A bat feeding at mid-day.

Brian Taylor sends these observations and thoughts - "at Gorpley dam yesterday (Sunday 20th March) I came across a bat, which I took to be a pipistrelle as it was quite small, hawking for flies around the dam wall and the water treatment plant (particularly the pond), in broad daylight around mid-day. Presumably it had woken up hungry!  I wondered whether they might roost in the old mine adits?   Have others been seen emerging from hibernation?

On the moor nearby I've seen snipe recently, and yesterday a surprisingly confiding golden plover -with white underparts apparently indicating winter plumage, or a first summer male- and got to thinking its that time of the year when we need to be talking to dog owners about the need to keep their pets under close control on moorland.  There was an excellent article in the Rochdale paper recently by someone from Lancs Wildlife Trust.  He wrote it from the point of view of a responsible dog owner.  As you're no doubt aware, there's still/also a need for more and better notices at access points round here ..."

with best wishes, Brian.

Amphibians starting to breed.

On the toad front we had two on the road at Todmorden on Saturday, but none at the same site on Sunday, when the temperature dropped to about 7C.

Frogs: on the impromtu walk yesterday (3 turned up - see below) we saw  c.40 frogs having a great get together among  c.20 clumps of spawn at Cunnery Wood, near Shibden Park, and I now have 6 clumps in my tiny garden pond, where it appears about one per night, with no sign of the frogs!

We have a good team of volunteers at Boulderclough Dam, near Sowerby, but need people at Thornhill Beck Lane, Brighouse. If you can go just a few of the warmest nights (around 10C seems optimal - or warmer) that would save a lot of toads.

There are also sites at Todmorden where volunteers would be welcomed, plus one at Hebden Bridge, at Hebden Hey to be exact, where I'm not aware of anyone intending to go along.

Please try to count your toads if helping them across roads, and send me your records at the end of the season (in about 2 to 3 weeks depending on temperatures.) Count squashed ones as well please.

Steve 0771 500 5379

p.s. though we see many toads, we don't often see their strange strings of spawn, so different from that of frogs. I will endeavour to find some this year, and organise a visit for those toad patrol volunteers who are curious to see it. One year it was very prominent at Widdop Res, in the channel along the side, and also in the main reservoir itself.

Impromtu Walk Sunday 13th March 1pm. up Beacon Hill.

Some of us hope to walk up Beacon Hill. The path is cobbled - the "Magna Via" - it is thought to be the original main track into Halifax from Wakefield in the Middle Ages.

Meet at the phone box outside the Railway Station, opposite Square Chapel. We will be in sight of the new library which is really progressing now.

Meet at 1.00 for 1.10pm. Snacks and refreshments might be a good idea as we pass no shops or cafes.

If we make good time we might go over the top and down the other side slightly to Cunnery Wood; though we will go the speed of the slowest up the Magna Via, with stops to look at things. Distance c.3 miles, but with a big hill.

Calderdale Barn Owls 07 03 2016

I Was watching a Barn Owl Locally on 07 03 16 when another flew nearby, the two were close together at one point,certainly been quite a few sightings Locally over the last few Years .I know Phillip saw 2 outside our area,recently,and a few of us have had some great sightings Locally in the last few Years.So watch out if anyones out and about late afternoon onwards,there could be more than we realise.

Will this disease arrive here?

I had never heard of this bacterial pathogen until recently but it is another very real threat to our trees and shrubs. I follow with a few quotes which should alarm us all.

"Plant disease Xylella fastidiosa could wipe out the English oak in the same way as ash dieback is killing the UK's ash trees"

The lethal bacterium, already widespread on mainland Europe, has not yet entered the UK. "But if plant material keeps coming across from the Continent without any thought to bio-security it is only a matter of time before this menace becomes a reality".

"The European Food Safety Authority currently lists more than 350 plant species susceptible to Xylella fastidiosa, while the European Commission has called it "one of the most dangerous plant bacteria worldwide".

"The potential for Xylella will blow Chalara (Ash Dieback) totally out of the water - it is the unknown. We've seen it establish itself in France in a very short period of time, and maybe it's already in the UK. I would be very surprised if it is not more prevalent than it is at the moment".

