Toxic haiku

Canal flows serene
but it’s looking rather green.
Toxic algae - bad!

Blue-green algae, technically known as cyanobacteria, is a collection of microscopic organisms that are naturally present in lakes and streams. Under certain conditions, blue-green algae can become abundant in warm, shallow, undisturbed, nutrient-rich surface waters that receive a lot of sunlight. The blooms can double in size every seven to ten days. It is rapidly spreading in the Leeds-Liverpool Canal over quite a wide area. Not only does it look unsightly (like pea soup!) but it's also highly toxic to dogs (and humans if you come into close contact with it).  Nasty stuff. It probably won't go away until we have more rain and colder conditions. 

Unfortunately it is also harmful to swans, ducks, other waterbirds and to fish - potentially bad news for the family of swans that live around Saltaire. I hope they have the sense to decamp to the nearby river, which isn't affected. 

Along the canal

I always find plenty of things to interest me on a waterside walk. I feel fortunate to live close to the Leeds-Liverpool Canal so that I can access it as often as I want. The scene above, where the changeline bridge crosses at Dowley Gap, is in my opinion one of the more attractive stretches of the local canal. That boat has been moored there for so long that it is now almost completely hemmed in by arrowhead weeds.

There was a widebeam boat negotiating the locks at Dowley Gap. It was in the lower of the two locks, waiting for the water level to fall so it could progress on to Saltaire. That meant I could get a 'bird's eye view' from the walkway across the middle of the locks. There were several boats on the move. The drought has caused restrictions along the canal with many locks closed. It seemed that the Five and Three Rise locks in Bingley had been briefly opened to traffic that morning, letting quite a queue of boats through. 

It was near here that I'd seen a kingfisher in the spring, but the foliage has grown so much now that I couldn't see any perches where one might sit. I did, however, see quite a nice painting of one on the side of a boat! 

The bridge above is the one beside The Fisherman's pub, heading towards Bingley. There are moorings here and usually quite a few boats to be seen. 

I very much enjoyed the lyrical curves of a porthole and the marks where a muddy rope had hit the side of this dark blue boat. There's beauty everywhere if you look for it. 

An evening stroll

The evening light along the canal was rather gorgeous. It makes the honey-coloured stone of the mills glow softly. There's a lot of weed in the navigation but it doesn't seem to be stopping the boats (though I think many of the locks have also been closed due to low water, which does stop the boats.) There were a couple of quite smart wide-beam boats moored beside Salts Mill. One of them had a good crop of tomatoes and herbs in pots, which made an attractive 'still life'. 

I also enjoyed the random 'still life' compositions to be found among the detritus floating in the water. 

There are quite a few white feathers, presumably from these young swans who seem lately to have settled along this stretch of water. There are three near the mills and three further up, nearer to Hirst Lock, though I've occasionally seen them all together. I guess they are all from one family.

Kingsbarns to Crail #2

Fife holiday 2026 #10

The beaches had lots of rocky outcrops stretching into the sea so, had we had time, there were rockpools and sandy coves to explore, with all the wildlife, flotsam and jetsam that the tide brings in. 

We saw more eider ducks - quite a little nursery of baby chicks darting around. There were also some shelducks with babies, which were lovely to see. 

When we stopped for lunch I did a bit of beachcombing and found beautifully marked stones - and some sea glass. I was delighted by that, as many times I've searched for it on shores and never found any. There was in fact quite a bit - little turquoise, green and white fragments, softly polished by friction in the sea. Can you spot the tiny piece in the photo? 

Some of the flotsam was less desirable, though I still found a kind of beauty in the tangled ropes and mangled lobster pots. 

Somewhere along the way we passed Constantine's Cave, of historical significance, with ancient carved crosses, Pictish animal symbols, and fragments of Roman glass and pottery discovered inside. Local lore claims that King Constantine I (or II) used the cave or was killed there by Viking raiders in AD 877, though this appears to be a myth. 

And everywhere we saw blue sky, blue sea and colourful flowers. It was a good day. 

Falconry display

There was a Falconry display in Roberts Park. It's lovely to see these magnificent birds close up. I'm afraid I didn't take note of the team running the exhibit. There are a few local falconry centres. I'll hazard a guess that this is the team from the Shibden Valley Falconry in Halifax. They had a kestrel (above), owls, a hawk and a couple of gyr/saker cross falcons, all beautiful birds. I think falconry centres usually have rescued birds that could not be released into the wild. 

 

Mandarins

I spotted a pair of Mandarin ducks on the River Wharfe at Bolton Abbey. Aren't they attractive? The males are very showy with their bright colours and 'sails' but I love the more softly coloured females, so dainty-looking. Originally introduced to the UK from China, they have become established in the wild following escapes from captivity. They're not particularly common here but always nice to see. 

