Todmorden to Sowerby Bridge

On the buses again with Stan & Olive.

Today we caught the 9:30 bus from Bradshaw to Halifax followed by the 592 Burnley bus from George's Square as far as Todmorden.

It was now 11a.m so brunch was on the cards and we enjoyed a breakfast bap and coffee , at Spoons, to set us up for a good hike along the canal back to Sowerby Bridge.

We got to Hebden Bridge at 1:30 and popped into the co-op for a pop,  thirst quencher.

On again with the intention of calling at The Blue Teapot for a coffee and bun but it was packed so we carried clogging on to Sowerby  Bridge.

It was approaching 4 pm by now and I had a real thirst on so we called at Spoons in Sowerby Bridge for a drink but having sat down and relaxed we decided to avoid cooking when we got home and opted to have tea here.

I had a jalfrezi curry an excellent choice and a Doom Bar ...  nice.

I noticed that my pants belt had one notch unused and so I decided to fill it with a cookie crunch !!

A couple of buses later we got us to Bradshaw Church and walked home getting in at 6pm ish.

An excellent day out (and non of our diesel used!).

Birds:-

Just some small tackle with me today.

Green Woodpecker heard.

2 Nuthatch.

Goldcrest.

2 Grey Wagtail.

2 Dipper.

4 Goosander (2m 2f).

2 Pink Footed Geese.

1 Barnacle Goose being by "swooned" by a  Canada Goose, watch this space.

1 Cormorant.

Hello Gorgeous!

Elland to Brookfoot Walk

The usual walk again today from Elland towards Brighouse along the canal and river.

A dull, dull sort of day.

I spent lots of time eyeballing the ski lake from different vantage points near the canal, hoping to connect with a Great Crested Grebe - but field miserably.

As usual lots of  birds and bird call to investigate here with the Canada Geese in pairing mode going "bonkers".

I chatted to 2 Police types by the lagoon, before they veered off left towards Elland - pity that , because not long after a guy on a motorbike came along from the other direction, saw their backs, and turned around before they could 'chastise' him perhaps.

The canal tow path was quite busy with people today.

Birds:

Mallard, 2 Mute Swan, Canada Geese, 8 Cormorant, 2 Grey Wagtail, 3 Song Thrush.

Kingfisher, Blue, Great, Coal and long Tailed Tit.

2 Nuthatch, Chaffinch, 9 Heron, 3 Moorhen, 2 Coot.

Bullfinch, Goldfinch.

Reed Bunting.

Little Grebe, 2m and 2f Goldeneye, 3m 5f Goosander.

Herring, Common and Black Headed Gull.

Jackdaw, Pied Wagtail.

Robin, Blackbird, Magpie, Carrion Crow.

2 Buzzard high near Baliff Bridge (seen from the car).

Yesterday's Answer:

This math brain teaser cannot be solved mathematically. This is because the sum of three odd numbers cannot be an even number. Don’t forget that!

What you need to measure here is your attention!

If you place balls 11 and 13 into the holes, you get 24.

Then, if you put ball 9 upside down in the hole, you get 24 + 6 = 30.

😠 Yeah - that's what I thought!

On the buses

Some light snowy, sleety stuff here this morning so we took the opportunity to go Aldi shopping given the poor weather...cold.

Late morning we walked down to Bradshaw Church and caught the 502 to Cross Roads, above Keighley for a sandwitch for lunch at the excellent Wildes cafe there.

After lunch we walked into Haworth in heavy drizzle blown along  by a strong cold breeze.

The drizzle kept us company throughtout our walk along the stream to Oxenhope station.

A real mud bath along here today - my boots weighted twice as much at the end of the walk, compared to the start.

At Oxenhope we had a choice of bus direction with buses to Keighley or Hebden Bridge passing through.

We caught the first to turn up, the Hebden Bridge one.

We did not loiter in Hebden opting to catch the 1st bus to Halifax.

Our Halifax 523 bus now departs from the new glitzy bus station, which we caught within 5 minutes of arriving there.

This is a good bus for us as it goes to Bradshaw Church.

Within 15 minutes of our arrival home,  we had a flipping power cut.

This threatened to last till 10pm according to a Northern Power Grid text, but in the end, the power popped up again a good bit before 7pm allowing me to complete my super-dooper blog this evening (not).

Birds:

Not a lot seen in the drizzle.

Worth a mention was a Buzzard near Oxenhope Station.

