After last years spectacular success Barn Owls this season are having a much quieter time. In contrast Long Eared Owls are having their best season for years with most pairs now busy feeding young, both in the nest and some already fledged. This weeks photo is from a nest I filmed nearly twenty years ago and is the last time I spent eight hours through the night waiting for the male to provide the female with prey. In more than fifty years of wildlife photography to film a pair of Long Eared Owls at the nest, through the night, is the most challenging and exciting photography you could contemplate in the Pennines. Firstly you have to have a good head for heights as you may be thirty feet off the ground sat in your confined hide in the pitch black of a remote Pennine forest. With all the other Owls there is no indication as to when the male will arrive with prey for the female but with Long Eared Owls it is different. When he nears the nest the male gives deep booming calls that echo through the forest. The female springs into life and awaits his arrival on the nest edge with his catch. Your adrenalin flow doubles when you hear his booms and you also await his imminent arrival. It is unquestionably the most exciting wildlife photography you could ever contemplate in the Pennines and one that many top wildlife photographers have never experienced.

In addition to Long Eared Owls this season has also brought a pair of Short Eared Owls to breed in the hills. At present I am still trying to find their nest and have included in this weeks gallery photos, mainly of the male, from one that I filmed a few years ago. Click here

Having spent time filming Avocets on Morecambe Bay it is easy to see why the RSPB adopted them as their emblem bird. They are spectacular subjects and were, up to ten years ago, very rare breeding birds in Britain. Since then their spread north has been sensational with a pair now having bred successfully in Greater manchester.

On Hopwood on the 7th I came across seven Long Tailed Tits that had just fledged from the first nest that I found being built this year on the 4th March. Very rarely are you able to follow the fortunes of a Long Tailed Tits nest though to fledging as was the case with this nest. The young were being fed by three adults so there should be an ample supply of food for the seven young.

Elsewhere in the Pennines this week I have seen plenty of singing Whitethroats and Grasshopper Warblers with the first Swifts screaming overhead. The record sunshine of April has now produced the most advanced leaf cover I have ever seen in early May. This will produce a good food supply for all the summer visitors that are now arriving. All they need now is more warmth!! Click here

We have just returned from a week on Islay that produced the contrast of snow on the ground for the first two days then fifteen hours of sunshine per day for the last two days. I was able to film my first ever April Corncrake whilst there was still snow on the hills!

There is no doubt that late April on Islay is probably the best time of the year to witness both winter and summer visitors together at the same time. Cuckoos were calling everywhere with Willow Warblers, Wheatears, Whinchats and Swallows present in ever increasing numbers. In contrast three hundred Barnacle Geese, Golden Plover and even an Iceland Gull were reluctant to leave due to the cold north wind.

A friend and his wife on their first ever visit to Islay logged one hundred and thirteen different species in their week which is an amazing number of birds without the benefit of a guide and on their first visit. Even more remarkable is that the total did not include any Eagles or Owls. Needless to say they plan a return visit!

Click here for this weeks photos

There is no doubt that one of the highlights of spring is when the male Pied Flycatchers arrive and fill the Pennine woodlands with song. It doesn’t last long for as soon as the females arrive and he pairs off he becomes less vocal as she builds their nest. The active song period may be as short as one week and the splendid weather of this last week has been perfect to capture the male in action.

The dry and warm weather during the week has meant that many of our garden birds have been thirsty. I have had several sessions filming a variety of our garden birds drinking and bathing. This weeks gallery includes some of those birds including an ever increasing number of Redpolls. click here.

An old filming colleague of mine always reckoned that when I went into a hide the bird that we were filming would stand on its head for me whereas he got very few photos. My standard answer to this, apart from smiling, was to point out that I spent more time in the hide than he did so eventually luck would come my way. In wildlife photography your results are directly proportionate to the time you put in. A good example of this occured this week with the Kingfisher photo that appeared on BBC television. The day before the successful session I got nothing and the day after I got one photo. Not to be put off I went again the day after that and while the Kingfishers were illusive what should come walking down the stream was a bird I had never filmed before – a Green Sandpiper! This weeks blog and gallery include some of the photos I took of that magical bird plus some more of the Kingfisher food-pass photos. In wildlife photography there is no such day as tomorrow, you always have to capitalise on the moment in hand because seldom do you get a repeat performance. Click here

In the last week I have spent time searching for Woodcock but so far luck has not come my way. I did find a Mallard incubating nine eggs and twenty yards away another Mallard was incubating nine Mallard eggs and nine Pheasant eggs! Even more surprising fifty yards away from that was a Pheasants nest containing twenty four eggs! Clearly there are some confused birds in that wood.

Just wanted to share this photo I took yesterday morning of the male Kingfisher presenting the female with a fish. For once everything came together. Well worth the early morning start. It was shown on BBC Look North at 6.30 last night.