Navelwort and Polypody

On the large wall near the canal opposite Sowerby Bridge cemetery is this Navelwort - Umbilicus rupestris. Next to it is a clever re-use of a stone gatepost, still with its former pintle on the side. The head of the gatepost now has a let-in iron hinge for a new gate. Nothing wasted then. Looks like Wall Rue is lurking in the shadows above the pintle.

 

I remember about 20 years ago Calderdale Council had a contractor pump in grout to all the drystone roadside walls from Todmorden to Eastwood. Every hole and cavity was filled in, presumably as a cheap way of stabilising them. Goodness knows how many mammals and birds etc were made homeless. With all this flooding we need to make sure our old walls aren't stabilised with similar methods but rebuilt properly. They are a great history book and home to allsorts.

 

Also Common Polypody-- Polypodium vulgare, in a wall at Mytholmroyd, showing the lovely orange sori underneath.

 

 

 

 

 

 

This Tuesday 8th March 2016, a very special talk especially for those interested in re-wilding our countryside.

Glaucous Gull at Cant Clough Res. 29.2.16

Cant Clough is just over the watershed from Upper Gorple Reservoir.

The gull comes in about 4pm and roosts alone an the otherwise deserted reservoir.

It's quite confiding, and appears to be a small individual, maybe slightly smaller than the average Lesser Black-backed.

With thanks to Ian C. for the tip-off.

Conifers in the Crags, our monthly walk - 27th February

Eight people turned out for the walk to Hardcastle Crags, near Hebden Bridge, West Yorkshire.

Peachysteve and myself as joint leaders, plus, Emma, Annie, Stella, Alison, Oliver and Am.

Plus four dogs, Basil, Lacey, Meg and Tig.

Our best achievement (for me) was to locate and get to know the Weymouth Pines near Walshaw Bridge.

Pictured above, it is the one with banana-shaped cones,beautifully spotted with white resin. It has soft, blue-green needles in bunches of five. Compare with the Scots pine at the bottom.

Pinus strobus, named after the British collector, Weymouth, but from Eastern USA, where it is known as Eastern White Pine among other things.

Scots Pine is P.sylvestris. It is easily rcognised from a distance by its reddish bark on the branches and sometimes trunk. Its needles are in twos, and vary from bluish-green to deep green on different trees.

Of course we looked at the three Douglas Firs at the Weymouth Pine site, but I forgot to photograph them.

We couldn't locate the Lodgepole Pines, P. contorta, which are supposed to be there.

So I'm still not familiar with those.

Part of the party coming along Hebden Water.

A poor picture of a Dipper, our Society's emblem.

We saw few other birds.

Weymouth Pine and its distinctive style of "handwriting" against the sky.

Looking up the trunk of one of the most massive Scots Pines on the river bank between Midgehole and Gibson Mill. Probably the largest living thing in Calderdale.

s

Other conifers we saw in the Crags were Yew (Taxus baccata) Norway spruce (Picea abies), Sitka Spruce  (Picea sitchensis) and the two larches, European and Japanese, with their distinctive cones (the Japanese with outcurving scales - the European with straight scales,) plus several that were hybrids, with the cones showing various degrees of out-curving. Austrian Black Pine, P. nigra, is quite frequent through the woods. There is a beautiful Hemlock, Tsuga heterophylla, at Hebden Hey, the Scout Headquarters, but we didn't have time to cross the valley to see it. A couple of Lawson's Cypresses Chamaecyparis lawsoniana, had been sawn off near a landslide on the private side of the valley near Hebden Hey.

The Deodor, or Indian Cedar Cedrus deodora, which was in the Lodge garden until fairly recently, has been felled. And the couple Cedars of Lebanon ( I found mentioned as being in the Crags in an old press cutting in our archives,)  I have never known to be there.

Thanks to Peachysteve for his encyclopaedic memory, his energy ferreting around for the larch cones, and his constant stream of moss names, three species of which he has decided to learn per day, with the help of the BBS Key and the confirmation of other Bryologists he contacts on I-spot.

He is concentrating on the common names.

We also looked for the Alternate-leaved Golden Saxifrage in the one site it is known, where  we relocated it after many decades last February, and it is still doing well.

