I got the job!

For a while now I've been looking to redirect my "career" to involve more work in the outdoors.

This began last March with some voluntary outdoor activities work (climbing, canoeing, hillwalking) based in Otley. Unfortunately, the organisation delivering this went bust and it was no longer so easy to pursue this avenue. I did however, pick up some useful experience along the way and actually got paid for some of it. Increasing my experience and qualification in this area remains, "on the back burner" for now.

In September this year, I began a Foundation Degree course in Wildlife and Countryside Conservation at Bishop Burton College and this is now absorbing much of my time and thoughts. So much so, that I've decided to go part-time in my real job to give more attention and also to undertake the work-based learning component of the course.

I thought that since work experience was a necessary part of my course and also important for my future employment in the sector, I might as well get paid for it and ...

... as from the new year I will be a:

Field teacher for the RSPB at their Fairburn Ings reserve.

Click the image (above) to support the RSPB.

Back from France

I've just got back from a trip to France with my partner to visit her folks. They live near Tarbes, in the Hautes Pyrenees département of the South West. Aside from the usual festivities, we got out for some walks; once to some local oak woods, once into the mountains near the Col d'Aspin and again by the side of the river Adour close to Caro's mum's house. Here are some photos.

My partner's sister made "flowers" out of wire and beads for each of the female guests. Christmas lunch featured Kir Royale aperitifs, foie gras starters and lamb with haricots Tarbais (a local speciality, carrying an appellation of origin).

Two views of the Pic du Midi de Bigorre taken from the Col d'Aspin. The trees in the foreground of the lower shot are hollies, browsed into "lollipop" shape by grazing izards.

Plane trees are a common feature of many French towns. This is the one outside the house.

The odd, flaky bark reminds me of military camouflage.

The birdwatching haul from the trip was also quite respectable with notable species including:

• Blackcap
• Willow/Marsh Tit (I'm not sure I can tell the difference)
  
• Little Egret
• Red Kite
• Redstart

Not just tomato salad

Another go at still-life photography.

This is not just a tomato; it's a vine-ripened tomato, out of my fridge, drizzled with extra virgin olive oil and scattered with freshly ground black pepper ...

... and will be eaten tonight with rocket, water cress and balsamic vinegar. Mmmm.

Stick it in your pipe and smoke it Marks & Spencer!

Barden and Strid Woods

After Christamas shopping today we went into the Dales around Bolton Abbey for a walk and to take these shots.

This stone commemorates the repair of Barden Bridge in 1676

Barden Bridge

Swirling waters of the River Wharfe

During our walk we were fortunate to get good views of Dipper and Red Kite.

Sunlit Oak tree

The Strid in high water condition. Here the Wharfe is only about 2 metres wide. A friendly chap lent me his tripod so I could try this long exposure shot.

Many people have drowned trying to jump over the Strid. It seems tantalisingly possible. Local legend has it that the land at Bolton Abbey was granted to the monks by Lady Alice de Rumilly in 1154 in memory of her son, the "Boy of Egremont", who drowned in the Strid. However, this seems unlikely as his signature appears on the deeds.

Accordion to my sources...

...Leeds is filling up with street entertainers as we enter the festive period.


This dapper chap is a particularly well turned out example.

Case closed

This was all that was left of the Woodpigeon this morning. No sign at all of a body, just these scattered feathers.

I took these shots too...

CSI: Shipley

Last week, while taking the previous shots at Northcliffe, I discovered a body.

This unfortunate Woodpigeon had left a trail of feathers from a path some 15 metres away and had ended up, very much dead, under the light cover of a young tree. The body showed no marks other than a little blood around the bill.

I could tell it was a recent kill from the condition of the feathers, which still allowed water to bead on their surface. I concluded that it must be a fox kill from earlier in the morning and that the fox would come back that evening for its meal. Northcliffe gets busy during the day at weekends and a fox would be easily disturbed. Elimentary, my dear reader!

That evening, me and my partner (that's the girl I live with, not the rookie replacement for the fine collegue shot in the line of duty) returned to the crime scene to stake it out. They say that the criminal always returns to the scene of the crime! As it got pitch dark and cold with nothing to report, we returned home. It was just as well we didn't make a night of it with pizza and doughnuts as the pigeon was untouched the next day. Strange!