Blue sky day

Another balmy blue sky day... Although I'd had appointments in the morning, I felt I needed to make the most of the warm sunshine, so in the afternoon I walked up the hill to Northcliffe Park. The view across to Baildon was a little hazy but you can just see the top of Salts Mill chimney jutting above the trees in the middle. That shows how Saltaire sits deep in the valley, down by the river. Once the trees have leaves it gets hidden altogether. 

This being a park rather than a completely natural area, there are daffodils in the woods. Quite pretty but they don't really fit in woodland, in my mind! 

I don't hear many birds (because of my deafness) but I have the Merlin app on my phone and I enjoy watching as it picks up and identifies the sounds around. It's not guaranteed to be 100% accurate but I think it's pretty good on the whole. It helps me to feel closer to nature and I can sometimes scan around and spot the little birds once I've been alerted to their presence. I could hear the wood-pigeons ('My toe hurts, Betty!') and the cawing of the crows. I also heard the woodpecker tapping. But the little birds are too shrill for me to pick up. 

At various points of my walk, as well as those listed above, the app picked up: Carrion Crow, Jackdaw, Nuthatch, Song Thrush, Coal Tit, Goldfinch, Chiffchaff and Siskin - and I saw a few Magpies too. There are Jays in the woods - and sometimes Ring-Necked Parakeets too, though I wasn't alerted to either of those that day. It just goes to show how important these suburban green spaces are. Well done to the late Sir Norman Rae who, in 1920, gifted Northcliffe Park to the people of Shipley in perpetuity.  

Willow trees are among the first of our UK species to 'green up', though in reality that early colour is a strident acid yellow! Echoing the yellow, there were hosts of daffodils around the children's play area, as well as in the woods.

It was a 'good to be alive' kind of day. 

The little details

It's interesting to notice what catches my eye when I'm out walking. Things 'call' to me. It can be a trick of the light or a slight movement, or an artful natural arrangement, like the bleached autumn leaf nestling among the ivy leaves, above. 

Fungi and moss abound in the healthy air in the Dales, far enough away from major towns and cities to be relatively free of air pollution. 

Spring being 'in the air', the birds seem to be pairing off. Mr and Mrs Mallard were hunkered down among the wood anemones. 

The black-headed gulls seemed to like their individual fence-post perches. They are moving into their summer plumage, though the one in the middle looked to be lagging behind, still sporting his white winter cap. 

Oystercatchers usually overwinter at the coast and some move inland to breed. They are distinctive, with their orange-red bills and legs and stark black and white plumage. (Though it took me a good half-hour to remember what they're called. My aging brain!) I gather that curlews are returning to breed too, though I didn't see any. They tend to prefer the higher moorland, away from the river. 

A flash of white and a bobbing movement on the rocks in the river alerted me to this dipper. S/he was almost too far away to get a good shot through my camera lens.  

Then I started to enjoy the water itself: the swirling currents, the bright leaves caught on the rocks, the dreamlike reflections...

 

A wander: wildlife and wonder

     

The dry, bright days are such a relief and a blessing. They've been few and far between this winter, so it's been important to make use of them. Thankfully I have many beautiful places I can easily walk, so one day I chose a longer circuit along the river and canal. There was lots to notice - some marcescent beech leaves added a touch of copper to the canalside.

I was delighted to spot a female kingfisher (identifiable by her red 'lipstick' beak; the males' beaks are all black). Usually you just see a blue flash whizzing past at speed but, surprisingly, this one was content to sit on a branch for ages, only occasionally flying off but then returning to more or less the same spot. This is the best photo I've managed of one in a while, given that I don't have a long telephoto lens. 

Not far away, I was entranced by a flock of long-tailed tits. These are my absolute favourite bird. You rarely see just one; they like to forage in busy little groups, maybe half a dozen or so in a small area. About the size of a great tit, they are prettily coloured with pink, black and white plumage and a noticeably long tail. They really are sweet little floofballs. 

My two favourite trees again: I just love their shape; I think they have beautiful winter skeletons.

Geese may safely graze

The number of geese around here seems to have increased even more! There was a flotilla on the river and a huge number grazing in the nearby fields. I wonder if some of them have come here to overwinter, adding to the resident flock. It's a mixture of Canada and Greylags... and one rogue white goose. Can you spot that one? I try to like them but they're incredibly noisy, often sounding like dogs barking. They leave a huge mess of droppings too, which might be alright in the fields but isn't good on the canal towpath. 

Watching those on the river did make me slow down enough to also see a kingfisher. They're really quite small and very fast; hard to spot, even though they are so brightly coloured. This one was darting around just below me on the river bank but then, when some more people walked past, it sped over to the other side of the river and out of sight. It was a lovely little gift to me on my walk.

Christmas on the reserve

The trees and shrubs may have lost their leaves but, on the small nature reserve managed by Hirst Wood Regeneration Group, they have gained a sprinkling of festive baubles instead.

There were some volunteers diligently barrrowing loads of bark chippings from where they'd been delivered at the gate across to the far side of the reserve, so there weren't as many birds around as there often are. One of the resilient woodpigeons was, however, keeping guard. They're not afraid of anything, it seems!