Today, Sunday 25 May 2025, I joined the Bradford Urban Wildlife Group walk along the River Aire between Hirst Mill and Bingley. The idea was to talk about Otters and look out for their signs. It was not expected that we would see any Otter but to look for evidence that they had been around and to talk about what we were seeing so that on future walks along rivers and canals we would know what we were looking at and be able to report our sightings.
The header image is the back of Andy Mather’s jacket , covered in Aphids from when he decided to brush under a tree to get closer to the river bank. Andy was our Otter expert from the Calderdale Otter Project.
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Sightings
We didn’t see any Otters but we did see evidence in many places that they were around.
One of the things I like about these walks is that you learn about a particular topic but also there are others on the walk that are experts in other things I find interesting – like Fungi and Plants, e.g. the ID of Sweet Cicely.
The Mallard Ducklings on the rock were next to the weir at Hirst Mill.
I think I have the name right for the Sweet Cicely. I would have said it was Cow Parsley but with this one the leaves have a very distinct Aniseed smell when rubbed between your fingers.
While out and about we also saw or heard many other birds than the ones I managed to get a photo of – like Cormorant, Pied Wagtail, Wood Pigeon, Great Spotted Woodpecker, Blackcap, Wren, Robin, Great Tit, Chiffchaff, Chaffinch, Blackbird, Song Thrush, Magpie, Carrion Crow, Jackdaw and probably others that I have forgotten.
Don’t zoom in on the Buzzard. We don’t quite have the technology to say zoom in, enhance so that you can see the glint in its eye. It was a tiny shape up in the sky.
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The images are published under the Creative Commons, BY-NC-SA license. Feel free to share them, edit them, but please keep my name in the credits. And if I have got the ID of anything wrong please let me know, I don’t consider myself an expert but I have write something. It is often a best guess and it would take up too much room to say It could be this, or it could be… or perhaps.
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