What looks like just another grey, miserable day from the indoors looking out can have its own charm, if you take the trouble to put on waterproofs and step outside. Moisture hangs in the air diffusing the trees and buildings of the Calder valley into a cool aquatint.
Water every where; the stream, blocked by several fallen crack willows, washes across what is normally a little island. On the banks, a tiny pool has formed on an old twisted limb of a hazel.
Unusual weather sometimes brings in the rather less usual bird visitor, today nine Tree Sparrows sat in streamside trees by Balk Lane. Chaffinch, Blackbird and Redwing were about too.
One small mystery; a furry shape dashed across the woodland path and down towards the flooded stream. A brown rat displaced by rising water? For the glimpse we had it might just have well been a hedgehog going at high speed, or even a water vole, now quite scarce locally. One of the benefits of going over the same walk regularly is that you can make a mental note of creatures in particular places and keep an eye out for them next time around. I'm the sort of naturalist for whom a short stroll throws up as many questions as answers.Richard Bell's Nature Diary, Saturday, 24th October 1998
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