Its worth a visit


Welcome to our website

The main aim of this website is to make local people aware of the Bird Life in and around my home town of Dewsbury

Nearly all my English birding activities centres around the Calder Valley in West Yorkshire but more specificly in the areas between Dewsbury Town and Horbury bridge with especial attention paid to an area now known as the Thornhill Wetlands were recently a new and very interesting Nature Reserve has been developed.

Also there is much information relating to my time spent Watching and photographing birds in the Gambia West Africa

My travels in the Gambia allways seem to be a great success with new species being added and photographed on each of my twelve visits so far.

Much of the praise for this success must go to my guide and friend PA JALLOW who is allways completely up to date with his observations and information regarding birding sites in the Gambia.

In recent years my Gambian trips have taken on a more scientific theme mainly due to my close friendship with the author Clive Barlow.Due to his influence i have managed to get photographs of birds published in many African Photographic Field Guides for which I am most grateful.

 

Visitor's notice

For anyone lucky enough to have visited the Gambia to either see the birds or indeed as I do indulge in photographing the birds and other wildlife one cannot fail to be ikmpressed by the sheer variety of not just the birds(which are more than worth devoting a holiday to themselves) but also the insects(particulary the butterflies and dragonflies and beetles) and indeed the mammals and reptiles all of which present a challenge of their own.

In building this website we hope to illustrate as wel as we can the great rewards for the photographer and birder alike that this small but very friendly country can offer.

Any serious photographers or birders wishing to bird alone or in very smallgroups could do worse than having a chat to our guide PA JALLOW who has gained much experience in the needs and requirements of travelling birders from several countries.

Going back to our more local activities I am lucky enough to have had as a friend for many years Russell Smithson who besides being an excellent birder was also a master joiner.His expertise in the construction of bird nesting boxes has added a great extension to our birding activities as we have embarked in the placingof nesting boxes in as many suitable locations along the Calder valley as we can manage.These include sites in Dewsbury,Mirfield ,Huddersfield and Ravensthorpe. 

 

Allready we have had great success with many species including Tawny and Little Owl as well as the usual Blue and great tits as well as such birds as Wren and Stock Dove.We look forward to Spring 2012 with great anticipationte to have 

More Recent Events

 

Covid has had a negative impact on much of my local birding with my local sewage works becoming out of bounds with this site previousely accounting for the majority of my records.

In more recent times I am spending more and more time in North Lincolnshire due to family reasons but have been fortunate to become familiar with some of the splendid Nature Reserves on Southern side of the River Humber particulary the Reserves Far Ings and especialy Alkborough Flats.

These two reserves are excellent for many Marsh and Wading birds with Alkborough being one of the best Bearded Tit sites iv ever encountered.

Another of my now favourite Reserves is Messingham Sand Quarry just around 15 minutes from my kids school an

d like other reserves in North Lincolnshire it is both Dog and Bycicle free making it ideal for Macro photography.

I look forwards to posting my sightings from this part of the country.


Photo Gallery: Homepage

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News

22/11/2023 13:04

Messingham Sand Quarry

Although i rank Messingham Sand Quarry has been very much a Spring and Summer/Autumn Reserve it offers interesting walks in both Late Autumn and Winter On this occassion a quick early stop into the fierst of 2 hides was very worthwhile. A quick count of the wildfowl on offer produced some 340...

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12/05/2022 10:12

Getting back into the swing with a trip to Scotton Common North Lincolnshire.

Having become more and more frustrated with continualy trying to gain access to what in the past have been my local birding sites and being continualy turned away Im lucly to be spending half of my week visiting and staying with my family in North Lincolnshire. Its nice to be dealing with a local...

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10/01/2022 14:57

Alkboro Flats North Lincolnshire

I know Im in for an interesting morning when the first bird I see shutting my car door in the car park is a female Mash Harrier.The first field as I walked North towards the Humber River had around 500 Common Starlings feeding along with around 85 Goldfinch scattered amongst the Thistle...

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10/01/2022 14:49

Time to get back into the field again.

After a frustrating 18 months locked out of my usual local birding patch due to the pandemic and some of my favourit footpaths being blocked off by local farmers who are tired of furlowed dog walkers trampling over theie land disturbing cattle and littering their fields with discarded face masks...

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31/05/2021 21:26

Goosanders doing well but Kingfishers suffer a setback

2 pairs of Goosanders have bred succesfully in theOssett area on the River Calder.Each pair has hatched 10 youngsters and all are at present doing well. Its allways worrying when you come across so called wldlife photographers lurking in the vicinity of bird nesting sites and  a recent...

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14/05/2021 22:59

Hirrundines and Swifts gather again at local Sewage Works.

There was good numbers of House Martins and Swifts on Dewsbury Sewage Works this morning.Around 400 House Martins where concentrated over  the centre of the works along with some 200 Swifts.In lesser numbers where Swallows numbering around 120 and Sand Martins totaling around a hundred...

