Colour

It came to me as I pondered what to write about in this blog. Spring was finally here and everything natural was blooming, colour was everywhere.
It is amazing what a lift natural colour can do for our well being, a glance out of the window whilst busy in the office and seeing flowers coming into bloom can give anyone a brief lift and help them through the working day.

Even better is a walk in the evening, in my case pass a  field of dandelions and another full of buttercups, both primarily yellow but mixed with green and and a blue sky with some white clouds subtly different.

 Up on the moors near my home yesterday I came across masses of what could be described as green stalks with fluffy white balls on top, I took some pictures and put one on Twitter asking what it was, in less than ten minutes I had ten answers, all the same and one even giving the Latin name as well, such an incredible amount of knowledge out there and shared immediately.
Thank you to all of you for responding so promptly and knowledgeably and telling me that is common cottongrass of the genus Eriophorum and is really a sedge rather than a grass!

Common Cottongrass

Dandelion with visitor.

Small Tortoiseshell

 Butterflies searching for nectar, flutter about and you wait for them to settle so that a photograph can be taken for posterity and in my case so that I can find out what they are! Happily the internet and some very clever people and websites make identification comparitively easy. Amongst others I saw and photographed my first Speckled Wood butterfly plus a female Painted Lady today both identified by using british butterflies a pretty comprehensive site for identifying British Butterflies. 

Speckled Wood

Wood Veined White?

Talking of speckled woods it is absolutely wonderful to walk through woods when the sun is out, the sun shining through gaps in the leaves and through the leaves making them translucent and dappling the ground below in patches of shade and sunlight

Colour is an essential part of our lives and I am always amazed at the shades and hues of every colour that you can see just by going for a walk down the road or preferably through a meadow or woodland or just your own garden.

Go out and enjoy the Spring, sadly it is never long enough.

My Flickr account has changed and is now available on the following link

Flickr link where you will find more pictures related to this article.

To the woods, the bluebell woods that is

As a Web Guide for the Visit Woods website I visit a lot of woods, take photographs and make comments about the wood to hopefully make it more interesting for people to visit and also to point out problems with access or parking etc.
There are a lot of woods in my area of West Yorkshire which have not been rated for one reason or another, sometimes it is because they are very difficult to find or access, sometimes because they are not now open to the public due to a change in ownership etc.  I have made a point of visiting these woods in order to try and clarify whether they are open to the public or not. 

I visited one of these unrated woods today and what a lovely surprise I got, 40 acres of ancient and new woodland all open to the public and in the hands of the Heaton Woods Trust who are by the looks of it doing a great job of conservation.

The Trusts woodland appears to be originally a part of Northcliffe woods which extend all the way back to Shay Lane and beyond and are owned by Bradford Metropolitan Council.

All the way through both woodlands is a stream tumbling over large stone slabs, the trees just coming into leaf tower above the stream and are full of singing birds. The paths in both parts of the woodland are generally wide 
but muddy in places and as always tree roots are everywhere ready to trip you up!
These woods are full of Bluebells, in great big swathes they climb the banks on either side of the  stream and add a lovely contrasting blue to all the greenery suddenly bursting into life as Spring arrives.

Both of these woods are well worth a visit and further information can be found on the Visit Woods website  once I have updated the wood information. The Bluebells are truly stunning throughout these woods, please go and look and then take home what you bring and nothing else. My often rant about dog's and their owners doesn't seem to apply here, I found no black bags and no mess either, which is great!

Images throughout this blog are copyright and must not be used elsewhere without permission

