Following on from the RSPB guided walk along the river and canal I decided to do similar walks over the Easter weekend. In the past I tended to limit my walks to between Charlestown Cemetery and Buck Lane Bridge. I had heard of Sand Martins in Shipley so I decided to include that too.
These photos are from the Saturday and Sunday of Easter weekend. The header image is a Willow Warbler. I heard it singing so I am confident that it was a Willow Warbler and I am happy to be quoted on that.
As usual you can tap/touch/click on an image, not its caption, to see it in better quality in the gallery.
Saturday 19th
On Saturday I parked on Dockfield Road and walked along the canal towards Baildon. At the rail bridge over the canal the land on the other side is being worked on. Instead of the grass, and ducks and geese coming down to the water’s edge part of the area is now cleared and hardcore laid down. Quite a few of the huts are still there, even one with large solar panels, and wandering around are 12 or 13 goats.
Further along the canal more wildlife could be heard. Quite a few Chiffchaff and several Willow Warblers were singing. They are small birds so I had to spend a while trying to find them in the trees. Several of them I watched singing as I took their photos so I was sure which they were, Chiffchaff or Willow Warbler; now when I look at the photos I start to question that. The Willow Warbler in the Gorse were identified more from their call than their song. Though the leg colour, Chiffchaff v Willow Warbler, is often used in ID it is not guaranteed. Apparently the length of the wing feathers is a better guide but the poses didn’t help. The Willow Warblers have a longer migration so their wings are slightly longer.
Even the Robin, singing loudly was tricky to find. I kept looking too high in the trees and bushes. They were quite low, around head height.
A lone juvenile Swan was paddling up and down the canal. I looks as though the ones I saw in August last year have moved on.
In quite a few places there were small clumps of Bluebells. I need to go and have a look at how the carpets of Bluebells are getting on in other parts of Baildon.
Sunday 20th
On Sunday I parked in the lay-by opposite the entrance to Denso Marston Nature Reserve and walked along the river to Shipley and then back to Baildon along the canal with a stop off at Saltaire Brewery.
I have split the day into River, Sand Martins, and Canal and also made the gallery of the Sand Martins only 1 image wide
River
These are photos from the walk along the river bank. The Wren was belting out its tune. It’s amazing how loud such a little bird can be. The sun also brought out a variety of butterflies, Small Tortoiseshell, Speckled Wood, Large White, and Small White.
It might seem like a strange thing to do but, yet again, I have taken some photos of the bricks that can be seen in the river Aire. These again are behind Manor Coatings, AKA Shipley Paint, on Otley Road. Some others can be seen in my post 13th RSPB & DNMR. I now know what the …HOUSE name is from that walk. A brick made at Lofthouse, 4.5km north of Wakefield.
They are:-
- Bingley Sanitary Tube and Lime Co. Ltd., Eldwick
- ?Tomlinson Plastic?
- Lofthouse Brick works, Lofthouse, 4.5km north of Wakefield.
- H. Birkby & Sons at Storr Hill, Wyke
The Small White butterfly was spotted on the path to the west side of B & M at bunch.jolly.small it is laying eggs on the underside of the leaves.
The Grey Heron is on the weir just below the Otley Road bridge. And the Canada Goose, on its nest, right next to the bridge.
Sand Martins
On the RSPB canal walk I heard that Sand Martins were in Shipley so I decided to have a look myself. The first couple of times I went there I saw them, but I think they saw me too. They swooped around a few times and then disappeared for a while before doing coming back to do the same.
In the past I have photographed Sand Martins on the river Wharfe at Ben Rhydding Gravel Pits. I had been pleased with some of the photos but because of the distance they were not going to be particularly good. I have also seen them at Rodley Nature Reserve but that is even further away. You could tell that they were Sand Martins, just.
While I was taking these photos someone suggested that they were House Martins. The photos I had taken did look bluish but they don’t have the white rump of House Martins and on looking closer later the blueness was probably just the effect of the light at the time.
I think I said House Martins when talking to a family at Saltaire Brewery. Apologies.
Canal
These photos are from the walk back along the canal.
The Boatman’s Wharfe apartments have some hedges next to the canal that seem popular with House Sparrows and I spotted one with its beak full of feathers = nesting material. You can just recognise the shape of another male House Sparrow above and behind it.
Just a little way past the pipe bridge and footbridge are hedges and land behind them with lots of leaf litter, just the sort of environment that Blackbird like to rummage in.
According to Google Maps the derelict building at Gallows Bridge is Junction House.
A little further along the canal the house are on the aptly named Cygnet Way.
The Crow is feeding on something that looks very unpleasant at the timbers controlling the level of the water in the canal – where the water flows down into the river on the opposite side to Denso Marston Nature Reserve.
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