On The Buses... Monday

There isn't much bird talk , alas, in this old guff ..............

We caught the 9:30 bus to Halifax, followed quite smartly by the Burnley bus, intending to alight at Hebden Bridge and walk to Todmorden.

The weather forecast predicted rain soon after lunch today so we wanted to get going as soon as.

Just before Tenterfields we joined a very long, very slow moving traffic queue caused by 4 way traffic lights somewhere near Ludd. Foot apparently.

With the potential long delay we decided to get off this bus here and walk down to the canal and continue walking along it towards Hebden Bridge, soon  joining the railway / river path.

A bit boring today with lots of 'under tree' walking and plenty of birdsong but not many sightings.

We each enjoyed a ham/cheese toastie at the little cafe on Mytholmroyd bridge which we could have shared ... it was so big.

At Hebden we enjoyed an ice cream at the excellent shop called ? on the corner of ? street in Hebden.

To avoid the hold up on our return bus journey Sue happened to mention a very infrequent '900' bus that goes from Hebden to Huddersfield via some circuitous method.

We traipsed over to the bus stop to check the times and funnily enough the 900 was due in, in 15 minutes.

The 900 bus journey is really excellent going to Mytholmroyd then turning right up Crag Vale and following the long incline all the way up to Blackstone Edge Reservoir,

Here the bus turns left on the A58 and goes all the way down again to Ripponden before going to West Vale and on to Huddersfield (we think).

At Ripponden the bus stopped for a rest and I got off to look at an alternative bus to town.

A vague timetable here reported a bus in 15 minutes so we left the 900 and waited for the 15 minute bus.

A 562 bus arrived, we got on, the driver turned the engine off, got off the bus and vamoosed.

While the driver was gone another Halifax bus, the 587 I think  , zoomed past.

No sign of our driver but after 10 minutes or so he got back on the bus but nothing happened engine-wise.

Sue though the bus had broken down, but when she enquired with the driver he said " Mill Bank is shut, so I don't go up there, so I have to make my time up by hanging about down here".

I wonder why he did not tell us all this before we got on his bus?

This bus takes forever to get to Halifax, it goes to Sowerby Bridge then turns right to Copley, goes up the hill to skirt, Skircoat,  past the hospital,  back up through Skircoat Green  and down again past the shay....... Boo Hoo 😭.

Birds:-

(Just a small camera today).

7 Grey Wagtail.

1 Pied Wagtail.

2 Great Spotted Woodpecker.

3 Blackcap.

3 Song Thrush.

Bullfinch.

Sand Martin.

House Martin.

House Martin looked to be nesting under the eaves of houses near Mytholmroyd Bridge.

Swallow.

A Dipper on the river by Hebden Bridge park.

A Buzzard was seen from the bus.

Some photos of Blackstone Edge reservoir were taken from the bus show plenty of shore line remaining.