Spent another 45 minutes sitting in Jen’s mum’s garden on the other side of the valley while Jen and her mum chatted from different rooms. A green woodpecker and a nuthatch called from nearby Crow Nest Wood, but their calls were soon drowned out by some local kid practising their jazz trumpet.
I spent most of the 45 minutes looking at Hebden Bridge through binoculars. Two male mallards chased a female above the rooftops. Twice, she circled one of the old mill chimneys, trying to shake them off. One male got pretty close a couple of times, and seemed to be trying to force her towards the river. But she got away in the end.
A pair of curlews here hanging out in the field behind our house when we got home. I’m hoping they’re there for the duration.
I photographed some Xanthoria parietina lichen on a small branch that had fallen from the sycamore overnight. A real favourite.
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