Kirkstall Christmas sightings

'On Christmas Day in the morning', well more like early afternoon we wandered down along a stretch of the Kirkstall Valley along the Goitside walk that starts near Morrisons. 'And what was in those ships all three?' No ships today, but as we stood overlooking the goit that runs underneath Bridge Road metres away from the busy crossroad with the A65 we spotted a Kingfisher heading towards us, underneath the bridge & off downstream. Its the first Kingfisher we've seen in Kirkstall & it was fantastic to see it so near to home.

Then we headed downstream, from the bridge at Redcote Lane we spotted 5 overwintering Goosander, two pairs and one single male. Perhaps two of these birds were the pair we saw a couple of weeks ago upstream near the Abbey. Although not a great shot of the bird (bottom left) I do like a context shot now & again so here you get to see Kirkstall/Burley in the background (well it is Christmas). A Grey Heron flew overhead whilst we watched the Goosander.


Between Redcote Bridge & the canal 6 Redwing settled in the treetops, slightly too far away for a decent pic.

Throughout the walk Jay x 1, Blue Tit x 10, Great Tit x 7, Long Tailed Tit x 6 Blackbird x 9, Chaffinch x 3, Magpie x 10, Robin x 6, Moor Hen x 7, Mallard x 12 & squirrels scampered across the frozen canal.