CELEBRATING CHANGE

                               

If like me you love the Autumn, then the arrival of thousands of geese from the high Arctic is as exciting as the coming of spring. These barnacle geese nest in far off Greenland and when we were last on Islay, the arrival of some 35,000 was a spectacular experience. 

Their nesting in the Arctic has to start before all the snow has melted because it takes several weeks for them to lay eggs and incubate to hatching and they need to crack on so the chicks can grow enough to survive the long journey to Scotland. Their long development in the

egg gives time for that rather magical transformation from icy winter to Arctic summer.

The tops of these towering cliffs above our remote camp is where they nest, safe from the Arctic foxes, but when the chicks have to jump from their nests and survive the hundred foot fall, truth becomes stranger than fiction. It's a long way down!

I was lucky to be filming beside their nests in the 80's, having enjoyed their winter company in the Hebrides ever since I left school. A taste for Islay malt came later!

 

So since childhood, the wildest places have drawn me north with friends to marvel at the spectacle of seasonal change.

These inspiring pink-footed goose flights were shared with my wife Sue and Michael and Penny in Norfolk. Their happy yapping [my friends too] as they leave their roosts at dawn is as wonderful as the skeins, pencilled across the colourful skies.

However, there’s a tinge of sadness in the air when summer leaves us, our swallows and ospreys too as they set off for those exotic far off lands, swallows to South Africa and ospreys to West Africa.

As they leave behind our Dorset skies, sadness turns to joy, for our woodland gardens glow with glorious colours, as if reflecting the warmth of the summer sun.

And having embraced the changing seasons, our little patch becomes even more colourful than Springtime.

I'm writing this in November as the rains are falling almost every day, but the occasional frosty dawn hints that winter is coming and as the sun has come out, it seems like a good time to share the delights of a walk around our two acre wildlife patch with a little camera and celebrate our good fortune in calling this home.

During our forty four years here, we've concentrated on providing as much welcoming and varied wildlife habitat as possible, particularly for wetland species. 

And by digging six ponds and a marsh, we are sequestering carbon, trying to do our bit for the planet's climate crisis. It's our attempt at creating a little nature reserve and by adding plants, we attract some special creatures while enjoying shovel fulls of health and happiness.

The ponds contain lots of wildlife of course, including native fish such as rudd which delight in sun bathing as they show off their golden flanks and blood red fins. 

Shoals of minnows spawn in the streams and attract regular kingfisher visits, sometimes using our conservatory door for a plunging perch.

An otter provided us with the privilege of its presence three weeks ago while trying to catch our beautiful rudd ... and ducks, so they're a mixed blessing. 

... and grass snakes adorn the ponds while hunting our frogs and small fish.

Buzzards nest just behind the cottage and hunt the frogs too, and with all this water, our trees grow at an alarming rate and give the impression our little home is sinking!

When we moved in, there was heathland on the hill behind us, but now there are tall birches and forty foot high oaks that the buzzards have recently enjoyed as sun bathing perches, so as the season changes, we delight in a glorious kaleidoscope of colour.

 

We've planted lots of acers so we can enjoy their seasonal changes, and their rapid growth is the sort that our government treasury can only dream of.

And if you believe that we only plant trees for our grandchildren, then this beech tree proves it's a lie. Only thirty or so years ago, we dug a small hole for a six foot pot plant and now it stands nearly fifty feet tall, and I think you'll agree, it's autumn colour is beautiful.

In its shade grow several clerodenrums, covered in a canopy of white flowers beloved by hummingbird hawk-moths in late summer ... 

... and when the flower petals fell off, these 'Christmas decoration' seed-heads have glowed since early November. They look good enough to eat but I failed to find out if they're edible, for us or the birds.

Lots of other fruits are edible of course, and our local blackbirds and migrants thrushes from Europe have already been enjoying the feast.

There are so many berries this Autumn that if you believe that 'old wives tale', it's going to be a cold winter.

