Wildlife photographer John Smith was the speaker at our December\u00a0meeting. He gave us a talk, illustrated\u00a0 with some images which were accompanied\u00a0by audio recordings of several birds .Many species were shown from around\u00a0the country, but perhaps none more interesting than when in Scotland . The\u00a0haunting calls of the red throated and great northern divers on the Scottish\u00a0lochs added another dimension to his presentation. The remote Flannan Isles off\u00a0Harris and Lewis, provided the setting for\u00a0John to able to photograph the secretive\u00a0Leach’s petrel and also record \u00a0their unusual\u00a0purring sound, interrupted with a short sharp whistling note.\u00a0 John also told the story of\u00a0the mystery\u00a0surrounding the sudden disappearance of the three lighthouse keepers on\u00a0the Flannans in Dec.1900.There has not been any conclusive evidence as to what\u00a0happened to the men . They were possibly washed into the sea by a freak wave
\nwhile they were on the cliff top for some unknown reason.<\/p>\n
The talk was very interesting and the accompanying photographs were outstanding showing just how much dedication John puts into getting these amazing shots.<\/p>\n
Recent Sightings reported by the members:<\/p>\n
Interesting long staying\u00a0birds at Anglers\/Wintersett include Long-tailed duck<\/strong>, smew<\/strong> and\u00a0scaup<\/strong>.Yellow-legged gulls<\/strong> and Caspian gull<\/strong> have been seen in the evening gull roost.<\/p>\n There\u00a0are many thousands of Waxwings<\/strong> in the country and have been seen in the\u00a0Wakefield area, though they tend not to stay in one area for very long. Pugneys\/Calder Wetlands have had several small flocks going through.<\/p>\n The young male long-tailed duck<\/strong> is still present at Pugneys, with sporadic visits by scaup and some\u00a0of the scarcer gulls in the evening roost..<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Wildlife photographer John Smith was the speaker at our December\u00a0meeting. He gave us a talk, illustrated\u00a0 with some images which were accompanied\u00a0by audio recordings of several birds .Many species were shown from around\u00a0the country, but perhaps none more interesting than … Continue reading