Bank Holiday Walk

Just me and my not so mini me on Monday, we headed out early to Churwell for a walk in the woods. First though a little detour over the motorway bridge to make the walk a little longer. It takes us just off the patch and i've only done it once before, maybe about two years ago.

The path leads along a track by a farm which brought Goldfinch, Dunnock, Swallows and a possible Linnet but it was gone too quick for me to be 100% sure. 

We also saw quite a bit of Cuckoo Spit from the Froghopper on various plants with lots of it on the Cow Parsley.

At the bottom of the track there is the option of going back under the motorway and into Churwell Woods but we headed left and followed a path down the side of a field. Right away I heard birdsong high above us - Skylark! We saw 3 or 4 of them as we walked and you can just about hear them on this video, mostly you can see flies and my shaky camera work but listen it's a beautiful sound. 

At the end it caught the sound of another bird, a Pheasant, we didn't see it as the field is quite high with grasses. The path itself is a little overgrown with Hawthorn and Cow Parsley but it was gorgeous.

Again the path lead to a track beside a farm and then down under a bridge and out onto a main road. That was as far as we went before turning back. Another path leads off across the fields, i'm not sure where that leads so we only explored a little way and discovered Lapwing there, fantastic to have Skylarks and Lapwing in walking distance from home! In the trees were Goldfinch, Bullfinch, Great Tits, Woodpigeons and overhead a few Swifts too. 

Lapwing

Bullfinch

Skylark

I'm really pleased we took the detour it was a nice walk and it'll be interesting to see what else I can find there. So back to the motorway and underneath it to get into Churwell Woods and back on the patch!

The Pit Hills are looking a bit better after last years fire

The woods are quite lush and green now and there were lots of flowers too. As we set off along the path into the woods I could still hear a Skylark, it didn't even register at first because we'd been hearing them for the past hour or so but we were back on the patch now! I stopped to look and saw one hovering just over the edge of the pit hills almost over our heads! A fantastic patch tick and one I hadn't even thought would be a possibility previously. I don't always walk down this far when I call into the woods before work due to lack of time but maybe I should!

Blackbird

Tadpoles

First Sparrow fledgling seen this year

My daughter spotted a couple of Thrush in the trees which looked like they had been bathing in the stream.

Squirrel

It was a beautiful morning and I ended up with 17 species through the woods plus the Swallow, Bullfinch, Lapwing, Pheasant and Dunnock seen on the little off patch walk too.

This Collared Dove was guarding the entrance to the woods!

Walking back towards the town centre and home we passed through the park and saw this Magpie taking off