Very poor, complete contrast to last year. Very little sun and only 2 trains - both of which failed! My back problems re- occuring made it about the worst month ever. Just 3 shots of Goldeneye and one steam train shot to add. The Goldeneye shots have replace 3 on the first Rother Valley gallery.

The snow brought birds who feed from fields into built up areas to find food. I just managed 2 hours of sun for Fieldfares and Redwings stripping the trees of berries. After 3 days the trees were bare and the birds had moved on.

Little on the train front, the only main line run in the North did not happen due to some sort of failure. However I managed a few on the Great Central. Few yes, I messed up that day and spoiled most of the shots. There is another day - I hope!

A lot of railway excursions this month and some excellent light.  4 shots with snow. Wildlife fared less but some ducks on snow are different. Went to Scotland over Christmas and took loads of photos but only a Buzzard on a telegraph pole was added to the site. All other shots not being as good as I already have.

A lot of the wintering birds are returning to the Rother Valley, including a Great Northern Diver on the last Sunday.
I have added several railway photos this month. My health continues to improve which has had me in the Humber estuary for the Grey Seals.

Fantastic October. My health is improving still and I am getting about more as you will see from the increase in railway shots. Wildlife, very poor, just a few Migrant Hawker dragonflies early on. My attempts at foxes has been a disaster. Still I am very happy with the railway shots, something I have been struggling to get over the past years.

Not much to say, just a few Migrant hawkers and Brown hawkers about. Few buterflies, no photos of these.

2 trips up the Settle and Carlisle added some railway shots, mostly in poor light, but atmospheric.

August has been both good and bad. The poor weather has kept the numbers of butterflies and dragonflies down. However it has provided steam for the summer railway excursions. In case you do not know, the saturated steam is absorbed straight into the atmosphere on hot dry days. The cooler summer days have caused it to condense to a degree and become visible. This has resulted in only 2 wildlife shots added but lots of railway photographs. I gave up on the wildlife, trudging around for hours on end with little or nothing to show for it.

A Barn Owl was hunting early morning for a couple of weeks which kept me busy and was good for 3 photos on seperate occassions. Appart from that, just added Common Hawker and Dark Green Fritillary to the wildlife galleries in July. As my mobility continues to improve  I am seeing more steam trains. Royal Scot class 46115 Scots Guardsman, back on the main line after a 31year absence is superb. Consequently my steam galleries are building up.

A good start to the month - a 7 day Nile cruise which has added 20+ shots to the African photo gallery. Suprisingly no butterflies, but little in the way of flowers so that answers the question. Some very tiny blues flittering about the base of a tree on one occasion plus about 4 whites is all I saw. Dragonflies fared little better, I have shown a red/purple darter but the only other 2 species I saw were very dull so I have not uploaded them. Egrets and Squacco Herons abound.
Mid June, a trip out on the Farne Isles produced some good Puffin shots, there was lots of them this year, also I have replaced 2 Arctic Tern shots. Dragonfly and butterflies a bit slow, however a pair of Ruddy Ducks helped June to be an excellent month all round.

May finished in a heatwave bringing out the dragonflies. I found a different colony of Banded Demoiselles on the river Rother. Butterflies have now moved on, the early species finished. The last Saturday, I had my first ever grizzly Skipper.
The few hot sunny days in early May had me in the bluebell woods where I almost acheived my objectives with butterflies the one exeption being a brimstone. The Orange Tips and Brimstones seem to have passed their season, so have the bluebells by the 3rd week. Large Whites are prolific, however Tortioseshells are scarce again this year. Concentrating on the bluebells resulted in missing most of the chicks and duckling being hatched. However the mute swans eggs, on the Rother Valley, were just about right allowing 1 day old gosling photos.
Not much in the way of migrants. The Great Crested grebes on the north lake persist in rebuilding their nest only for the jet skiers to wash it away each weekend. There was one egg during 3rd week in May. - All seems to have gone now.

Not a lot has happened. The Barhead departed and I have only seen a few terns, 2 Arctic, that were around a couple of days. An intrepid pair of grebes keep trying to build a nest on the north lake. If it doesn't get bombed out by swans it gets washed away at the weekends with the jet skiers. Pity as it is an easy photo shot. Some photos added. My aim has been for butterflies on bluebells to which I have had moderate success. It became rapidly clear that they are not keen on them, only landing for a few seconds.
My increased mobility has had me out taking railway photographs and after a few good comments about them I have added another gallery to show them.

March has started off well with some good flight shots and some replacement photos. 15th, a Barhead came in, probably the one from this time last year. The spring weather is here and the Goosanders and Goldeneye are getting fewer. Dog walkers are around early and the sun is high at 9.00am. I found an emerged Tortioseshell butterfly in my garage that I set free, so it will be soon time to forget the birds and go butterfly hunting.

The photo opportunities are getting fewer as most of the wintering birds have gone which has led me to have a few trips out now I am getting around again, resulting in adding some shots to the 'Other UK bird photo gallery'. However the Barhead was still present as of 31st March.

Fantastic February, I am walking again and have oiled my shutter finger, adding over 20 shots to the More Rother Valley gallery. No robins in the snow, but the ice on the lakes made for different shots. Then right at the end, a pair of Goldeneye came in close enough to get some good shots. Nothing exotic but appreciating what we are blessed with.

