A personal blog about observing the wildlife around east Lancashire in north west England and trips further afield, including Scotland, Spain and Portugal. I always make the effort to record the wildlife I see, submitting the data to the relevant local or national recording body so that my observations might be a tiny help in the fight against the destruction of the natural world. I randomly update this blog when I have time and/or feel motivated to do so. I almost always have my camera with me and I’ve been taking pictures of wildlife on and off for decades and manage the odd decent photo with my trusty Nikon D500 digital camera. I upload most of my images to my Flickr page, and post some of the better ones here on the blog.

  • A female stonechat perched on some vegetation
    Hardy Stonechat, Jan 7 2025
    A first walk around Dean Clough in icy conditions was enjoyable in the cold sunny … Continued
  • A spectrogram of Pink-Footed Geese flight calls
    NocMig 11-12 Sep 2024
    The recorder picked up an excellent movement of Pink-Footed Geese overnight which began around 23:20 … Continued
  • NocMig, Sep 4-5 2024
    The recorder was out last night despite the rain and captured a bird at 23:39 … Continued
  • A nocturnal flight call of a Moorhen,
    Nocmig Feb 24-25 2014
    Weather Calm, clear overnight. Temp just above freezing. Equipment Tascam DR-05, internal mics, protected in … Continued
  • A Black darter rests on a grass stem on Gannow Fell, Lancashire
    Black Darter at Gannow Fell
    Black Darters, Red Darters, Common Hawkers, Emperors, and Common Blue Damselflies made for a delightful session of photography on a long Friday lunchtime on Gannow Fell, Lancashire.
  • Migrant Hawker, Aeshna mixta
    First Migrant Hawker at Dean Clough
    A Migrant Hawker at Dean Clough on 7 September 2023 was my first and only the second recorded at the site, following one in August 2019. Brown and Common Darters and Blue Damselflies were also seen.
  • Large Skipper butterfly at Dean Clough reservoir, Lancashire
    Large Skippers and Black-tailed Skimmers
    Large Skippers and Black-tailed Skimmers were the highlights of today. Six Large Skippers was the most I’ve counted here and one posed nicely for a photograph.
  • Common Blue, Dean Clough, 9 June 2023
    Butterflies and other insects
    A Large skipper in the garden and a few species of butterflies at Dean Clough along with a Early Bumblebee (Bombus pratorum and a Four-spotted Chaser Dragonfly made for a nice selection of June Insects
  • A recently fledged Stonechat
    NOdonata
    May 19th 2023 There’s plenty of images popping up on social media sites of dragonflies … Continued
  • Common Scoter at Parsonage Reservoir on 8th April 2023
    Common Scoter and first Willow Warbler
    First Willow Warbler of the year on April 1st and a drake Common Scoter on Parsonage Reservoir on the 7th and 8th

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