Francis Hickenbottom’s Nature Notes.
30th June 2010
I spent the past three days in Wensleydale with groups of pupils who were carrying out their silver expeditions for the Duke of Edinburgh Award scheme.
The house in West Burton was drawn as I relaxed on the village green during a very hot and sunny afternoon but I had to take cover from showers more than once as I drew the gatepost in West Witton.
As usual, this meant that I spent some of my time sitting around, waiting for groups of pupils to appear. Once or twice, I managed to draw whatever was nearby.
One of the natural history highlights of the trip was the spotted flycatchers which I saw in Wensley and West Witton. At Wensley, by the road leading up to Bolton Hall, a flycatcher lived up to its name by darting out from a wire fence to snatch insects from the air. In West Witton, a flycatcher was hunting over someones vegetable patch.
It isn’t a real animal but the weather vane on Bolton Hall was attractive; it appeared to be an osprey carrying a fish.
Close to Bolton Hall, there was a very large gathering of jackdaws. I didn’t notice an obvious location for a large number of jackdaw nest sites but there were very many birds.
Large groups were making a lot of noise in a conifer plantation whilst another large group made a similar noise on the roof of an agricultural building. There was a constant traffic between the two areas.
The strong sunshine brought out many day-