birds,nature,history and industry

a great walk today though the weather was unseasonally warm,birds were on the quiet side.

coal pit lane

common gull increased to 98

stock dove 7

redwing 4

meadow pipit 2

at the top of the lane i got great views across yorkshire and could even see Drax power station in the distance which is 35 miles away as the needle tailed swift flies!!! headed into Binns Wood and towards Elland GP.i gave the lakes a miss due to the amount of people and made my way into the old tip looking for jack snipe and only found 16 meadow pipits.

the power stations

Ferrybridge,Eggborough and Drax

following the river past the weir onto shaw lane i had a look around the recently demolished brickworks.another lost industry gone locally.

it was quite good for finches with 7 bullfinch and 34 redpolls and the surrounding hedgerows held 67 house sparrows.

Calder Fireclay Works

cutting across the fields between lower edge road and dewsbury road, i wanted to have a look at a very old hall,Halifax has so many of these old halls its hard to get the time to see them all.

the New Hall of Elland is actually 520 years old.

i realised this hall was built before columbus went to america!!! now thats old.

built in 1490 and cased in stone sometime between 1640 & 1670. two beams in the roof are said to be from a local gallows which may explain the ghost story that accompany's the house.......

local birders will be well aware of the Tag Cut at the gravel pits, it gets it name from Tag the ghost that rode a chariot pulled by a 2 headed horse from a tunnel under New Hall towards Tag Cut................nightime moth'ers beware!!

New Hall Elland

note the beautiful 'apple and pear' window

mind the step

upper edge

walking towards Elland i saw a very sad site.............the demolition of Gannex Mill,made famous by Harold Wilson.

i would of rather seen it turned into soulless flats than raised to the ground.

Gannex Mill

RIP

i can see me getting into fungi and ladybirds

Jews Ear

pine ladybird

hebble trail