The Moon and the Cuckoo Tree

Back to the imaginary band name blog titles!

 I took Tussock over to Heber's Ghyll hoping to catch up with the wood warblers reported on the Bradford Birders blog  early this morning (we were there before 6am). Not only did we hear them (by the new footbridges on the Ilkley side of the wood) but we heard a cuckoo too, on the edge of the moor itself. I'm fairly certain it was in the tree pictured above

Two out of three ain't bad

I went for a walk in the Strid Woods on Sunday evening. It is still quite cold and the wind always seems to funnel downstream at Bolton Abbey (i.e. from the North) whichever way it's blowing, but I saw redstart (one handsome male) and pied flycatcher (a pair near the Hobbit's bus stop) along with lots of other woodland and riverside birds (LTT, treecreeper, nuthatch, willow warbler, common sandpiper, oystercatcher, sand martin etc) 

There was no sign of wood warbler (the last two years there have been three or four singing males in the area around the Strid itself) but I'll probably go for another walk later this week to try to see one. A wood warbler was found near where Stef's folks live in Devon and there are great photographs of this real woodland special here and here 

Cockley Beck

The weather was a bit mixed to put it mildly for our break at Cockley Beck, with a couple of stunning sunny days but two or three extremely wet and windy ones too. We managed to do 77 miles and around 29,000 feet of climb, which sounds incredible looking back now!  In fairness this was mostly jog / walked at Bob Graham pace (2.5 to 3 miles per hour or so), but we did run up Hardknott Pass one day over to Eskdale and back

The cottage we stay in at the Beck has no mobile phone signal or internet plus it's six miles to the nearest pub so we always take loads of food and drink and largely are either on the fell or in the cottage. There are some great birds in the area and I usually make a list of what we've seen during our stay. This year's highlights included siskin, swallow, raven, buzzard, red kite, wheatear, meadow pipit, chiffchaff and willow warbler

Stef has her Bob Graham attempt in two weeks time and is about to start her taper after this weekend's Highlander MM, which she's doing with Yiannis. I've been looking forward to a weekend catching up with friends and no (or relatively little) running. I went to the Narrowboat last night with a dozen or so KCAC pals to celebrate Brett's birthday and I'll probably have a walk in the Strid Woods at some point today; hopefully to see a wood warbler or two

A good day

I got up early this morning and went down to Barden Bridge for a bird watching walk before work. The woods were alive with birdsong and I saw many of the expected species including several calling nuthatch, maybe six pied flycatcher (all male), loads of sand martins, treecreeper, chiffchaff, willow warbler, a pair of blackcap and goosander. No wood warblers were about in spite of walking as far as last spring and summer's 'hotspots' but  I did see a mystery wader disappearing away quickly as I walked back to the car. I only saw it for a few seconds and I'm fairly sure it was a redshank (it sounded like one) but I'm not sure

This evening Stef and I ran from home over the Beacon as far as Round Hill, then back. The sun was setting as we were on our way back to the Beacon and it was lovely still evening for fell running. We just got home with a few minutes to spare before dark and had sausage and beans for summer. It's been a good day!