This weekend I thought I would see what local birds were about in the Low Moor & Oakenshaw areas. The sites I walked to were Raw Nook Nr, Caldene fields, Toad Holes Beck and Harold park lake. In total I…
The Norway connection
Today I walked up to Harold Park lake. Apart from my exercise the main reason was I knew the lake would be frozen thus forcing gulls to stand on the ice! Therefore if any migrant gulls that had been ringed…
Christmas greetings
Wishing everyone A Very Merry Christmas and A Happy and Safe New Year Quotation: Nature is the greatest place to heal the mind and recharge! Enjoy and use our local nature reserves!
The Elf’s are appearing…
If you are out for a Christmas walk at Raw Nook NR keep a lockout for the lovely Scarlet Elf cup fungi as they are just starting to appear. They can be seen just off the main path on the…
Woodland management with YWT…
Yesterday I met up with Peter, Sarah and the rest of their team from the Yorkshire Wildlife Trust. In a way it was a bitter sweet day in that Peter had noticed that one of the Wych Elm at Raw…
The Firethorn shrub…
Every wildlife garden should have one!. What I hear you ask? The beautiful Firethorn/Pyracantha shrub. Why? Well there’s the lovely white flowers in spring that attract many bees and hoverfly species and then bright red berries feed hungry birds in…
Three at once…
Yesterday the skies were sunny and bright for me metaphorically speaking. After my shortened vis-mig watch as autumn migration is almost over I decided to go to Raw Nook Nr & TH Beck as I was on a mission to…
Late to be out…
This afternoon at Raw Nook Nr I caught a glimpse on a small flying dragonfly….In November! Thankfully the insect landed nearby and I managed to ID it as a late male Common Darter – Sympetrum striolatum. My latest ever record for the…
A bit of a rarity…
Vis-mig today was OK with the highlight been two large flocks of continental Starling that came in from the N/E. One party was estimated to contain 450 birds and all flying fairly low…an excellent autumn sight! Recently I have been…
Pond flashes Blue…
Yesterday there was little vis-mig due to the blanket fog. The little bit I did produced 3 skeins of Pink-footed geese moving N/W I could hear them but couldn’t see them in the fog. I then walked to Raw Nook…
