Post Hill

I've finally been plagued by the new blogger glitches so this post has taken a little longer than planned as I ended up having to start is from scratch! Hopefully by the time I next post blogger will have sorted itself out!

A couple of weekends ago we went for a walk around Post Hill woods, it's actually not too far from home but we have always driven past on our way elsewhere before so had never been. It's actually not too far from the Farnley Balancing Reservoir and although has a fairly new housing estate along side part of it, it's isolated enough you could imagine you're out in the middle of nowhere. 

My husband visited about 35 years ago when they were still doing motorcycle climb events at is has one of the steepest hill climbs in the world (not sure if that's still a valid claim these days!). It had changed a huge amount since then, he couldn't figure out where the steep hill was and ended up asking a dog walker. She was quite helpful and pointed us in the right direction and also said about how the area had changed in the 30 years she had been walking there, the main part of the woods we were in barely existed back then and she told us how most of the trees has self seeded over the years. A really good example of how nature works if left alone. 

It was very autumnal, lots of acorns everywhere and lot's of yellows in the trees. 

There's always someone who has to make a mess!

The view from the top of the hill climb, we did not climb up or down it but took the longer less steep ways round! 

My husband had this Buzzard fly up in front of him, I was on a lower path so only caught a glimpse as I caught up with him. It flew off and a noisy Jay flew in. As was the norm today the birds I saw refused to pose for photos, very inconsiderate! We did see all the usual woodland birds - Tits, Nuthatch, Goldcrest, Woodpigeons, we heard a Great Spotted Woodpecker drumming. 

Pudsey beck runs along the bottom of the woods I saw a Gray Wagtail - possibly two in the water, with Wren feeding along the edge too. 

Spot the Wagtail!

We were there a couple of hours but we didn't explore the whole area so we'll be back!

Hometown haunts

While visiting my parents on Saturday I took a walk around Yeadon Dam and Nunroyd Park, places I spent a lot of time at as a child and don't visit enough now!

The weather was good (I know shocking to hear!), the sun was out and it was quite spring like. We were at the dam early enough for it to be fairly quiet still, just the odd dog walker. Someone had dropped seed on the jetty for the ducks. Sparrows, Swans and Gulls were enjoying it too.

Black-headed Gull

Mute Swan

Tufted Duck

One of a pair of Great Crested Grebes

Around the ponds at the back we could hear Chiffchaff, Wrens, Goldfinch and over the airport runway a Kestrel was hovering. 

These three farmyard ducks were chasing Mallards all around the dam

I guess we were the early birds today........

At Nunroyd it had warmed up further and the park was full of birdsong with Chiffchaff, Blackbird, Blue Tit, Greenfinch, Goldfinch......Crows were cawing and chasing Woodpigeons, overhead a Red Kite and a Buzzard were circling. 

I'm not sure what this bee is?

Greenfinch

Crows peeling bark off the trees

So starts my yearly series of Warblers shot from underneath as they never get down to eye level!!

Chiffchaff

Bullfinch

Robin

On the pond we saw a few Mallards, a Moorhen, a farmyard duck and the infamous Swans! The pond here is well watched and a Swan pair successfully reared cygnets last year but unfortunately the male Swan died despite the best efforts of the Swan Rescue. The female has found a new mate it seems and I watched them do a lot of synchronised head bobbing on Saturday, they've been seen rebuilding last years nest too.  

A Red Kite followed us out of the park 

You can see a lot more about what can be found in Nunroyd Park on Amanda's blog here

A Day Out

On Saturday we went out with a couple of destinations in mind the first one being North Cave Wetlands. Another damp dull day for us but I think we're used to that, it did mean that I didn't make much use of my camera though.

Redshanks in the gloom

The path from the entrance past the lake was filled with birds - Blue, Great, Coal and Long-tailed Tits, Wrens, Robins, Blackbirds, Goldfinch, all flitting around us in and out of the trees, we stopped just to watch them for a little while. It was the same on the path between the reedbed lake and the far lake with a Song Thrush there too.

Robin

 Blue Tit

At the Turret Hide two guys in there pointed out a Green-winged Teal, i'd read they'd been seen during the week but I thought after seeing how many Teal were just on the Village Lake it would be a bit of a needle in a haystack. So thank you to them! A Marsh Harrier spooked some of the birds on the opposite side of the lake and we saw it a couple more times as we walked around.

Green-winged Teal

 We saw plenty of Gulls mostly Black-headed and Common, Lapwings, Shovelers, Shelduck, Little Grebe, Cormorant, Wigeon, Pochard, Heron, Little Egret, Gadwall and Oystercatcher amongst others.

Lapwing

Pochard

Lapwing

Wigeon & Coot

Cormorant 

Little Grebe

Coot, Teal & Common Gulls

On Dryham lane we saw more flocks Goldfinch, Chaffinch, Tree Sparrows and several Dunnocks.

Tree Sparrow & Chaffinch

Dunnock

Chaffinch, Goldfinch, Tree Sparrows

Warming our hands with bacon sandwiches and mugs of tea from the Wild Bird Cafe we watched the birds at the feeders on the viewing platform. I spotted a couple of Lesser Redpolls in the trees nearby they were gone before I thought about prising my fingers from around the mug to take a photo though!

Long-tailed Tit

I must admit that I dropped my lens some time back and it really struggles with the light now and jams up now and again. It's fine if it's a bright sunny day (which are few and far between right now) but otherwise not so good.....it's not worth repairing as it wasn't overly expensive, I want to hold out a little longer to get a better one so for now the photos are lacking somewhat!

After our food we headed off towards Castle Howard and the Yorkshire Arboretum to try and see the Hawfinch that have been there some time. By now the rain was coming down a little more but the route between the two places is scenic and we counted Buzzards along the way - 11 in total! Including two that were in the same field with a large flock of Fieldfares, in fact we saw several fields full of Fieldfares.

I got some not great photos from the car but you can tell the difference between the two Buzzards.

We also saw Grey Partridge in some of the fields too, another new bird for me, i've seen plenty of Red-legged before. Two Roe Deer were in a field right by one of the roads we drove along, clearly used to the traffic!

After a few stops and starts to peer at various birds we arrived at the Arboretum in the pouring rain. I wasn't really sure where to go from the car park but we had a wander around, I saw a Stoat run across one of the paths and several Great/Blue Tits in the trees. Looking over the fence by the shop I saw a bird sat at the top of the one of the trees.........could it be? Yes finally, a Hawfinch! I won't embarrass myself by posting the dreadful photo I got of it but we had good view of a couple of them through the binoculars in the end before they flew off.

All in all another great day despite the rain, 3 new lifers, which isn't something that happens very often these days. (We were glad to get into the car and warm up though).