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!

Around the Patch

The first patch update of the year and there's plenty going on.

The first bird of the year for me was a Blackbird - calling in the garden before it got daylight. I took my usual walk around the town early New Years Day and then went down into Churwell Woods just after lunch. In the woods a Grey Wagtail was pottering about in the stream - a rare visitor here though this one must like it as it's still about now.

Redwings

Chaffinch

More Redwings - this year there has been more than usual and they've stayed around several weeks now.

Blackbird

Black-headed Gull

Crow

Pied Wagtail

Rook

Magpie

Some of the Black-headed Gulls near home

Dunnock

Robin

 A good start to the year with 27 species on that first day.

The garden has been busy, a constant flow of birds (and Squirrels) and it's daylight early enough in the day now that I can garden watch a little before I leave for work.

Woodpigeon

Collared Dove

Long-tailed Tit

Blackbird 

Collared Dove - this one perched on the hanging basket by the house and had a good nosy through the window!

Not the best shot but it's all a managed to get of this Chaffinch - a rare garden visitor

We've only had very light covering of snow and some hard frosts so far this year and at the moment the weather seems to be warming up.

 

In the garden flowers are starting to bloom, Snowdrops have spread themselves all over my flower beds, most haven't quite opened yet. The Hellabore however is in full bloom. Bluebells have been showing for about three weeks.

Hellabore

Bluebells

Snowdrops

Back to the birds and I had a very nice patch tick of a Peregrine back in January and it seems to have taken up residence for now, it'll be interesting to see if he stays around more permanently! Last Friday I managed to tick Pink-footed Geese from the bathroom at 10pm at night, luckily for me they were making a lot of noise as they flew over. 

My daughters swears she saw a Owl fly past the house one morning at dawn a couple of weeks ago, now we know there is a couple not too far from us, just off the patch, so it's not out of the realm of possibilities, something to try and check out further. 

So far so good and I still haven't managed to check out one of the parks properly yet!