A visit to the Yorkshire Dales

We have just had a few days away in the Yorkshire Dales staying with some good friends in their caravan. We all know the area reasonably well and decided to do some walking but take it easy as well. Our first trip was to Malham where we parked up and walked off to the Cove stopping to have a chat with the lovely guys and gals from the RSPB, there on Peregrine Falcon watch. She is believed to be on her nest but no-one has any idea of how many eggs and indeed if there are any at all, lets hope so. I must say thanks to the RSPB volunteer who taught me to recognise the call of the Green Woodpecker which was frustrating them all as it could be heard but had not been seen for days.
After a good chat we said our goodbyes and headed off up the steps on the left of the Cove, have done this climb a few times but it never gets any easier but the views just get better as you climb up to the top, which is a good excuse to stop and look around and catch your breath! We all stopped to look at the view from the top which was when I discovered that my SD card was still in my PC at home and not in my camera!! A few choice words were thrown to the wind, as I realised that spare cards were in the caravan a few miles away! Any photos of this area on this blog will be from a previous visit not that it has changed much since my last visit!
Stepping across the stunning limestone pavement above the Cove you cant help but be struck by the sheer scale of the Cove, 80 metres high and 300 metres wide.
From there we headed off towards Gordale Scar, a reasonably easy walk though it was quite windy but warm. This area according to our friends often has Wheatear and so it proved as we saw at least four plus a good number of Pied Wagtails, no pictures sadly as my camera was now slung around my back, out of the way and useless! On reaching the road at the bottom we turned left and onto the footpath for Gordale Scar. It does not look particuarly interesting as you walk along but as you turn the corner the gorge opens up and you realise the scale of what was originally a cavern, created by melt water until it collapsed leaving a gorge and waterfall for us to admire. We arrived here at about lunchtime so we found a rock in the sun and settled down for a sandwich and a drink as we took in the surroundings, seemingly from out of nowhere a school party arrived and we thought the peace was gone forever!!
To be fair they were very well behaved and settled down like us to some serious eating in the peace and quiet before walking closer to the waterfall.
It is an easy walk from Gordale Scar back to Janets Foss, some clambering over the rocks forming the path is necessary to get into Janets Foss but once there amongst the trees and waterfalls it is a delight. Wild Garlic abounds and there are all manner of other plants right down to the waters edge, we saw more Pied Wagtails and some Grey Wagtails but despite much looking we didn't manage to see a Dipper. It is a level walk back to Malham with its shops and a pub or two, the round trip was 4.8 miles with only the climb up the steps being hard work. As you do after a good walk, we went and had a pint and discussed the best bits, which for me was seeing Wheatear's for the first time, closely followed by knowing what a Green Woodpecker sounds like.

The following day we went for a walk along the River Wharfe, starting at Barden Bridge and walking along the river towards Bolton Abbey.

There is limited but free parking at Barden Bridge, the alternative is to park in Bolton Abbey at one of the car parks but that is not free and it does get very crowded at peak times.
We crossed the bridge and leaving the river on the left walked along good well made paths watching a Mallard and an Oystercatcher on the river and spotting a Great Spotted Woodpecker high in the trees as well as a Nuthatch, this part of the walk leads you to the Strid a section of rapids whose intensity varies with naturally enough the rainfall, the path though meanders up and down occasionally losing sight of the river but always opening up new views through the trees. On this section I was surprised to see two Mandarin Ducks, not realising that they were to be found wild in this country. It's amazing what you learn when taking a walk!

From my recollection of this area going back a few years there seems to have been a lot of work done improving the paths etc, whilst not probably suitable for wheelchairs, a pushchair would be no problem.
A fast moving Hare caught our attention and then a few Mistle Thrush up on a grassed bank, plenty of wildlife around here and then as we descended to the river bank one of our friends with excellent eyesight saw two deer in the trees, they were very aware of us but we stayed still and watched them for ages. I am not a deer expert, not that I am cheep either ...... but I think they are fallow deer but happy for anyone to comment and correct me.

It was about here that I realised that my camera battery was not going to last so reached in my pocket for the replacement only to realise that it was in my other fleece ....................... back in the car!
Not doing too well with technical stuff on this trip to be honest.
Walking on now soon bought us to probably the most expensive cafe in a wood I have ever been too, Cavendish Pavilion sells hot food, sandwiches, cakes and beverages of all types. The hot food was a reasonable cost but the cake and scones were outrageously priced and hopefully will go stale and unsold.
We sat outside in the sun and had a coffee and then after a trip to the loo's (clean) we crossed the bridge and started the return journey to Barden Bridge. This way back is deceiving as it starts very flat along the banks

of the river and you think a lovely pleasant stroll through the woods but it catches you later with some sharp climbs and heavily rooted paths making it difficult walking. One part of the flat walk is through a wood of Sessile Oaks which had me asking what is a Sessile Oak, no-one knew so I looked it up on a search engine and got the following explanation:
"The sessile oak is so-named because its acorns are not carried on stalks (peduncles) but directly on the outer twigs (sessile). It is commonest in the north and west of Britain." It is sometimes known as a Durmast Oak.

