I got March off to a good start with sightings of quite a few Siskin during a visit to Denso Marston Nature Reserve and a walk along the River Aire and up to the Leeds Liverpool Canal at Buck Wood.
The header image is one of the Siskin.
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Siskin
The position on the Alder tree near the pond is good for getting sight of any birds feeding on the catkins. Birds, like these Siskin, certainly prefer the seeds in the round female catkins rather than the pollen heavy dangling male catkins.
The birds flew between the tree near the pond and the tops of the trees between the pond and the river. Judging by the noise there were quite a few of them but they managed to blend in with the dark branches so I couldn’t guess a count.
Other Birds
While watching the Siskin a Buzzard circled over the Wild Flower Meadow before floating off into the distance.
Others spotted were:-
- Grey Wagtail
- Robins belting out their Spring song
- Wren competing in the volume stakes
- A young Grey Heron – no dark stripe on the head, no dark blue shoulders.
- And best of all a Kingfisher tucked under the fallen trees near the entrance
Spring
Spring flowers were showing:-
- Celandine
- Primrose
- Dwarf Daffodil
- Crocus
- Daffodil
Fungi
It was nice to spot Elfcup. Without putting the underside under a decent microscope I can’t say whether it is Scarlet Elfcup or Ruby Elfcup.
Though I could only narrow the elfcup down to 1 of 2 varieties it is better than I can do with any of the other fungi. Most of them I have labelled Bracket Fungus. Some of them are possibly Trametes sp. Others possibly Ganoderma sp.
The second to last photo, of the bark beetle larvae tracks can also be under the heading of Fungi because I think it is evidence of the
In the River Aire
The car wheel that I have posted photos of before was still under water, but there is still plenty of rubbish in and along the river, masses of it. No doubt a lot of it provides hiding places for little things, surfaces for bacteria and fungi to grow on etc. But will also be providing threads for things to get tangled in, plastics to clog up the innards of animals, and also covering more natural surfaces where nature stands a better chance of surviving.
These rubbish photos were taken from the river bank at the back of Charlestown Cemetery. I try to get to that part of the river to check on the outflow of Barnsley Beck, it often shows signs of being polluted, either from the colour or the smell, or both. This time it was a bit bubbly and there was a hint of an unpleasant smell, but nothing I felt confident enough about to report to the Environment Agency.
Down river, just below the weir near the footbridge was a wading angler looking very unsteady.
Track
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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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