Just Canada Geese seen through a gunged up bus window as we passed through Brearley.

Here try this - I could not do it and had to cheat

and look at the answer.

Tricky.

Answer next post (providing I remember).

p.s. this is a question for Kids!!!

Garden/ Ringstone / Raggalds Flood / Local Fields

A strange misty, then sunny, then misty again, sort of morning where I had a short sky watch from the garden.

Colder today I thought.

This afternoon we had a visit to make to Sowerby Bridge and afterwards, we took the opportunity to have a very quick look at Ringstone Reservoir.

After a visit to Kelham Farm shop I checked on Raggalds Flood and late afternoon I had a walk in a raw breeze up the local fields... brrrrr.

Birds:

Garden:

Two skeins of Pink Footed Geese, both West this morning.

One skein of 67 Geese was seen as it passed near our house, the second skein, remained unseen as the Geese called flying through the mist.

Ringstone Reservoir:

I just scanned from the reservoir wall, and what birds were here, were mostly in the distant north field.

Just Gulls on the water, alas.

Usual Lapwing and Smaller Gulls ???? but I was nowhere near enough to them,  to rule out a mega.

Just one Herring Gull stood out on the distant photos.

One or two  odd ball looking Gulls but that is probably poor picture quality at the distance zoom.

Lots of Crows on the embankment on the grass next to the reservoir wall

A Dead Rat was by the roadside.

Raggalds Flood:

50 Lapwing and 1 Starling.

Local Fields:

Mistle Thrush.

2 Little Owl (one with a different call to my usual one heard).

Bradshaw - Soil Hill Circular / Garden

A cracking day for a walk with clear blue sky and sunshine.

The light misty stuff seen in town did eventually rise into light fluffy clouds here.

The ground was frozen in places and Taylor Lane was an ice rink here and there.

The sleepover went really will with the 3 ladies on lie lows in the lounge running out of puff at a little after 1am.

After Soil Hill I sat in the garden before we all went down the park for some "football".

My stint in goals was a poor do with each of ladies scoring a goal... but they don't play fair.. they just don't!!

The garden sit out was good with 2 skeins of Pinkies going over west-ish and Buzzards calling and seen a good few times.

Three Buzzards were see at one time high over Oats Royd drifting SE.

Birds:

Soil Hill Walk.

Green Woodpecker heard.

7 Pheasant.

C35 Common Gull.

C13 Skylark ... 3 up singing.

2 Kestrel.

1 Grey Partridge 

1 Sparrowhawk.

Oystercatcher on TMR (Oxenhope) Reservoir seen from Soil Hill.

6 Fieldfare 

Raven.

6 or so Buzzard sightings. 

(Not sure how many Buzzard).

Mistle Thrush. (seen & singing).

3 Greenfinch 

Pink Footed Geese. 

c95 Pinkies seen at 12 noon and c190 seen at 13:37.

An enjoyable day all round.. well except for the cheating footballers!!

(A long journey late afternoon / evening to drop everyone back home though!).

Raven.

Pinkies over Bradshaw at 13:37.

A second small skein was just behind the above of  of 20 or so.

Very, Very Distant Pinkies 12 noon ish.

South of me going West ish.

Ogden - Hail, Sleet, Rain and Sun

A bit of a grim circuit of Ogden this afternoon improved a bit  but only because I paid a visit to the café!

Good to chat with the volunteers and the "two sticks lady" as well as CS there.

I also called at the Raggalds Flood on my way home but all was deads-ville today!

A much better weather forecast for tomorrow and with Abi having 2 school friends to sleep over at ours tonight I am hoping to slope off in the morning.

Live in hope,  etc ,...

Birds:-

Just a couple of Black Headed Gulls on the flood with loads of juice though.

c40 Gulls.

2 Lesser Black-backed Gulls.

4 Canada Geese.

4 Robin.

2 Blackbird.

Long Tailed Tits.

Some very high pitched contact calls heard but the callers remained incognito.

Singing Thrushes was " me lot"

I think it's good idea for me to add an "r" to "Me lot"... hic.

Came home from the boozer late last night - a tad "slurry".

I said to the wife "I love you".

Wife replied "Olive who? - how much have you had to drink?"

 " Twaves" I replied.

 "Look" she said "It's me or the pub".

I hesitated a bit to think and eventually said.

" It's definitely you - I can tell by the voice".