Tawny owls are the most common owl in the UK, with an estimated population of around 50,000 breeding pairs. However, they are highly nocturnal and therefore more often heard than seen. They are the owl known for the twit twoo call which is actually made by a pair of owls with the female calling twit and the male calling twoo! This weekend I went out looking for four young owlets which recently fledged the nest and are now branching around the small wood where they hatched. W

After my succesful visit to the badger sett I was keen to head back and see if I could get some pictures of the badger cubs. There are three at the sett this year, two are regularly seen on the trail cameras with mum and the other seems to have been adopted by a nanny badger, one of last years cubs, although all three regularly get together for a scrap! The second evening I went back was freezing and after about an hour I headed home shivering. I later checked the camera foot

Little Egrets are a small white heron with attractive white plumes on crest, back and chest. They have black legs and bill and bright yellow feet. They are smaller than the grey heron and about half the size of the great white egret. They first appeared in the UK in significant numbers at the end of the 1980's and were first recorded as a breeding bird in the UK in Dorset in 1996. From being a bird that once would have caused a twitch it's now a fairly common sight after its

Do you remember when the internet was a much safer and more innocent place? When a short animation featuring badgers and snakes was a viral hit. Well last week I had my own badger moment. I monitor a sett which is in some woods at the bottom of a friends garden and I have a number of trail cameras set up to see what's happening down there. I usually check the cameras at the weekend and I'd noticed that not only did the badgers have cubs but they were also coming out a lot ear

On my walk this morning I went past a small wetland area alongside the river and noticed something written on one of the signs. Someone had written VANDALISM Now a desert No habitat for birds or animals No Conservation And I had to agree. This was once a small haven for wildlife and I'd written a previous blog about spotting a kingfisher on the pond. https://www.wildlifepirate.co.uk/single-post/2019/03/11/a-new-king-on-the-block Along with the kingfishers I'd photographed gre

I've recently been visiting a new site close to where I live. It has a small stream running between woodland on one side and a meadow on the other. The brook has kingfishers and dippers and in the woods there is a pond which attracts herons and ducks. Ive spent a lot of time sat down by the stream photographing the dippers and grey wagtails and hoping a kingfisher might visit the perches I've put out. Also every time I've been I've seen roe deer in the meadow or on the hill a

Recently Yorkshire has become a bit of a hotspot for ospreys as they head south for the winter. One had been at Sprotborough Flash near Doncaster for 4 or 5 weeks so we decided to head on down and see if it was still about. It is named after its main feature, the flash, a long, water-filled depression parallel to the river Don. There's a path between the river and the flash and along there are 3 hides with seating and views over the water, and as we passed a couple with camer

If you feed the birds in your garden (and if you don't why not?) at this time of year you're probably wondering where they've gone to. I...

The first time you see a stonechat you might be forgiven for thinking its a robin. A very posh robin. A very posh robin who's been asked...

Somethings in life just go together, fish and chips, Fred and Ginger, Halifax Town and non-league football. But red kites and stoats? I set off this morning meaning to go to one place and changed my mind, and I'm so glad I did. Muddy Boots cafe (or bistro these days) is close to Harewood House near Leeds and is a great place to photograph red kites. Red Kites were released on the Harewood estate in 1999 as part of a UK conservation initiative. Their spectacularly successful