Yesterday, I donned my grubbiest raincoat (it was chucking it down - see below) and with basset hound in tow, I lit a cigar and went to see if anything had become of the pigeon corpse. This is what I saw.

Holy decapitation! It is clear that the Woodie's head has been taken and there is evidence of plucking on the bird's neck and shoulders. The deterioration in the condition of the feathers over the course of a week is obvious.

In retrospect, I now think that this is the grisly work of a female Sparrowhawk. Here's why:

1. I know that Sparrowhawks are present in the woods, I saw my first there a few weeks ago.


2. I have seen Sparrowhawks move prey short distances to consume them before. Early this year I watched a Sparrowhawk take a Golden Plover. When it noticed me, it hopped away with its kill and was nowhere to be seen when I got closer to the site. Johan Lind's website has some excellent footage of this type of behaviour here.


3. A fox would probably have caused more damage to the bird in taking it and, although they sometimes cache prey to eat later, a fox would probably make a better job of hiding it, further from the site of the kill, even taking it back to its den.


4. A Woodpigeon is large prey for a Sparrowhawk, though a female, being the larger sex wouldn't struggle.

Just one more thing...

It was Preben Bang and Preben Dahlstrom's great book "Animal Tracks and Signs" which clinched it. They say of birds of prey in general and Sparrowhawks in particular - "it usually tears the head off first and eats the brain ... next it begins to pluck the kill" ... "The prey is brought to a partially hidden spot ... the female, somewhat larger than the male, can catch birds as big as pigeons".

Book 'em, Danno!


I told you the weather was bad. This stream is usually no more than a trickle.

Woodland walk

Northcliffe is a local beauty spot where I took these shots while out on a walk.

Local tracks have flags with wide grooves worn in them and stone troughs. Perhaps they were used as sledways to move coal, by horse, from the pitheads to the valley and main transport routes.

Later, I found these Red Campion flowering.

My field guide says they flower between May and June. Odd that!

Any port in an ice storm

I took these shots today, inspired by a picture I saw in a book.

I played with various flash and white balance settings to get the different effects.

Oh, and the "port" is actually blackcurrant cordial.

Will use a tripod in future!

Leeds light

We've been having some nice sunsets just recently. Here's a shot from a classroom window at about 4pm.

Grassington mines walk

I took a walk around Grassington to look at the lead mine workings around Hebden Gill, Yarnbury and Conistone Moor. It's odd to think that the landscape once shook with the noise of heavy, extractive industry. There were butterflies still around in the lower part of the valley.


This may be a "hush", where dammed water was released to strip away the topsoil to reveal the ore seams beneath.

Today just the ghosts of the workings remain as a reminder of the hard work endured by our ancestors.

These are the remains of an undershot water wheel used to drive crushing machinery (the hole for the axle can be seen in the stonework, centre and the channel for the water, just made out to the left).

Tenant miners could rent a thirty yard stretch of a seam working to extract the ore from shallow bell pits on the surface.

While walking up Mossdale (scene of the tragic Mossdale trip of 1967) towards Conistone Moor, I saw a ring-tailed Hen Harrier flying south east.

Mining spoil on Conistone Moor.

Return to Spurn

I went back to Spurn to stay at the observatory hoping for a big fall. The fall didn't happen but I saw lots of shore birds and other interesting things all the same.

I think this must be a porpoise skeleton.

This is a view from the pillbox opposite the Crown pub. One of a number of WW2 defences (the pillbox, not the pub) falling into the sea at Spurn.

A leucistic Dunlin (I think).

Bird tracking RADAR being operated by the Central Science Laboratory and birding friend Andy in his new job.

And again from the inside.

Otley Chevin and Timble Ings

Went for a walk with a colleague at Otley Chevin yesterday to do some photography. Here're the modest fruits of our labours.

After Otley Chevin I made my way to Timble Ings, hoping to watch Andy and Sean's bird ringing activities.

Here I saw more fungus and Lesser Redpoll.

Lesser Redpoll ringed by Andy and Sean.

I also saw these footprints which, I think, are Hedgehog.

Into the evening Andy and Sean tried for Long-eared Owl but without success.