Category: David

A couple of strolls recently along the bridleway by the side of the Pool Hall Fisheries, with no sign of the great crested grebes which used to breed there every year. Perhaps they had been disturbed by the latest device being used by one of the anglers (pictured below), which showed clearly as it crossed the water.

Walking on a little further, however, meant we did spot a pair of the grebes on the nearby private angling pool of the J.Sankey company at Dimmingsdale. As we watched from a vantage point on the canal towpath, the pair spent most of their time on or near a nest under a willow. Occasionally, one or both of them ventured out into open water to fish.

Hawthorn flowers, sometimes known as may. These pictures were taken mid-April, when bushes in the most favoured spots were developing buds and the first few flowers had just opened. For some reason, the subject seemed timely now.

Kestrel hunting, hovering over the Barley Field.

Kestrels used to be quite a likely sight in the Smestow valley, but this is the first one I’ve seen for over a decade.

Some of its tail feathers were missing, but that didn’t seem to be giving it any problems.

Its technique of hovering meant I go off a lot of shots of the bird.

Among the first of the wildflowers which are now encouraged on the Smestow Valley’s Barley Field, a few cowslips look a little sind-battered.

Cormorant on the River Ouse, not for from the Ouse Bridge in the centre of York, diving for fish and catching some.

Just the ripple left where it went under.

An exhibition of the products of two glassworkers in Durham Cathedral currently and until this September.

Katie Paterson’s the Moment features the sorts of invertebrates which rarely get represented artistically. Monster Chetwynd’s Life of St Cuthbert shows the saint expelling a demon than relaxing with a pair of otters. There’s nothing to portray the saint’s extreme dislike of women.