Mired in largely wet, windy and awful weather and I come up with a pun for the title, welcome to my world of humour!
The last month has been one of family commitments, the afore mentioned elemental troubles and therefore very occasional short ventures looking for wildlife, oh and in between all that we have been doing a complete refurbishment of our living room.
The reference to friends is a good one as I consider wildlife to be a true friend, when you are comfortable in one another's company that is one of the defining rules.
A brief wander by the canal near Riddlesden brought us a few rewards...
A lovely female goosander..
A sweet robin in lovely light...
...and a female mallard who bravely allowed me to get a really close shot...
I have not been able to get over to Wharfedale as often as I would normally wish, one quick visit in the last month is well below average. The light was not great on the day but the sightings were as good and as treasured as ever...
Blue tits flitted round the tree feeders, muted light for these...
A robin settled briefly in some pretty harsh lighting conditions...
Down on the riverbank my small time gap allowed the patience to wait until a dipper approached near enough for some decent shots...
In the woods at Bolton Abbey we would always hope to see a nuthatch or two, very nearly at the end of the walk and one had to suffice!
A sunny Saturday saw me head out for an hour or two, the SLR was left at home due to forecasted gales, no point trying to aim a long and heavy lens when you need to concentrate on staying upright!
This is looking up the fields from the canalbank near Kildwick.
I rarely fail to see the lovely and quirky moorhens along here...
The juvenile swans are looking lovelier by the day...
I am always amazed by how swans can be so large on what appears to be a diet of sedge and weed...
A rare dry, if bitterly cold, day saw us with the opportunity for a couple of hours out. We drove up to Keighley Tarn, sometimes rare gulls turn up here, despite lengthy examination through the binoculars and two circuits of the small tarn we could find nothing unusual. Blustery conditions limited my photographs to...one!
A short drive to the hard surfaced canal towpath near Riddlesden followed, gut instinct or luck but pure joy!
We witnessed a nuthatch with a nut in its hatch and no feeders to be seen...
A bird I have long yearned to capture successfully is the UK's smallest one, the goldcrest. Brief sightings and blurred shots have been experienced but here walking quietly and studying the waterside foliage carefully after hearing them, finally some decent results....
Driving home we halted the car after seeing a kestrel on the hunt, the sun was in exactly the wrong place....such is the life of the opportunist wildlife photographer!
A couple of weeks ago I had the chance for a longer walk, I chose the canal towpath from Bingley back to Silsden. Two good reasons...good kingfishers sightings in local reports and it is hard surfaced!
Another dry but blustery forecast for the day with showers later, my first sighting of the day...a robin to cheer me with its song...
There is a large population of embden geese along here, the blue eyes can be either riveting or scary!
Canada geese are also numerous....
Mute swans performed their lovely bow wing effect for me...
This lovely Canada goose wanted either food or affection from me as it followed me patiently for about 400 yards before deciding I wasn't worth the effort!
My staple canal bird again....
Obviously feeling bashful!
Some nearby gardens had plenty of bird activity, I watched as the avian feeders landed in shrubs near to me. Careful movement allowed me to get a better angle as the sun, weak as it was, straight into the lens was not helpful. I managed one decent shot of the delightful siskins before they moved on to more pickings...
Soon as I was back near Silsden and some welcome post walk refreshment, always on the alert though I spotted a pheasant at close quarters...
Some movement up in the fields alerted me, my trusty binoculars revealed the presence of redwings. Beautiful and related to the thrush they sometimes arrive for winter in huge numbers, I have seen few this time.
My walk covered about eight miles, five of which were by the best kingfisher spotting section in the area...I saw none!
A couple of days later near home and I had an hour to spare, wellingtons essential on this section, slimy mud on a clay based path...a good sense of balance also comes in handy!
Two minutes into my walk....
Unfortunately this was as near as I got...someone coming the other way caused it to fly away and not be seen again, treasured nonetheless.
I found a robin under a sheltered tree...
And a preening moorhen....
Blue tits are becoming very active....
Another robin, this one ground feeding...yes they do eat as well as sing!
A treetop goldfinch...with one pesky twig in the way!
And a lovely Canada goose...
And now as winter nears its end and the first flowers and buds appear some of the birds are starting their rituals of pairing up for the year. Some are partners for life, but life for these creatures is fragile and the long and wet winter will have taken its toll. The lack of a cold and frozen few weeks will balance out, my local paths will dry eventually but they are of no matter really, I will always find somewhere to find, observe and photograph my beloved wildlife. Many decades ago my father died when I was a small boy, I struggled to accept the cycles of life, it was my hero Sir David Attenborough whose early programs taught me the acceptance that nothing has a given life span and that death for all life is inevitable.....and in his quiet voice, it is the enjoyment and respect for what we have while we are here that is important.
