has been a Hawthorne with large red berries on. No thrushes have been tempted to eat them until we had the snow and frost the other week. Then, several Fieldfares appeared from nowhere and began to remove the berries and take them to the field nearby where they could finish them off.  Apples were also provided and welcomed by the hungry thrushes. I had a hide in the garden all week and got the photos I was after in perfect winter conditions.                             Gallery photos   http://www.facebook.com/gordonyateswildlife

During the frosty and snowy weather of last week I had a nice surprise. I was checking for Jack Snipe along a local stream and disturbed a wading bird with a brilliant white rump. I knew immediately that this was the ultimate winter visitor and only the second that I had seen locally in more than 50years – it was a Green Sandpiper. It breeds in the forests of Lapland and is a very wary subject.
Gambling on it returning to the place where I found it I hid under a camouflage cloth and waited. Twenty minutes later it flew back in and in ten minutes I had my photos before it flew off, never to be seen again? to view gallery  visit. www.facebook.com/gordonyateswildlife

Generally this winter has been very poor for Winter visitors with one exception – Jack Snipe. I have several sites where I go to in the hope of finding a Jack Snipe and since the first one I found on the 9th October I have seen 152!! Sadly every one of those found has flown off underfoot and I have obtained no photographs. All that changed this week when I found Jack Snipe number 153. It froze and I obtained dreamed of photos of a Jack Snipe that still thought it was camouflaged – even in the snow!! click here