A Smew on the reserve 2nd Jan. Even too far away for the digiscopers. It was a black dot to me!
Little to report as I have had difficulty walking, however I hope I have turned the corner and should be getting out more.
I have just added a few to 'More Rother Valley birds' in January

A poor month all round, just 3 short trips out to the Rother Valley, due to ill health. However a good Widgeon shot and a stunning shot of a Mute Swan.

Not a good month, healthwise, only getting out on a few occasssions and adding just 3 pics to the More Rother Valley gallery. The Swan landing and the Goosanders. I am pleased with these Goosander shots as they took some time, being very shy. I want a good one with a fish. I did manage one but it was too far away to have any impact.

October has been a bad month due to struggling with my back problems so I've only made a couple of short sorties one being to see a steam loco. This however this prompted me to add some steam  photos, yes I know they are not wildlife, but they have a sort of life within them. I hope that you like them.

If the old saying "All's well that ends well" is correct then September has been a good month. I am getting out more as my back has started to settle down and the Migrant and Southern Hawker dragonflies have performed well on the odd sunny day at the back of the month.
Just one bird photo added but several dragonflies. I was wondering which to delete to make room but decided to open a second dragonfly gallery. Even though some are the same species the photos are different so when it comes down to personnal choice, why not have them all.

Little to report due to my back problems stopping me from going out much. Just added a Small Copper, a Bee and a Peacock butterly locally, plus a couple of birds taken in my garden.

Nothing to report on the bird scene. Butterflies seem to be having a very bad year, lots of meadow browns are showing but little else, apart from common blues. Some of the reasons are that my local hotspots that were old pit sites have either been landscaped or just generally getting 'tree'ed up' resulting in less meadowland. My quest for a good photo of a female Broad Bodied Chaser (dragonfly) is not going well, due to the poor weather, however I have improved on my male broad bodied chaser. Getting a female is far more difficult as they only come down to the water to mate and oviposit, then they fly off into a tree far away.

Things picked up the second week with three additions of Little Grebe photos in the 'OtherUK bird photo gallery' and weekend 12/13th there was a profusion of Marbled White butterfiles, plus some 5and 6 Spot Burnet moths and a sprinkling of Ringlet butterflies.

10 Shelduck landed in the main lake at Rother Valley but they were far off so I did not wait to see them depart, the lure of the Marble Whites was too great.

The last weekend I was alerted to a Small Red Eyed Damselfly at Bolsover, I have photos but are only record shots, the insect being too far off and very small.

Weekend 14th was my first venture out for 5 weeks due to back problems, Good to see the Banded Demoiselles are on the riverside again. 5 males and one female seen,   I did not see any at all last year, their habitat was just covered in mud. I missed the Black Swan that dropped in Friday 13th and a Barnacle Goose earlier in the week.

The grass has been mowed along Barbers Lane, the butterfly hotspot, taking all the wild flowers out which will result in dispersed butterflies. That's my cue to go elsewhere and Pleasley colliery near Mansfield is the place for butterflies and dragonflies. Just two visits resulted in 7 photos to be added to the relevent galleries.

Sunday 4th, early morning there was a Black Tern on the main lake that flew North at 9.30am. Too dull and misty for good photos. Lots of chicks are around (9th May), canadas, greylag, moorhen, coot and a few mallard.
With the sunshine we have several butterflies, Orange Tip mainly, Brimstone, Peacock, Small White and now Common Blue have just started to appear.

Since the first week - nothing to report - due my continuing back problems I have not been photographing

The Whooper Swan departed north Friday 4th around 10.AM. 1st April the Bar Headed Goose re-appeared and came accross  to the lawn. 2 Oystercatchers have been around for sometime and are now finding worms on the lawn and are more approachable. A couple of Peacock butterflies have been spotted, but so far the weather has been to cold to bring butterflies out of hibernation. The 2 Egyptian Geese have been spotted so hopefully mother nature will take over and they have a second brood.
Little happened mainly due to bad weather then on the 21st, wow, a Red Crested Pochard came in, midday and went to roost on the island. No sign the following day, however the sun came out and so did a few butterflies. Just five in as many hours, but it's a start.
Wow, now we have an American Wigeon on the reserve, came in 23rd, evening and caused quiet a stir, which stayed about 10 days untill the end of April.
Still a distinctive lack of butterflies, but during the last week some Greylag goslings and Coot chicks hatched thus keeping me busy.

Overall a fantastic month.

Some photo opportunities presented themselves on the Rother Valley, firstly a Whitefronted Goose came in and has stayed a while. On 12th March, both a Lesser Whitefronted Goose and a Bar Headed Goose paid a visit around lunch time, both   coming out of the water for about 10 minutes.   On Sunday 16th, 41 Whoopers came in and flew north west at 10.30am. A male Shelduck has been active also.
Great excitement followed by devastation. 2 Egyptian Geese have been around for several months and we were blessed with 6 chicks. At 11am Wednesday the 26th there were 6, yet at 3pm there was only one??? The next day nil.
Over the last weekend a single Whooper dropped in and a hybrid goose stayed long enough for some photos.

A stay over for the weekend at my youngest son's new house in north Kent enabled me to track down some Rose Ring Parakeets, and take lots of photos early Sunday morning before the dog walkers dispersed them.

We had 2 Scaups at nearby Ulley resevoir, I am pleased with my female shot however I only managed distant shots of the male, some flapping his wings but it's not good enough to include

The Rother Valley country park had a Pink Footed Goose, White Fronted Goose and Lesser Whitefronted Goose all drop in during the final Sunday which I managed to capture through the lens, however not really what I was after, but when trying to close in on them, they all flew off!