16th June 2012, Local, wet and windy!

The wet weather continues, it seems a long time since the sun shone for any length of time around here and it was hard to decide where to walk today. As the day progressed I wondered why the heck I bothered in the first place, I saw little of interest and experienced regular wettings from above...I suppose a bright spot is that my waterproofs are still working!

I settled on a wander by the Leeds Liverpool canal with an option to switch to the river Aire, the canal can usually be relied upon to yield some wildlife photo opportunities. Today all I managed was one shot of a preening mallard.

The heavy foliage now on the trees and bushes does make spotting difficult at this time of the year, rain does not help either as the birds seem to like shelter as much as humans, and with rain pouring down I too took shelter for a while.

I took to experimenting with shots of a foxglove and a colourful leaf as boredom set in, as the rain eased I took a track to the river passing a newly sown field of what farmers round here call winter wheat, cow fodder.

The field paths by the river were sodden, ankle deep mud really is no fun and a lack of wildlife made me curse my decision. Another sharp shower had me hastening back towards the car!

I did pause for a while under the shelter of some trees, here the rain was easing and I was getting ready to head homewards.

The skies did brighten a little in the afternoon and eternal optimist that I am I decided on another walk, this time I stuck to the roads and had a short wander around the lanes that lead to the moors above Silsden.
At least there was no mud to deal with but the lack of luck with wildlife continued, these muscovy ducks, appearing to have fallen out, were in the garden of a farm!

One distant shot of a curlew among the sheep was scant reward for braving the weather.

I did take the opportunity of a wide angle view of Airedale.

Yet another soggy weekend walk, hopefully I can bring you some brighter sunnier shots soon!