As you get back toward the Strid the path begins to climb and you get a good view of the Strid.
At its narrowest point the Strid is only about two metres wide, and foolhardy visitors have in the past tried to jump across the roaring chasm. Failure is invariably fatal, however, as there is no recorded incidence of anyone having survived a fall into the thundering waters of the Strid - which mercilessly sucks its victims into the underwater caves and eroded tunnels which lie hidden underneath each side of the rocky channel.
Needless to say, the Strid is an extremely dangerous place, and visitors should take care to keep a safe distance from the edge, with children and animals being kept firmly under control.
The above is a quote from a website which is listed below along with all the other web sites used in this blog.
Having passed this area the path continues through woodland and eventually starts to descend to the riverbank and more open country.
We are now about half a mile from the car and wander along the bank looking at the Goosander pair and a

Mallard or two and dozens of Sand Martins swooping about over the river, eventually we reach the car after a walk of about five miles, mainly easy going with occasional heart pumping moments! The camera battery lasted but only because I severely restricted my picture taking, the new one was put in on the way back to our van where we opened Guinness and sat in the sun for a bit, a very pleasant day.

The following morning was wet and windy but it cleared by about 11am and we set off for a little village by the name of Linton, famous for its waterfalls. its Archimedes Screw turbines providing clean energy and a lovely church, St Michael & All Angels. There is an excellent Pub by all accounts as well. We visited the first three and will go back to visit the Pub another time! The Parish Church was open and very interesting to visit, from there we walked up to the restored turbine sheds where new Archimedes Screws utilise the water in the River Wharfe to turn generators and produce electricity, very worthwhile and clean, we walked back by the river watching a Dipper skimming inches over the water to the lower falls which by no means in full flood were still quite spectacular, especially when stood in the middle of the wooden framed bridge. I will have to go back after a lot of rain and see it it in full flood, it would be amazing and a very good reason to visit the pub!
That brings to an end a very enjoyable stay in the Yorkshire Dales, to be honest we always go during the week and never during school holidays as it does get very crowded but the whole area is beautiful, with friendly people and great real ale, what more can you ask!

http://www.malhamdale.org.uk/malham_cove.htm
http://www.malhamdale.com/gordalescar.htm
http://www.british-trees.com/treeguide/oaks/nhmsys0000462217
http://www.yorkshire-dales.com/strid.html

Contrasts

The winter in the North of England has been long and cold, even today, the first day of Spring, we have snow on the ground and a temperature of zero degrees with a forecast of howling gales and teeming rain for the next day or two, not much to look forward to but I am pleased to say I still have the memories of the last two weeks spent in the Caribbean basking in 30 degrees and swimming in gloriously warm and incredibly blue seas, looking at fish of all shapes and colours as they dart around a matter of feet away from my mask as we swam above the reefs watching them. 
My wife had the amazing experience of a baby turtle swimming within inches of her face, totally unconcerned at her presence. These turtles are born in the bay we were in and grow to adulthood and lay their eggs in the same place as they were born. The whole area protected from unlicensed visitors/poachers etc.
It was one of those days where you wished that you had lashed out and bought an underwater camera, the coral was amazing, the fish were beautiful and the turtle experience truly stunning.

We spent many an hour on some quite beautiful beaches, watching some huge Atlantic breakers on one side and then floating gently on the Caribbean Sea on the other side of the same island. One of the things I love about their beaches is that there are invariably trees on the beach which provide shelter for us from the very hot sun and also provide a resting place for birds and a platform for them to sing from and boy can they sing. They are very hard to spot amongst the green, brown and yellow leaves and almost impossible to photograph especially as we only took a point and shoot, when you do see them they are outlined against a very bright blue sky so contrast is very high.

We did see some White Cheeked Pintails, they were having a great time on the beach, eating crumbs off the sand and sheltering under the trees and sunbeds, just like the turtle not concerned about human presence.

 These three were totally unconcerned and you could walk within inches of them.

This bird was virtually ever present anywhere we went.

One of the more unusual sights we saw was the "hovering man" this device lets you walk on water so to speak but does require a jetski to keep you you up there! Looks impressive but is a lot harder than it looks.

Apparently you can hire one with a Jetski and driver for an hour at a time, you need to be mighty fit to survive an hour balancing on a board on top of two very powerful jets of water!!

On this same beach I caught sight of this bright red crab, it was very shy and ducked back behind the rocks if I got any closer, I decided to wear swim shoes when I went swimming in case I found its mate!

There were lots of Grey Heron on the edges of the beaches in the low undergrowth. 

