A good hike

9:30 - 14:15

A beautiful day for a longish walk today, cool and breezy but quite pleasant when the sun came along.
From home I went through the fields to Holdsworth then up Windy Bank Lane and Crooked Lane, across the road and along Ringby Lane.
I retraced my steps to Catherine Slack where I caught the bus to Queensbury terminus.
After coffee and toast in a café I headed off again to Station Road.
Some welcome downhill for a while now, took me along my usual route through Scholes to Low Lane and Pit Lane.

I crossed to Old Guy Road and after a bit I took a path across fields to Roper Lane where a good field path leads back to Bradshaw.

Birds:

A great deal of looking but not a lot of seeing today.

Bradshaw Area:

2 Pied Wagtail.
2 Jay.
Kestrel or Sparrowhawk being mobbed by a single Magpie.
Probably a Kestrel

A look up to Ringby Top from the bottom of Windy Bank lane, revealed a distant tussle between c10 Crows and a Kestrel.
The Kestrel must have seen something juicy because it persevered with the tussle for some time even though it was outnumbered.

Ringby Lane / Top:

A bit quieter here than usual.
Usual mass of Corvids, enjoying the strong westerly.
12 Linnet.
7 Meadow Pipit seen, although the long grass may have held many more!
A Skylark - with a short burst of song - was a nice surprize.

11:00 came along at Ringby Top, and I heard the sound of a good few Geese (pinkies?), possibly SW of me.
A good scan with the bins failed to locate them!

12:00 Station Road - Queensbury.

A Buzzard was heard as soon as I left the main road for the welcome descent of Station Lane - didn't pick it up in the bins though.

At the bottom of the lane a second (?) Buzzard (not calling) was seen close by.

A small bird dropped vertically from above onto a wall, it allowed one photo before disappearing.
I'm guessing It's a Dunnock but the behaviour seemed strange.

The area by the Railway tunnel is very sheltered and the bushes there held a good few small birds flitting about.

Blue, Great and Long Tailed Tit.
Chaffinch, Robins singing.
Treecreeper.
Pheasant.
A Racing Pigeon was resting on a wall.

Low Lane:

 A Fly past of a solitary Greenfinch.

Old Guy Road to Home:

2 Kestrel.

Bradshaw from Crooked Lane

Dunnock(?)