A plant of Water Figwort was seen. There were signs of deer and rabbits. Meg walked around with a dead rabbit in her mouth for a while. (Meg is a black labrador :-)

Barn Owls

Barn Owl seen today 1 mile over Lancashire border. Then, amazingly, a few hours later saw another one flying and then resting on a wall only yards away from the car but this was near Gargrave. Two unexpected sightings in one day!

Early Small Tortoiseshell 15 02 16

Saw a Small Tortoiseshell,flitting over the ice and frost at  Langfield Common in the afternoon Sun,just seemed so out of place on a Winters day.regards Bri.

Walshaw Moor Estate,Business As Usual !! 16 02 2016

Had a couple of hours up on Walshaw Moor yesterday,and

yet again  More Burning Off  was being carried out, on the Walshaw Moor Shooting Estate !

(For issues surrounding this controversial burning please click on link in Bruce's post, a few posts down on 5th Feb. SB )

Do something practical for Nature Conservation

National Nest Box Week

NNBW takes place each year from 14-21 February, and after more than 15 years it is now an established part of the ornithological calendar.

NNBW aims to encourage everyone to put up nest boxes in their local area in order to promote and enhance biodiversity and conservation of our breeding birds and wildlife.

Whether you’re a family with space for a box in your garden, a teacher, a member of a local wildlife group, or you belong to a bird club and could organise a work party, National Nest Box Week gives you the chance to contribute to the conservation effort in the UK whilst giving you the pleasure of observing any breeding birds that you attract to your garden.

 Go to:   http://www.bto.org/about-birds/nnbw

Who can take part?

Anyone can take part whether you’re a family with space for a box in your garden, a teacher, a member of a local wildlife group, or you belong to a bird club. 

When?

We’re asking you to put your nest box up from 14 to 21 February to celebrate National Nest Box Week (NNBW). But, you can put up a nest box at any time of the year.

Why take part?

Natural nest sites for birds such as holes in trees or old buildings are disappearing fast as gardens are ‘tidied’ and old houses are repaired.

Taking part in NNBW gives you the chance to contribute to bird conservation whilst giving you the pleasure of observing any breeding birds that you attract to your nest box.

Early Frogspawn 09 02 16

Some early Frogspawn in a Todmorden Garden Pond on 09 02 16,it's a bit earlier than last Year's in same pond which was seen on 16 02 2015,not really suprising the way the Temperatures have been recently !

Moorland Burning

http://www.energyroyd.org.uk/archives/13331

Worth a read!

Geology Lecture at The Halifax Scientific Society

Tuesday 9 February  
                                   

Will Varley of the Huddersfield Geology Group will give a talk ...

"In the beginning…… a brief History of Geology"

Please meet at the Halifax Central Library at 19:15 on Tuesday the 9th of February 2016

First butterfly

Small Tortoiseshell emerged from hibernation today and fluttering round our house.

Bird Group - Halifax Scientific Society - Walk to Cranberry Dam

Some of us want to fit another walk in because the next scheduled is not till 27th February to Hardcastle Crags. Members of the Upper Calderdale Wildlife Network are invited to join us.

It seems a while since the last walk; the one on 1st January - the New Year Bird Count.

Up on the tops of the Pennines we might see some interesting birds, and maybe find that Cranberries still grow near Cranberry Dam. Bring a snack and a drink. It is a short walk of less than 3 miles, but there are rough paths and a couple of stiles to negotiate.

It is spectacular rugged geology. We will be looking at everything - not just birds. No doubt we will pass some Flying Bent collecting sites. It will be interesting to see what the area looks like after the Boxing Day deluge. 

Meet on Sat 23rd January at the bridge over the Calder at Todmorden Bus Station. 
Time; 10.30 for 10.40.           Lifts available up to the start of the walk at Walsden.
Buses come in regularly from Halifax. (The whole journey is 49mins.) 
Or lifts from Halifax.

Please say if you can come by posting a comment here or contacting me.

Cranberry Dam on an earlier visit.

A further Bird Group activity I propose is installing nest boxes during February if readers can suggest locations. I want to attract Starlings and collect BTO Nest Records.  (British Trust for Ornithology.)                               They need walls or trees 2.5 metres or higher.

What we did and What we Saw on the day.

Nine people braved the mud and got up to the dam without too much trouble.

I personally was gutted to see an array of giant wind turbines all along the skyline. They've been imposed since I was last up there. I suppose people have to jet-wash their patios.