These giant seed pods were evident in a lot of places.



Perhaps the funniest thing we saw on a beach was a face off between two iguanas, one of of them had lost a foreleg probably in a recent fight and the other had a mohican style crest on its head. they played thrust and counterthrust from about ten feet apart, daring each other to attack when suddenly the three legged one decided to run for it, it was amazingly quick especially for three legs but the other one was naturally enough even quicker and was gaining on its foe as they disappeared over the beach.
The picture I think shows the speed of the beast as it started to chase its 3 legged foe.

 Appropriately enough the blog finishes with some pictures of sunsets which can be quite stunning in the Caribbean.

More pictures of this trip and other photographs can be seen on my Flickr account

Blackbirds and others in the snow

As February drifts on, literally in my garden as the wind has whipped the snow into drifts over the last couple of days, we have had to put out emergency one day rations for the ground feeding birds.
Every morning I have to go out and shake the snow and ice off the peanut feeder and the nyjer feeder, the seed feeder is reasonably sheltered but still needs a good bang to get the seed flowing again, I then clear a space on the low wall and use the lid from an old Xmas box of biscuits to put some seed, suet treats and sunflower hearts out for the Blackbirds, Dunnocks and Robins. Have noticed this week that some Robins have mastered the art of landing on a hanging feeder perch, they are making sure of getting some food.
Here are some of the birds that I have caught on camera from the cold conservatory this week, there are some more on my  Flickr Photostream

Blackbird almost crowing about the food available in the lid of the old Xmas biscuit tin.

Blue Tit getting some peanuts despite the layer of frozen snow in feeder

See my Flickr Photostream for some more Goldfinch, Robin and BlueTit images.

Water Vole work day

For the last couple of years I have worked as a volunteer for the Yorkshire Wildlife Trust on one of their Water Vole projects in West Yorkshire, this year due to the receipt of more funding and a slight change in emphasis the project is to continue for at least this year.
Today was the first work day of the year and the intention initially was to walk down to an area where we know a lot of tyres had been dumped in one of the streams, remove them and generally do some work around that area to tidy it up and improve the environment for Water Voles. We were parked about a half a mile from where the tyres were, so we walked down there in a howling gale all hoping that when we got down to the stream it would be considerably calmer and warmer! 
Calmer and warmer it was but......... and there is always a but the water was so high in the stream it was not going to be possible to get hold of the tyres which were totally submerged.

We resorted to Plan B, discretion being the better part of valour and so we walked back to the area where we were parked off-road and after donning waders and loading up with rubbish bags ventured into the reeds and started to remove all manner of rubbish from the stream. The area has become a popular spot for rubbish dumping and also for kids having a drink out of sight of adults 
In no time at all we had bags full of bottles, lager cans, water bottles, empty plastic bags, kids toys, video cassettes, old car radios probably stolen and then dumped  plus of course the obligatory tyre or two just chucked into the reeds and left.

We used the YWT van to move this rubbish up to the skip originally hired for the tyres at the other location and the rest of us moved along the reeds picking up more and rubbish and spotting what looked to be like fresh Water Vole droppings which is a very heartening sign and bodes well for the survey next week.On the way we removed an old sofa, its cushions so saturated with water that they weighed a ridiculous amount plus a drum from a washing machine and an office chair which prompted the comment where's the desk and lo and behold after a bit of fishing around we found the top of the desk as well!!
I spotted a bag in the middle of the beck and said to my fellow volunteer, take a picture of me as I go for that bag, no problem he said as I passed him my camera and off I went into the water 

This is me on my knees after catching my foot in some roots and toppling over!! The orange bit behind me is the heel of my thigh high waders. Water poured into my left wader as I struggled to get back on my feet, luckily I was wearing waterproof trousers and whilst I got a very wet foot and soggy socks my leg stayed dry and most importantly warm.

Here I am back on my feet and smiling for the camera whilst I clutch the offending bag of rubbish!













After a rather squelchy walk back to the car and a jokey discussion re the competence of the volunteers which I guess was warranted. I emptied the wader of its liquid contents, removed and squeezed the water out of my thick woollen socks and put my walking boots on with no socks! We continued our tidy up of the area filling countless black bags of rubbish and ultimately filling the hired skip which was a very satisfying end to the days work.

Take a look also at this link
http://www.ywt.org.uk/what-we-do/conservation-projects/living-went-project/volunteer-days-2013/writeup-310113