Northumberland & the Farne Islands
Two weekends ago I met up with Louis Driver to go to the Farne Islands to film the artic terns and other sea birds on the island. It was the first time we’d managed to meet up since the BTO Bird Camp in May. The weekend was a ‘gift’ from my parents for my birthday – they knew they couldn’t go wrong with a weekend away watching wildlife in Northumberland, where my mum spent a number of years living while her dad worked at RAF Boulmer.
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Blog #15
Trip to Madeira
At the beginning of this year we decided to book a family holiday in Madeira (a Portuguese island). I’d read quite a bit about the good birding on the island and had been looking forward to the trip for months!
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BTO Bird Camp
At the beginning of the year a number of young people, including myself, were selected to go the BTO Bird Camp 2017 kindly funded by the Cameron Bespolka Trust. The camp is aimed at young people and getting them more involved with birds and nature. It gives the participants access to experiences that they may not otherwise normally get to do and allow them to get closer to nature.
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So for those who don’t know what 30 days wild is, it’s a challenge set by the wildlife trust for you to do something wild every day in June.
I will be doing just a short blog every day on what I have done and make a photo collage at the end. It’s been busy since I have had school and clubs on but there is always something to be done for wildlife.
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Over 500
In the middle of March the frogs laid their clumps of spawn which was quite amazing to see in my fish pond but I knew it wouldn’t last long when the tadpoles hatched before the fish gobbled them ALL up!
It was 2 years ago that I made a small frog pond up the back of the garden in an old tub which I put in the ground. Then the year after we had lots of tadpoles which I transferred into it. Then I realized that it would not be big enough so I made a frog pond covering 1 and a half metres long and a metre deep. There was also a shallow side for the frogs to spawn.
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Blog #12
Second Ringing Session
On my previous ringing session blog #10 I was helping to catch Jack Snipe to be ringed, ever since I have been emailing Iain Livingston to check when he would be going ringing. He said on Saturday that he would be ringing at Strathclyde and I was welcome to come and help!
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A small world
It was a Friday and sunny day so I decided to head down to my local patch (Greenbank Gardens in Clarkston, Glasgow) for a bit of nest recording.
The time I spent there was really worth it as in a couple of hours I managed to find the following nests: 5 blue tit, 1 bullfinch, 4 wren, 1 robin (with 4 eggs), 1 blackcap (building) and 7 blackbird (at different stages). The song thrushes were also out collecting worms in the main grassy area. First they would spear a worm with their beaks before shaking off the dirt and finally swallowing them whole: it was amazing to watch!
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Blog #10
Easter Holiday (week one)
The Easter holidays were nearly here, just a week to go! It was my first bird ringing session with Iain Livingston at Cathkin Marshes Nature Reserve near Glasgow.
I arrived there and met Iain, Jim Douglas (the Reserve Warden) and a number of other volunteers. Iain explained what the drill was for using the net; we had to drag it across sections of the bog before pushing down the edges every so often and walking over it carefully hoping to flush an elusive Jack Snipe or two!
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Blog #9
Highland Adventure
The weather in the highlands had started getting milder so I decided to take the chance to get some photos before most of the snow had melted.
I had recently been to Cardwell Bay near Port Glasgow where I met someone who told me that there were some interesting species around in the highlands like Snow Buntings, Ptarmigan, and Red Grouse in addition to a host of more common species. So, this weekend I went up to Grantown-on-Spey with my family where we stayed in the Grant Arms Hotel. The hotel is has a dedicated Wildlife and Birdwatching club and holds nightly talks and has experts on-hand to advise on good local sites to visit.
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Blog #8
A Long Weekend
It was the school mid-term holiday in February, so I decided to use this time off to do some more wildlife photography.
I’d recently got a new app (Bird Guides) which gives me real-time information on bird locations and it was telling me there were some Waxwings less than half an hour away at Hamilton; so I set off to find them. This time I was hoping to get some photos of them actually feeding on berries.
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Blog #7
An Unexpected Visitor
It was coming up to the end of January so I decided to make the most of my last weekend of the month. Having set myself a very ambitious target to see 100 new species this year, I decided to go to a place called Ardmore Point (on the west coast of Scotland) hoping to see some new divers/ducks that could increase my monthly total of 7 new species so far this month.
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Blog #6
Northumberland Day Out
About a month ago I submitted an application to attend the BTO Bird and Nature Camp 2017 at the BTO headquarters in Thetford England. Last Friday I was delighted to get an email telling me that I had a place. I was/am SO excited!!
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Blog #5
A Fab Find
On the same day as my previous blog about Waxwings I discovered something amazing so decided to write a separate blog about it.
When I was looking back through the photographs I’d taken of the Waxwings in Motherwell the day after New Year, I discovered that one of the birds had 5 rings on its legs.
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Blog #4
A Cracking Start to 2017: Wild Waxwings
On New Year’s Day I went to the James Hamilton Heritage Park in Stewartfield, East Kilbride to try out my new scope. I didn’t expect to see much because it’s only a small loch.
It was freezing and there was a lot of ice but surprisingly there were a lot of bird species around. I only had to walk a quarter of the way round until I saw some Scaup. I didn’t even need to set up the scope at this point because three of them were only a couple of metres away which gave me the chance to get a few close up photos.
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Blog #3
Linn Park
In the middle of December I heard about some waxwings that were spotted at my local patch (Linn Park) so I went down for a look.
When I arrived at the park it was a cloudy but not too cold; I headed off down the path next to the river that would lead me to the bridge where the waxwings had been spotted.
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Blog #2
RSPB Leighton Moss
A short time after I went to the Highlands I went to RSPB Leighton Moss Nature Reserve hoping to see some species I hadn’t seen before like a Bearded Tit, Water Rail, Great White Egret and the rarer American Wigeon (which had been spotted on the reserve). Continue reading Blog #2 →
Blog #1
Hello,
Welcome to my first blog. My name is Michael Sinclair and I’m a young photographer from Scotland. For my first blog I decided to write about some of the October week which I mainly spent in the Cairngorms (Scottish Highlands).
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Michael Sinclair Photography. This page includes a selection of nature photographs all taken by me. please enjoy my gallery.