However, judging from this mild weather recently, it's allowed many of our most colourful, insect friendly plants to keep flowering until mid November, including salvia amistad, our gaura 'whirling butterflies', [and it was], and that bee magnet, verbena bonariensis.

The iris in the ponds are still flowering, even if  knocked into the water by the welcome rain. The fallen apples have been welcomed by many birds, along with daily visits from a hungry fox, the white tipped tail encouraging us to call it 'Tipp-Ex'. Sorry.

With the nights drawing in and misty dawns being a regular feature, our spiders efforts to catch a meal are clearly visible ... 

... and we've left a lot of the teasel heads so our goldfinches can enjoy the seeds.

It's December 1st today, so winter is officially here, though the weather is still warmish in sunny Dorset. Even so, we might add another log to the fire in our snug and wish you all a really happy Christmas and a rewarding and hopefully more peaceful year ahead. There's lots of bad stuff out there, so I try to avoid reading the news and instead, Sue and I keep our eyes to the skies because that is where there's lots of GOOD news.

Once very rare, red kites circle over our garden on many days and two pairs of ospreys are now nesting nearby and raising lots of young ...

and amazingly, we've seen an adult white-tailed eagle circling over our garden, once in April and again just three weeks ago. They have even nested and raised young in Dorset this year, and that's the first time since birds learnt to fly - well almost! They're BIG aren't they.

Further north, the geese have finished fleeing the Arctic ice and every day, they're filling our skies with their wild music.

We might even 'enjoy' a proper winter and that will certainly be a chance to welcome our seasonal changes, safe in the knowledge that all is well with the world when it's still turning.

And we've enjoyed a really good year with friends and wildlife.

 Notable highlights were sharing our garden with a family of robins, [I spent many enjoyable months winning their trust], and even more enjoyable was sharing with lots of loving friends who came to enjoy a meal, cooked by our ace chef Sue. We have enjoyed a rewarding year and are very lucky, so thank you all for your company and for sharing my ramble around our lovely little patch of rural England. 

And while celebrating the changing seasons, keep faith that these dark days will grow longer soon and the summer sun will return ...

Happy days ... and thank you all!

 

WOW!

                                            

Yes, it’s ‘World Osprey Week’ and these most charismatic of birds are fast approaching on the eternal skyways from the west coast of Africa. Hooray for High Flyers!

We live in sunny Dorset and several ospreys have recently passed by on their way to Scotland, including the famous pair ‘Maya and 33’ that have already arrived at their nest on Rutland Water. Remarkably, after their two and a half thousand mile flight from Senegal they landed on their nest within half an hour of each other. Appropriately, it was at mid-day on March 20th, the vernal equinox and first day of Spring, cause for celebration all round! 

We are also getting increasingly excited here at Poole Harbour, for we had a nest occupied here by our own star female CJ7 for all of last spring. 

She was raised and fledged from Rutland Water in 2015 and in spite of this being her first attempt at breeding, she behaved impeccably, building up her new nest and defending it in the hope of attracting a mate. Sadly it wasn’t to be but ‘The Birds of Poole Harbour’ team and all us locals have our fingers X’d that this year will be the first time ospreys have nested on the south coast since their extinction here a hundred and eighty years ago. We were treated to daily excitement by watching her on the camera the team had set up on the nest. We hope that this image from Scotland is replicated in Dorset soon.

Being just six miles from our cottage, it is an extraordinary success, for it was only in the late 1950’s that ospreys successfully returned to nest in Scotland after being driven to extinction, the last pair nesting in 1916. The same happened along England’s south coast and it’s thanks to our friend Roy Dennis and his team and the translocation of youngsters from Scottish nests that they have every chance of returning here too. You can read the whole story by visiting the excellent Birds of Poole Harbour website - www.birdsofpooleharbour.co.uk/osprey/

It seems like only yesterday that Sue and I were living in Scotland for two years, [it was actually in the late ’70's], to make a film about ospreys for the RSPB and with the help of Roy [seen mending one of our nests], we completed the task so successfully that the film sold to forty six countries. This neatly goes to show what truly remarkable and exciting birds ospreys are and just in case you are unaware how remarkable these big birds are, I’ll quote the opening lines of the film Roy and I made all those years ago. The BBC even honoured us with a Radio Times front cover.

