Redhead on a Rock

Sunday, 5th May 2002, West Yorkshire

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'Redhead' is the term birdwatchers sometimes use for sawbill ducks in greyish brown plumage with rusty red heads. We spot one this morning, a female or juvenile goosander, standing on a rock by the rapids at Horbury Bridge.

The goosander and the red-breasted merganser have 'sawbill' serrations along the edge of their bills to help in catching fish.

fire on the moors

There's a brisk cool wind from the north-north-west which is fanning the flames of a fire on the Pennine tops. A plume of smoke extends from somewhere near Haworth, petering out high over Thornhill, a distance, I guess, of about 14 miles.

stream in the wood

A neighbour who's out gardening stops me as I walk by to ask about the borehole that she says is now operating in the wood. Will the extraction of millions of gallons of water lower the water table and threaten aquatic life in the stream?

Richard Bell,
wildlife illustrator
E-mail; 'richard@willowisland.co.uk'

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