In forty three years of filming birds I have never filmed all five of our Winter Thrushes in one day, until last week. The last berries on a hawthorne and rowan tree provided food for Blackbirds, Redwings, Song Thrush, Mistle Thrush and a solitary Fieldfare and in less than ten  minutes I had accomplished that unlikely feat. The Fieldfare in particular is usually a wary bird to photograph but this bird was a star performer. A Sparrowhawk appeared regularly but, thankfully, the Thrushes failed to appear in her diet. Click here

On Hopwood during the week there has been a Woodcock, Grey Wagtail and two Roe Deer. In the garden on the 20th were a near record thirty Goldfinches. Flying over the garden has been a Buzzard and a Kestrel with four Redwings going to roost in our single pine tree on the 22nd. Our annual visit to the garden by a Willow Tit has yet to materialise after six consecutive Winters.

An unusual photo this week of my hide along a forest path and just in front of it is a puddle of water. During the week I spent a boring three hours in the hide staring through the camera at the puddle which remained absolutely bird less . Not one bird came to drink during my long stay whereas four days before eight red male Crossbills dropped down to drink for one minute only. My friend obtained some magical photos of the event and it just goes to show that in the wildlife world there are no repeat performances!!

On the eleventh thirty Redwings alighted in a tree forty yards from the garden but none were tempted by the apples I had put out – too many berries still around. The gorse planted on Hopwood not only attracted breeding Linnets this Summer it is now being used for a roost site for Redwings. All we need now is the return of the Partridges that sadly disappeared some ten years ago.

Rowans on a nearby industrial estate have attracted Bullfinches to their ripening berries. Up to six have fed and in a short period of decent light I managed some photos. Click here.

Spot the Long Eared Owl, for close up click here.  Each Autumn I spend endless hours searching the hawthorne hedges on my local patch for wintering  Long Eared Owls. Scandinavian Long Eared Owls have been using the hedgerows each Winter for at least fifty years that I  know of but they take some finding. The elation when you find one is hard to describe and the skill is obtaining a photo without flushing the owl. If it does fly then there is every likelihood that it will move over night and you will have lost any future opportunity to film. So the message is find your Long Eared Owl but never approach close enough for it to fly and if you do this your Long Eared Owl will become accustomed to you and may stay in the same hedge all Winter giving more photographic opportunities. Always make sure you wear the same clothing  so the owl will recognise you as no threat and you may be able to eventually  approach quite close. Never visit more than once a week.

On the local scene Woodcock are now widespread and most beech woods have good flocks of Bramblings enjoying the beech mast. In the garden the Goldfinches have increased to a maximum of eighteen with a wren visiting daily.

Last weekend was the annual BIrd Fair at Martin Mere and as I had not been for a few years I decided to attend together with my camera. I was parked up by 8am and enjoyed the spectacle of more than a thousand Whooper Swans together with Lapwings and Ruff.Click here. Three peregrines on fence posts out on the marsh added to this spectacle. To think that some of those Swans were the ones I had seen on Islay month ago added to the magic of migration.
On Hopwood on the 30th were thirteen Long Tailed Tits and thirty five Fieldfares, the most I have seen locally for more than two years. The 27th was the first day this Winter that there were twenty species of birds feeding in our garden and this included two Redpolls. Early morning on the canal on the 26th had six Goosanders feeding of which three were males. On the 1st December four Goosanders had returned to feed.

Having visited Leighton Moss once this Autumn and failed to even see Bearded Tits I could not resist another go in the quest to film a bird I have never filmed before and only seen once. Conditions were perfect but after standing around for two hours I was already expecting another blank day. However, calls in the reeds meant a party were about to grit in the trays erected especially for them. Within a minute they appeared out of the reeds and presented  quite  a challenge to capture shots as they darted backwards and forwards on and off the trays. There are so few of them at Leighton Moss that most birds have been individually marked with colour rings to enable visual identification through binoculars. The birds take their name from the facial markings that the males possess and I managed to film one without rings in full sunshine which now highlights this week’s blog .  Click here

In the garden this week the female Great Spotted Woodpecker has been feeding daily. Better still was a brief visit on the feeders on the 23rd of a male Brambling, the first we have seen in the garden for a few years

Last Sunday, after a clear and frosty night, I made an early morning visit to Pennington Flash. Although there was not much bird life about the colours were absolutely superb with mirror reflections of the reeds in the calm water. Apart from five Whooper Swans on the main area of water I spent most of my time at the baited site.  Despite this area being deep in shadow I managed to obtain shots of Willow Tits and Bullfinches of which there were at least five of each feeding. Click here. Also present was a Nuthatch, Reed Buntings and at least six Stock Doves.

On the Twelfth I saw my first Fieldfares of Winter as forty were going to roost in an Oak tree, that was still in leaf on Hopwood. Near Heywood on the fifteenth I flushed my first wintering Woodcock, both dates being exceptionally late for these two species. The number of Goosanders around is also very low with only six present on Rhodes Lodges on the thirteenth whereas in previous years there would have been more than sixty present by now.