Bolton Abbey

We headed up to Bolton Abbey early morning on Good Friday to try and avoid the crowds. We walk from the Cavendish car park, up to Barden Bridge and back down the other side. Luckily it tends to be fairly people free the further away we get from the Strid.

As we drove into the place there were a couple of Curlew on the field.

This is one place where you have a good chance of spotting Dippers and we saw one pretty much straight away and several more through the day. It was followed down the river by a Goosander.

We heard and finally saw a Greater Spotted Woodpecker that seemed to follow us up the path for a while. There were plenty of birds in the woods & on the river through the day - Chaffinch, Great, Blue and Coal Tits, Nuthatch, Song Thrush, Robin, Dunnock, Wren, Pied and Grey Wagtails, Pheasant, Mandarin Ducks, Mallards and their chicks.

The Sand Martins were flying about the banks just before Barden Bridge and as we walked through the little wood there I spotted a largish brown bird in the undergrowth, managed to snap a couple of photos before it flew of and when checking realised i'd seen a Woodcock - a new bird for me and not one I'd ever thought about trying to see!

To finish off the day as we were driving home we spotted a Red Grouse perched on a fence post next to a field - very chuffed another new bird!

A few pictures from the day.