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!

Saturday 24th March 2012, Stainburn Forest & Swinsty Reservoir

The fog was slow to clear here in Yorkshire, it was almost lunch time when we set off. The Washburn valley is somewhere we intend to explore further and it was to here that we headed, first for a forest walk then a circuit of a picturesque reservoir.

Stainburn Forest seems popular with cyclists judging by the wheel marks in the still damp paths and tracks, birdsong was plentiful and we had glimpses of many of the tit and finch families. Reaching a clearing we had a short break and were rewarded by a good sighting and photograph of a tree pipit.

Resuming our walk we were now on the perimeter of the woodland, curlew and lapwing were calling from the adjacent fields, the sun was shining...perfect!

A roe deer bolted from the trees, visible for just a couple of seconds and no chance of a photograph...apart from a hoof print.

Time to move on now, we will visit the forest again.

Swinsty Reservoir along with its neighbours Fewston and Thruscross are easy walks on mainly good paths, parking is provided free by Yorkshire Water and they can be a little busy due to their proximity to the conurbations of Harrogate and Leeds.

We parked up at Swinsty and our first sighting awaited us, the motionless hunched figure in the shallows...a heron? No, an angler!!

The waters were peaceful and calm and the walk was steady, plenty of people out enjoying the sunshine.

We listened to the melodious tunes from the birds, again opportunities for photographs were scarce until we spotted a little bird perched in a treetop. A chiffchaff, beautiful song and a beautiful little bird too.

Enjoying a coffee from our thermos when we got back to the car, we had a colourful chaffinch to visit us, he was busy picking up the scraps and crumbs that others had left.

A visit to the waters edge yielded photo's of a canada goose and a muscovy duck to complete a lovely day out.

This is a great area for outdoor stuff, give it a try if you are in the area.