                                - THE RETURN OF THE OSPREY -

“The Scottish Highlands, a wilderness of rock and heather, providing refuge for many wild creatures, and one bird in particular, a very special bird, one of the world’s most spectacular hunters - the osprey.

Evolution has set the osprey in a class of it’s own, equipped it with a unique anatomy for supremacy in it’s watery world : five foot wingspan, exceptional eyesight : from it’s sickle beak to it’s strong legs and raking talons, everything about it is designed for a purpose, the only bird of prey in the world to feed exclusively on live fish”.

Our children grew up under their wings so it is no wonder that one of Katie and Peter’s first words was ‘Osprey’! It was in the early years of the osprey’s re-colonisation of Scotland and we lived alongside these charismatic birds for two years. Our love for them is deep in our souls and we pray that this year will see them nesting just down the road in Dorset.

Katie and Peter still get excited whenever they see an osprey, as do Sue and I, so we can’t admire the Birds of Poole Harbour team more for their brave and exciting initiative to re-establish the breeding of ospreys just six miles from our home. These are trying times but if you want the best possible news, the osprey’s imminent return is it! We're all watching and waiting - every day! So far only crows ...

***She's back now though, arriving for a mullet lunch on April 1st and on the nest most mornings. We're praying that she attracts a mate this year, even if it means I'll be wasting hours watching her every move and hopefully, the growth of her chicks. Our fingers are firmly crossed.

But that’s not all the good news. Thanks to Roy’s energy and foresight, another high flyer is now winging around above us here on the south coast, the sea eagle.

This remarkable picture was taken from Hengistbury Head in Christchurch Harbour on March 23rd, just a couple of days ago! It shows two of the youngsters that Roy and his team have translocated from nests in Scotland in the hope that they can recolonise their old haunts around the Isle of White.

Like the osprey, sea eagles were exterminated from Scotland, the last ones nesting in 1916 on a steepling sea cliff on the Isle of Sky. I enjoyed the privilege of making a film for David Attenborough’s BBC One series about their remarkably successful reintroduction to Scotland between 1975 and 1985. Our film followed a few of the 75 translocated youngsters on their journey from nests along the cliffs of Norway to the Isle of Rum on Scotlands’ rugged west coast. Here they were raised by John Love and learnt the skills necessary for their survival and it is the same techniques that will hopefully prove triumphant down here on the Isle of White. They last nested here on Culver Cliff in 1780!

These two great pics were taken by friend and ace lensman Mike Read in Mull.

There are now one hundred and thirty territorial pairs of sea eagles in the UK and in spite of continuing persecution, numbers are increasing and providing substantial support for rural economies. These dramatic birds help raise £2.4 million on Skye and an impressive £5million on the Isle of Mull. You can read all the detail on Roy’s Wildlife Foundation Website - https://www.roydennis.org/

This splendid pic was taken by ace photographer Laurie Campbell for our Catching the Impossible book

Yet another high flyer is also helping stressed rural economies, the extraordinary success of the recolonisation of red kites across much of its’ former range. Their numbers have reached an unbelievable 1,800 pairs and they are increasing every year. 

In fact, it still shocks us that not so long ago we had to travel to remote valleys in West Wales to see one of only a dozen surviving red kites but can now look up and see red kites circling over our Dorset garden. Every one is a moment of magic.

So thanks to all these inspiring conservation initiatives and years of hard work, there is a lot of good news out there, so instead of walking head down, look up and be amazed by all these high flyers overhead. These truly are exciting times - WOW indeed!