I need to think of different places to go, though probably what I should be doing is some stuff around the house. I have been to the river Wharfe at Ben Rhydding Gravel Pits and the river Aire at Denso Marston Nature Reserve yet again.
As usual clicking on an image should load it in its gallery for viewing.
Ben Rhydding
On 5 Jan I went along to Ben Rhydding Gravel Pits and walked along the river Wharfe for a while. One of the areas is full of Teasels. In my last post I included a photo of a couple of Teasels but it did not show that that they were two of many. The photo here is deliberately taken with a much smaller aperture so that some of the other Teasels behind can be seen as brown blobs. Walking along the riverside path I saw what I thought was a puff ball type fungus in the fork of a tree stump. When I got closer I realised that it was a fat ball for the birds.
Tree Walk
On Saturday, Steve Warrilow, the Warden, conducted a walk around Denso Marston Nature Reserve for tree identification. It was interesting but I am more interested in wildlife so I kept being distracted by other things. I also need to go on their Fungi Walk again so that I might have a better idea of what the big chunky fungus was that I saw. I have said Bracket Fungus but that covers a wide variety that are that general shape. Quite early on in the walk a Little Grebe was spotted but it wasn’t until the walk was almost finished that it showed itself for me to get a few photos of it – and it had a fish in its beak. The squirrel spent a few seconds drinking from the river before scampering up a tree. Several squirrels could be heard squeaking in the trees and several were spotted chasing each other.
Yeadon Tarn
Sunday 8 Jan was a Second Sunday in the game of Ingress and I spent some time walking around Yeadon for it. The session finished at Yeadon Tarn so I walked round it with my camera.
Part way round the Tarn I spotted a lone Cormorant swimming and diving. They sit very low in the water. When I got round to the model boat area it was stretching its wings out and I took a few photos of it. In the same area several Swans were displaying. At least one pair had already decided that they were an item and kept putting their heads together. I wasn’t in the right place to get them forming a heart shape with their head and necks. The Tufted Ducks were displaying their tufts quite well. The Black Headed Gull on the yellow buoy was quite amusing. It kept putting its beak down to the water and that caused its feet to slide down the buoy and it went into the water head first.
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