{"id":1539,"date":"2017-05-22T23:10:35","date_gmt":"2017-05-22T23:10:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.marfell.me.uk\/wordpress\/?p=1539"},"modified":"2017-05-23T09:55:56","modified_gmt":"2017-05-23T09:55:56","slug":"the-weekend-on-baildon-moor-20-21-may-2017","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.marfell.me.uk\/wordpress\/the-weekend-on-baildon-moor-20-21-may-2017\/","title":{"rendered":"The weekend on Baildon Moor (20-21 May 2017)"},"content":{"rendered":"

It’s a while since I went up onto Baildon Moor to look and listen for the wildlife. So this last weekend I went up around Glovershaw and Golcar Farms, the north west corner of the moor. And I wasn’t disappointed, even if I did get wet on Saturday. Earlier it had been a bright day but soon after getting there on Saturday afternoon it clouded over and started to rain.<\/p>\n

There are several distinctive sounds to listen for over on that part of the moor (and the list gets longer as I think about, it but I’ll limit it to the first few I thought of)<\/p>\n

\"Curlew<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Curlew<\/a><\/p>\n

Curlew with their eerie call as they drift in to land as per the two photos above.<\/p>\n

You can often here the same sound on programs like Heartbeat and similar.<\/p>\n

\"Lapwing\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Lapwing can be seen in the meadows keeping an eye on their young…<\/p>\n

\"Lapwing<\/a><\/p>\n

tiny brown birds.<\/p>\n

\"Lapwing<\/a><\/p>\n

and the sign comes out each year<\/p>\n

\"Lapwing\"<\/a><\/p>\n

but if anything approaches their nests they get rather noisy and will dive bomb anything approaching\u00a0calling their “peewit” as they wheel about protecting their young<\/p>\n

\"Snipe\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Snipe are also around. Note the blurry blob in the foreground for later.<\/p>\n

\"Snipe\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I love the “chipper, chipper” noise that Snipe make,<\/p>\n

\"Redshank\"<\/a><\/p>\n

but I have recently learnt that the Redhank (above) make a similar noise<\/p>\n

\"Redshank<\/a><\/p>\n

and the Redshank breed here too.<\/p>\n

Other sounds are Pheasant with their squawk and wing flapping and the “brrmm” as a car goes over the cattle grid…..<\/p>\n

\"Snipe<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Snipe<\/a><\/p>\n

But the two sounds I like to hear most are the song of a Skylark as it ascends to be a tiny dot in the sky (sorry no photos) and the “thrumming” of a Snipe’s dive, as shown above. They fly around and then dive and extend two tail feathers that then thrum quite loudly in the air.<\/p>\n

\"Meadow<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Meadow<\/a><\/p>\n

Meadow Pipit are also common, and noisy, on the moor.<\/p>\n

\"Meadow<\/a><\/p>\n

In one of the photos of a Snipe shown above there is a blurred brown blob in the foreground. This Meadow Pipit was the brown blob. And the brown blob at the top of this photo is the Snipe.<\/p>\n

I mentioned that Lapwing protect their young…<\/p>\n

\"Stoat\"<\/a><\/p>\n

and this is what they have to protect them from. A Stoat. Not forgetting Crows, Magpies, Red Kite, Kestrels, the hooves of cattle etc. etc.
\nStoats are excellent hunters and I could imagine them easily clearing a field of young Lapwing.<\/p>\n

\"Stoat\"<\/a><\/p>\n

It’s a blurry photo but it looks as though this Stoat have something in its mouth. Note the black end to the tail identifying it as a Stoat and not a Weasel.<\/p>\n

\"Reed<\/a>