Saturday November 24th

A site inspection was done today. The new bridge was finally completed and the depth of the water was checked by Allan.

kingfisher

Not a great photo, the light was terrible but still great to see. This kingfisher was near cromwell bridge, just next to the gate into Cromwell bottom

Quick Reminder

There is an indoor meeting at the Halifax Fire Station, King Cross tomorrow the 21st at 7:15 pm

All welcome.

Visitors must obey the "No Entry" sign at the

 Fire Station. Entry is by the lower access only - nearest to the

 traffic lights.

Cromwell today wet but lots of birds

Boy's meal out

2 Lady Bullfinch

Mr &Mrs Bullfinch

Redpoll's and Siskin

GSW

Redpoll

Maggie

Goldie

Chaffinch

 

 

Waxwings in Brighouse today

I also got them this morning it was cold, windy, dark and then it started raining but i manedged a few hope you like them . yours Graham

Waxwing in Sainsbury's car park sunday 1 of 10. also check out  Lowfields Business Park elland 8 there.

Down today!

After 2 mornings searching for "Waxwings" the afternoons were nice comforted by L.R's with occasional Siskin to cheer me up!
All the usual suspects - Female Bullfinches at 4 & quite a few of our resident "Tefal" heads were present:

 

+ our regular Male Woodie!

 

Little blighter's that cheered me up:

 

 

 

At the end of the day - I decided to go double check the Sainsbury's claimed Waxwings! Allan went for a last minute stroll round ............................ He should have come with me?

 

 

 

Taaa Daaaaa!

 

Apparantly they were telling the truth !!!  ......... 10 were present. It was a bit late, they had gone up high for a preen & poo! before going off to roost. A record shot of nine of them - Just to prove I have actually seen some?

You never know! - they are close enough to visit Cromwell sometime.

Some of the birds that were down Friday and Sunday

Spent a short time down at the Bird Viewing Area on Fri afternoon and late Sunday (Today). A number of people came who had not been before and they loved what they saw.

Funniest thing while I was there, today was the Redpoll that thinks it is a Blue Tit. Keep a look out for it, when there's not a lot happening it will keep you entertained.

Happy viewing, Allan

Saturday at Kershaw's

We had a display at Kershaw's Garden Centre yesterday.

There was a big interest in the Cromwell Bottom site. All our leaflets were taken and people were surprised by the variety of wildlife there is to be seen there.

The quality of the pictures was exceptional.

Maps of the site were distributed as there are many paths and habitats to explore.

                              
                      And Santa came along too!

David and myself had a short visit to the site to meet one of our members, David Austin and some of his walking group who were visiting.

We showed them various features and explained some of the ancient and recent history. Many had not been before and were surprised by its varied habitats and what the Cromwell Bottom Group had achieved.

Brief Sparrowhawk

Melanie sent this to the blog email.

Just wanted to share this photo of a sparrowhawk that got all the birds flying off quickly when it did a fly through at the feeders today. Wasn't able to get a better photo as it flew off, don't think it managed to catch anything.

Thanks Mel for sending this.

(There have been few opportunities recently to get a photo - well done)

Saturday November 17th - Kershaw's Garden Centre

A reminder that we will be at Kershaw's Garden Centre this Saturday. We will have framed pictures of the wildlife to be seen at Cromwell Bottom, information on access to the Nature Reserve, what we have achieved in our first 12 months, what we hope to achieve in the next 12 months and an opportunity to join the Wildlife Group.

We would like to thank Kershaw's for their kind invitation.

Around today!

Didn't have to long to spare today - In between what I had to do & a quick look out for some Waxwings at a location, managed a couple of hours down there.
Filled up all the feeders (practically) then the Bullfinch invasion began! 6 on & off all the time I was there. Redpolls were very quiet today max of 4 on one occasion but at least 8 different individuals had visited. Coal Tits galore, masses of Great Tits, 5 Magpies cleaning up & on Squirrel watch. There was 4 Robins present for a few minutes but after a lot of chasing, that went back down to our regular 1, with Dunnock & Wren too. On my way up the back track to the station a Peregrine was passing over, interesting to watch a Wood Pigeon drop out of the sky like a brick! when it saw it. We had a high fly over from the Female Sprawk, & Chaffinch were at about 10 at one point, with a nice surprise visit from a Male Greater Pecker at about 2.15pm.

Some of the Redpolls:

 

 

A One legged Blue Tit we have!

 

 

Couple of Bullfinch:

 

Cheeky Mapie Cleaning up all the scraps.

 

& Finally the chance for a snap of this Chap!

 

Now Allan's knocking out better snaps! + getting this Fella before me - He's actually Too close for me when on the Peanuts - Thought I better step it up a bit!

 

Ah well just have to do a Portrait instead!

Saturdays build

We had superb autumn weather. Colin, Joanne, Mick, Robin, David, Allan and myself got stuck in to the build.

The bridge is required to span a deep gap which run between the west and east lagoon. 

The foundations are dug and oak is used for the bases in contact with the ground.

The bridge supports fit perfectly on the foundations.

The stretchers are also a really snug fit.

The bridge is finally complete.


We were at it from 9:30 until 4 pm and were pleased with the result.

Joanne took this picture of the volunteers testing the bridge.