Two large raptors took to the air as we approached the dam. They were buzzards, Common Buzzards most probably but we didn't see them soaring, or well enough to be certain.

As we ate our lunch in the shelter of a wall ( there was a damp breeze, ) we saw only Carrion Crows but there was definitely a Raven somewhere. I heard its deep "prruk" call once.

A Mistle Thrush was singing at Ramsden Wood, and a black rabbit fortunately escaped the dogs up near the dam.

We found no cranberry plants. Someone suggested  the dam might have been built by someone called Cranberry  :( . . . .

but there was much hair moss (Polytrichium sp.) and a small amount of sphagnum moss.

We have found cranberry associated with sphagnum before.

Anyway we enjoyed the rugged scenery, especially at Ragby Bridge, where the woodland was compared to a mini-Hardcastle Crags.

In the valley on the way up, it appears that there is a natural scree formation under the cliffs; I can't think of any other such in Calderdale. Above it there is a natural re-growth of young trees to supplement the few Oak and Common Ash that cling on there.

Also, in the ravine below the dam is a "Rock-run" of small stones down a slope. These are such a feature of parts of the Falkland Islands (special plants grow in them there,) that Charles Darwin discussed them in his memoirs of his visit during the voyage of the Beagle.

Some information boards around Middle Ramsden Farm, placed by Natural England, were disappointing for their misleading information and dilapidated, weather-affected condition.

Judy took us to a ruin she remembered where the arched cellar was intact. Down there Peachysteve identified five different ferns. Common Male Fern, Hard Shield Fern, Hartstongue, Maidenhair Spleenwort, and another I can't remember.

Is this true scree, and is there another in Calderdale?

                                    A "Rock-run". I have read an explanation of how they are formed.

The shale hillside exposed possibly by overgrazing in the past.

Information board.

 

Flying Bent

Many older grass books refer to Purple Moor Grass as Flying Bent. This is a good observation for this grass where all its foliage dies above ground in Winter. The leaves then become airborne in windy weather and get trapped on fences, the sail like effect can then break fences in heavy weather. Sometimes dry stone walls are completely covered in a mass of dry leaves on the windward side.

 

These 2 photos taken up Kebs Road above Todmorden give good examples of Flying Bent having landed!

 

Incidentally, the stems of this grass used to be twined by fishermen in the Orkneys to make ropes; also prized by continental fishermen as enduring longer then hempen twine. Countrymen made brooms from its strong and long straw---sold cheaply it is said. From "Gramina Britannica-J L Knapp" 1804.

 

 

 

First Halifax Scientific Society Walk for 2016

As the blog isn't working at the moment, I am adding this to the post below

The first event of the year for the last several years has been a 

New Year's Bird Count on 1st January

this year, as it has been so mild, we will also be listing which plants we can find flowering

Meet 10.30 for 10.40 at Clay House, West Vale. You can park in the drive.

We walk through North Dean Woods, in sight of the 180 year-old bridge destroyed by

 the Boxing Day flood 

Then, if the weather is not too wet or windy, across Norland Moor to the Ladstone for

the amazing vistas; returning by a slightly different route

A couple of us have an extra interest now in the moor, as we represent Naturalists' points of view 

on the new Norland Moor Consultative group

Bring a packed lunch. The walk is about 7 miles, and we aim to get back by about 3.30

Steve Blacksmith

Report on the walk.

Six people came along this year. The tally was up, with 26 species of bird seen. (Only two plants in flower - Annual Meadow grass and Herb Bennet. - but lots of interesting fungi inc. the dwarf form of Sulphur Tuft, not listed in many books.)

Previous years bird totals were 21 last year and 18 the year before.

Notable bird sightings were Green Woodpecker, and interesting to see a male Reed Bunting at dusk go to ground and disappear among thick tufts of Purple Moor Grass - couldn't be flushed - so this must be where it was roosting for the night.

Hoards of people on the moor - I counted 37 in sight at one point - no doubt displaced from canal and river bank walks by the flood devastation.

____________________________________________________________________________

Mussels in the Drained Canal at Todmorden

the"foot" of this one is visible on the right

some seem to know the way to deeper water. Others crawl about aimlessly, leaving a furrow in the mud.

This mussel is in the Calder and Hebble Canal (e.g. at Cromwell Bottom) and the Rochdale Canal.