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11/05/2021 14:10

Alkington Flatts North Lincolnshires a brief visit.

While on my weekly foray in to Lincolnshire i found time to visit Alkington Flatts Nature Reserve this morning. It was very refreshing to get out of the car in the car park and hear a Cuckoo calling its head off from a large Oak tree bordering the reserve.The bird was calling non stop for about 30...

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07/05/2021 11:39

Back to cloudy and cold but House martins increase.

Noticeably colder than yesterday nevertherless still brought good numbers of Hirrundines to Dewsbury Sewage Works.There was at least 400 House Martins,around 55 Sand martins,140 Swallows and around 25 Common Swifts hawking around the filter beds of the works at 09:00 this morning. The cold weather...

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06/05/2021 12:10

What a difference a week makes.

How noticeable this morning that the local hedgerows are much more lively with birdsong.On leaving my car in Healy Road Ossett the first sound I hear is of a singing Common Whitethroat with its distinct scratchy song.In total there where singing Whitethroats around the Healy Road Healy Mills area...

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28/04/2021 11:47

Merlin pays brief visit to local sewage Works.

Few thing can be more exiting than having a Merlin flying at full speed over your shoulder before diving headlong into a a feeding party of Black Headed gulls and Carrion Crows. However that is precisely what happened this morning at 09:25 as I was patiently scanning the filter beds on Dewsbury...

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News

09/11/2011 14:18

4 Great Spotted Woodpeckers,Willow Tit and Chiff Chaff all on feeders at the same time plus 24 Pink Footed Geese all in the space of an hour-Not bad.

A very dull and damp start to the day today with very litle wind maks one feel a little pessimistic s we set out on our daily walk around my local patch. There was very few birds around first thing as I arrived in the copsec known as Kerries Reserve my main purpose was to fill the feeders and...

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04/11/2011 17:17

Chiff Chaff arrives on the Reserve on Thornhill Wetlands

The Reserve on Thornhll Wetlands run by Kirklees Friends of the Environment has been unusually quiet over the last few weeks.Southerly based winds and unusually mild weather has meant low numbers of Winter Thrushes and Finches,and allthough the feeders on the reserve have been filled for some...

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03/11/2011 15:55

Water Rails return to our Reserve at Kerries Foods Copse.

After much needed clearence work on the Naturec Reserve at Kerries Foods copse at Osset t is good to report that there are now 2 Water Rails bvery much making their prescence felt on the Reserve. Most vocal of the two birds is calling just behind the main bird feeder area,This area now seems to...

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28/10/2011 19:33

Winter Visitors still as yet in short supply in our area.

Winter visiting birds are still short of showing any real presence on my patch.Thrush numbers are still very minimal with only about 8 Redwings on the Reserve at Kerries Foods though there was at least 10 Blackbirds and 5 Robins on the Reserve this morning There was 105 Pied Wagtails feeding on...

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27/10/2011 19:34

Colne Bridge Sewage and Sludge Plant what an interesting place right on our doorstep

For some time i have been given rave reports about the Sewage and Sludge plant at Colne bridge.With a coule of hours to spare while birding locally we decided to [pay the the site a visit. Ater successfully negotiating permission to place a number of nest boxes on the site(through Huddersfield...

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26/10/2011 19:50

Some local Birding news

It is still very quiet in our part of Calder valley.Thrush numbers are still very small with the largest flock of Fieldfares about 100 birds on Mill Bank Thornhill a couple of days ago.Thornhill Wetlands has been very quiet for a while though are daily sightings of Common Buzzard over Dewsbury...

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08/10/2011 19:09

Some local highlights from my local patch over the last 10 days.

There is notghing worse than returning home from a birding trip abroad and getting back to survey your local patch particulary when your inland and in between Summer Visitors having departed and the expected arrival of our lte Autumn and Winter birds. Such was the case for me this week when...

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06/10/2011 16:00

15th September.Homeward bound but not before calling at a couple of sites on the way to the airport.

Having decided to take the scenic route back to the airport at Malaga we were able to make a couple of stopovers.Firstly at the Laguna Grandee and also in the village of Trujillo where we could have lunch before my flight back. The stop over at Laguna was ac great place for the photographer as...

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05/10/2011 12:15

Wednesday14th of September A day for exploring the local habitats around Rute

After the disapointment of our trip to Hornachos yesterday we decided to explore some of the more local sites close to Rute and in particular the very spectacular scenic area around Palmera. We came across our first rocky faced mountain after only 10 minutes and straight away fon Golden Eagle...

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02/10/2011 17:58

Monday 13th of September day trip to Sierra De Hornachos (Badajoz division).

We chose to visitHornachos after reading the write up in Where to watch birds in South and Western Spain.The reserve sounded very impressive in the write up particulary for raptors.We had narrowly missed Egyption Vulture at Virgen De La sierra by about 20 minutes so we thought we had a good...

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Photo Gallery: Homepage

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Some overseas trips

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