Today's blog is about our second snowy walk this week on Weds 1st December in the beautiful Loxley Valley. Our walk began as it did the day before at Malin Bridge and follows the River Loxley.
The River Loxley is a river in the City of Sheffield South Yorkshire, England. Its source is a series of streams which rise some 10 miles (16 km) to the north-west of Sheffield on Bradfield Moors, and converge at Low Bradfield. It flows easterly through Damflask Reservoir and is joined by Storrs Brook at Storrs, near Stannington, and the River Rivelin at Malin Bridge, before flowing into the River Don at Owlerton, in Hillsborough. The Loxley valley provided the initial course of the Great Sheffield Flood, which happened after the Dale Dyke Dam collapsed shortly before its completion in March 1864.The river has played an important part in the industrial history of Sheffield, as it descends through 280 feet (85 m) in the 6 miles (9.7 km) between Low Bradfield and the Don, and this has enabled many mills, forges and cutlers wheels to be powered by its waters.
[Thankyou to the wonderful world of Wikepedia for that haha]
Our first spot as we were heading towards the start of our trail were two Grey Heron following the river towards Rivelin where we had been the day before. We have spotted them many times near the first Dam at Rivelin but they were obviously now on a little mission to find lunch slightly further afield with their regular watering hole being iced over.
Almost as soon as we got onto the footpath we were following, we saw a Great Tit perching on a barren autumnal tree branch which was easilly spotted with its black cap and yellow underparts a bright contrast to the snowy white surroundings.
Our next spot was one of my favourites of the walk...we were lucky enough to see two Kingfishers! It was totally by chance that we saw the usually solitary birds together. We were looking out across the river at the banks with their overhanging greenery at some amazing icicles that were hanging down. As I was getting my camera out to talk a picture of them, One of the icicle's actually fell and in a quick flash, two beautiful Kingfishers flew out from the undergrowth on the banking! Kingfishers are extremely vulnerable in freezing conditions and many don't survive our harsh Winters so we assume that with the extreme weather of the last week that the pair were nesting together for extra warmth as we humans do!
Next we walked on past Carrs Dam [as we know it] with nothing much to spot than the regular Mallards but the Dam looked wonderful frozen over, much to the ducks annoyance.
We only had to walk on a few hundred yards to spot our next feathered friend, a Grey Wagtail. He was flitting above the water and followed us a fair way up the river until we approached a waterfall and then after several unsuccessful attempts at catching him on camera, he flew away.
We carried on trudging through the snow in the winter wonderland taking in the beautiful snow covered woodland passing a local farm where we normally catch a glimpse of rabbits bobbing around and stop to feed the horses. Just as we were approaching the horses, there is a little grassed clearing with a few shrubs dotted around and a shallow pool where newts can often be spotted. Well on this walk, this clearing was buzzing with activity! We saw at least 6 Chaffinch, 2 Goldfinch, 2 Linnets, 1 Yellowhammer and a Siskin, which by all accounts is a massive treat for a days birding, especially the site of the Siskin who I'm sure we will see more of as we get deeper into Winter.
Throughout the walk we saw and certainly heard many Robins and as we approached the horses we managed to catch one perched on the gate to the horses field.
Also not far away from the horses, we spotted another Grey Wagtail perched in a tree looking for his lunch, closely followed by a single Wren, well camouflaged in the wintery scenery.
We hope Cold Snap Part Two has been an enjoyable read. Look out for our next blog which could be a little different location wise, weather permitting.
Thanks for reading, Sam & Jam.
So we entered the biggest cold snap in this calendar month for around 20 years, and my word has it been cold?
The cold snap comes with mixed emotions for us humans, can't move the car off the drive, can't get to work( double edged sword I guess), and don't forget the panic buying in shops of such absurd things as cauliflower, and beetroot, PANIC BUYING BEETROOT YOU SAY? Complete madness.
On the plus side, the younger ones, and some of us older ones can go out sledging, snowman making, or just appreciate the lovely scenery that this type of weather brings...This is where there is a problem though.
However easy it is for us to turn the central heating up, or put on an extra coat or some long johns, many of our native wildlife species suffer, with large numbers being wiped out unfortunately. I won't go into too much detail, but I would advise you to have a read of this link, http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/autumnwatch/2010/01/what_effects_will_the_big_free.html which was brought to us by the amazing people over at Autumnwatch and produced a bit earlier this year.
Anyway, this is what we have been upto- starting Tuesday 30th November!
Our First day out was taking on the Rivelin valley which is covered in woodland, with a winding river that starts right up in the Peak District, and numerous ponds and damns, not to mention one of the largest continuous rows of Lime trees in Europe. Anyway, I will stop babbling, so, we started at Malin Bridge, and took the route straight up past Mousehole Forge, and carrying on up the valley. Here is what we saw-
Before we even got on the trail we saw a pair of Pied Wagtail's looping through the air towards the river, Singing away in their quite distinctive bird call.
Plenty of our red breasted friend, the Robin were too be seen, being even more vocal than other times of the year, claiming as much territory as possible! You actually think they are following you as you can hear them at every single step of the trail.
A little further up the trail we caught something following us up stream, which was the unmistakable White Throated Dipper- White Throat by name, Dipper by nature! Eraticlly bobbing above the surface of the water while it feeds.
While the Dipper thought it was leading the up river race (we had no chance of catching him up with how deep the snow was. That's our excuse and we are sticking to it!) along came a challenger in the name of the beautiful more streamline, Grey wagtail. Bobbing up and down from rock to rock, easily recognisable with its Yellow under part and darker grey upper-parts, and its stand out long tail, which is around the same size as the whole of the rest of the birds body!
We briefly saw two species of the tit family, but we will touch on these in our part two blog!
Our mammalian friends are quite hard to find in these snow covered lands, but we managed to catch a quite chubby looking Grey Squirrel, munching its way through some Holly berries while sheltering from the snow.
One of the strangest things on our day out on the walk was a paramedics car parked in the lower ponds car park, but is it strange? Sadly not.
The reason it was there was due to the pond being iced over, and sadly we see this in the news all too often, of children, even adults thinking they will be safe, but they don't know what they are getting themselves into.
Luckily over the past few days there has been no reported accidents around this area involving frozen ponds, and thats how we all would like it to stay!
Your own safety is paramount whilst out walking and wildlife spotting, whether it be snowy, icy, windy or boiling hot! So always take precautions.
We hope you have enjoyed our read, and look our for The Cold Snap part two coming very very soon!
all the best
Sam and Jam
So our first blog is going to be a little round up about us both, what we do, what we enjoy, and why we are so passionate about all things outdoors!
We will try to keep this bit as brief as possible so none of you fall asleep whilst reading it!
We both enjoy walking, seeing the outdoors, and seeing what our lovely countryside, noisy hedgerows, vast farmlands and colourful urban areas( you don't have to look too far from your own front door!) hold for us to view.
Plus what got us started at a young age, was the intrigue, maybe even the one-upmanship of being able to show off to our mates that we can name what bird is making that noise in the trees, or what sort of animal left those paw prints in the mud!
We venture out together to numerous places around South Yorkshire, the Peak District and Derbyshire, including numerous RSPB sites.
Our local areas are the Rivelin Valley, and the Loxley valley of Sheffield, which house woodland, farmland, riverbanks, damns, ponds and the like. Plus it's also handy they are on our doorstep!
You will see us posting regular updates from those two specific locations, including sightings, species, and area maps.
So we will leave you with that until our soon to be published second blog. We hope you all get as much satisfaction from reading about our sightings as we do getting out there and discovering them.
