Grassington

Wednesday - Thursday Morning

After a busy week we managed to sneak off to Grassington for a short break.

No Wi-Fi, No Laptop, No blog up there but I managed a few photos.

After Sue had found a bargain in the clothes shop at the bottom of Grassington Square we had a real slow saunter along the river Wharf. First going to the stepping stones near the church and then going the other way below the road bridge – 2 miles in 2 hours – a real leisurely do.

The weather was smashing on Wednesday and Walter Walls Unshine coming with us.

A meal in the Gamekeeper Inn at Long Ashes rounded off a nice break.

The first bird seen was a Goldcrest in the first tree by Linton Bridge. This was closely followed by a Treecreeper that landed in the same tree, not 5 yds away. A little further on, on the steep banking, we were rewarded with 2 Kingfisher. One that was sat in a bush, very well camouflaged, dropped down behind the banking possibly looking to nest here.

On the river here there were 3 Goosander (1 Drake) looking very dapper in the bright sunshine. Near the fish farm buildings a GSW was drumming and we had a grand sight of c30 Noisy Oystercatcher  flying over in a neat formation > N.

The walk was peppered with Oyks in 2’s and 3’s. The river had Pied and Grey Wagtail feeding and on the return journey we spotted a Dipper here. Beyond the road bridge we sat for a while and as we watched Brown Trout take insects from the top of the water another Kingfisher flew past landing nearby and amazingly difficult so see.

6:30 am Thursday morning, we woke to SNOW, went back to sleep again and woke to THAW. Leaving for home a Buzzard made a fly past or is it soar past?

Birds:-

2 Goldcrest, Treecreeper, c45 Oystercatcher, 4 Pied Wagtail, 5 Grey Wagtail,5 Goosander, 3 Kingfisher, 2 Wren, Collard Dove, 2 Song Thrush, Pheasant, 2 Dipper, 3 Mistle Thrush, Moorhen, 2 Curlew, Nuthatch calling, GSW calling, Goldfinch, House Sparrow and others.