√Bradshaw - Denholme - Kelham - Raggalds

9:40 - 14:40

A nice day for a White Wedding as Billy Ocean might say, and also a nice day to take a hike with Sue taking Abigail to Spenboro' Swimming Baths.

It was cold but bright with it, a lovely day for a 5 hour outing.

The walk up to Taylor Lane and Soil Hill brought with it:-

A Little Owl, a good selection of Gulls in the Bonnet fields, including a Herring Gull (I think).

On Soil Hill main track a Snipe flushed nearby, calling 4 or 5 times as it left the scene flying directly north.

The c100 Lapwing, very distant, in the Shay fields, had dispersed when I finally made it to Thornton Road later in the day.

A Moorhen was on the NK pond and I had just 8 or so Meadow Pipit with a few Goldfinch for company along the Soil Hill circular path.

Ned Hill Track proved very interesting and very frustrating at the same time.

First up a Goldcrest in the first small bushes on the path.
A tad unusual for me to see here, normally they are further along in the conifers.

A Wren made a brief appearance, then another small bird flitted out from one bush to another - neither a Goldcrest or a Wren by it's behaviour.

A long wait ensued with me too-ing and fro-ing as the bird popped out and immediately popped in again.

I eventually got some really poor pics, but pics nonetheless, so I was 'happy' with that at least.

The bird appeared to have a striking yellow breast and a stripe above the eye. 
I believed the bird was a Chiffchaff.
(In one of the, half decent, pictures however , the birds legs look too light coloured for a Chiffchaff).
If so, it is a good bird to get here, so late on in the autumn.
If it's a Wren well.... I like Wren's just as much!!

A Kestrel was hunting far off to the south.

A Corvid (possibly a Raven I can't tell) was dive bombing a large bird - a Buzzard - as I looked over towards Ogden from Coal Lane.

Leaving Coal Lane I turned uphill towards Denholme.

The small hedge along the roadside, here, held 2 flighty Redwing.

A tad further along the road a solitary Fieldfare landed in a tree behind houses.

Foreside Lane, Black Edge Lane and the water board permissive bridleway were disappointing with just a Pheasant seen and nowt much else.

Feeling a bit weary, I stopped off at Asa Nicholsons cafe for some grub. 
The place was very busy and I had a relaxing 45 minutes here, an unusually long sit down for me here.

Batteries charged up again, I took a left down Crag Lane to Squirrel Lane and then back up Deep Lane to the farm shop.

A nice enough saunter but the camera was bored stiff with the lack of action.

Raggalds Flood (14:15) was bereft of birds, save a couple of crows.

The football fields had 2 Common Gull, 1 short for a game of attack and defence.

The Gull contingency seen earlier on the Bonnet fields, up and left just before I got near to them.

A Little Owl was hereabouts.

A good day out.

Thronton Road from Crag Lane