They're possibly Swan Mussels though I'm no conchologist.

I don't know if they're edible. I've seen the empty shells where animals/birds have eaten them. They grow to about 6 inches ( 15cm. ) long sometimes.

The canal section that is draining into the river after the embankment was washed away by  the floods is the one below Oldroyd Lock, Todmorden. 

The authorities have blocked off access to the canal towpath from Woodhouse Rd. bridge downstream, but you can see these Mussels just above bridge, where the towpath is currently  open up to Todmorden, though looking at the damage to the towpath, that may be closed as well.

Floods 26.12.15 at Woodhouse Lane Todmorden inc. broken canal bank later. Canal now drained away.

 View out of the flats

River Calder and Canal. Allotments between

Todmorden town centre - as close as we got.

Allotments later. Polytunnel and greenhouse flattenend. Home-made greenhouse survived!

The Rochdale canal draining into the Calder through the breached embankment.

Halifax Rd. Tod. Hippodrome Theatre on the left. Sign says "Canal Street".

Walk to Midgley Moor to see the sunrise on the generally-accepted solstice.

At 08.23 approx. on Monday 21st Dec the sun rises.

Archaeologist Dave tells us the ancient locals dragged huge boulders into place on Midgley Moor to line up with the place the sun rises over the horizon after the longest nights.

I'm going up to try and see this.

Anyone who has the morning free, and would like to accompany me, meet at Luddenden Foot, just round the corner on the way up to Luddenden, at 7.30am. I'll look out for you. I'm in a red Berlingo.

Bring hot flasks if you can to keep warm. It's for the fairly fit only. The walk up is steep, wet and uneven. You may need a torch.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Just two of us went up to see the sunrise. It was a fine, mild morning, but the wind got stronger as we climbed higher. Despite using the OS map (which fought back in the wind) and the compass, it took me quite a while to get us to the Miller's Grave pair of stones.

The sun was obviously going to clear the horizon before we got there.

Robin Hood's Penny Stone is within sight of Miller's Grave, and going over to it, we could see from the angle of climb, that the sun must have risen at the point on the horizon to which the arrangement of stones points.

So the expedition was a bit of a failure, except it confirms what we were told. Must try again next year.

On the way down we had time to enjoy the surroundings in the sunshine (before the rain rolled in again.)  I spotted the cowberry I had noticed on a list of sites Charles Flynn had once given me, and we heard pink-footed geese somewhere. I nearly always hear them first. There were 150 approximately going west in two loose chevrons and they came straight over us quite low as we were on the edge of the moor. The sun was catching their light bellies.

We speculated whether the geese might already have established their migrations in prehistoric times when the Solstice stones were being painstakingly dragged into place.

Aurora Alert 20 12 2015

Hi all ,I've just received Aurora Amber Alert now at 1700 hours,the sky looks a bit cloudy ,but Moon won't help matters to see it ! Good Luck if anyone ventures on tops ! and all the best for Christmas and New Year ,regards Bri.ps had a walk up to Langfield Common it looked promising i could see a light patch in the sky forming but i could not see any colour due to all the light pollution,i took a few pics anyway and the camera picked up the Greenish colour,then the clouds rolled in and the rain came down !!

Waystone Edge, Mountain Hare

Saw a fantastic winter pelaged mountain hare near the Waystone this morning.  This is the northernmost Pennine one I've seen, being several miles north of the Saddleworth Moor population.  I have a booklet published by the Derbyshire Wildlife Trust called, 'The Mountain Hare in the Peak District', which states that during a survey of this species in 2000, one was recorded by National Trust wardens on Close Moss (south of Buckstones Moss and south of the A640).

Merry Christmas, Chris

Jellydisc fungus

This purple fungus is on a Beech tree in Centre Vale Park woodland Todmorden. I think it is Purple Jellydisk--Ascocoryne sarcoides  which is a fungi often seen on dead Beech wood. Perhaps someone could confirm this?

The middle photo is taken with flash, the others without.  You can just make out the fungi on the lower trunk in the bottom photo.

Also significant are the black inky spots on the lower right root flare and a larger inky streak on the centre of the trunk. These are the signs of Phytopthora disease and this Beech is quickly dying from this fungal-like pathogen.