Week 11: Yorkshire, hills, raptors and a goshawk

Pendle Hill from Sharp Haw

A lovely extended Bank Holiday weekend up in Yorkshire and my first proper hill walk.  Just a short distance out of Skipton and a walk from Bog Lane up and around Sharp Haw.  Ideal weather - not too hot or too cold and a clear, sunny day.  There was a purple haze of heather up on the hill tops, with views across to Pendle Hill in the distance and great across the Yorkshire Dales.

Walking down the other side of Sharp Haw and through the woods, as well as a peregrine and a distant buzzard, I spotted a goshawk!  At least that's the only hawk I can think it can have been.  Bigger than a sparrowhawk and without the sharp wings of a peregrine.  Also spotted a kestrel hovering up on the hill, so definitely not that.  Lovely to see as there are plenty of grouse moors around the area.

Harvest time and the combine was out in the fields as we walked back to the car.  A relay of trucks following the harvester and gathering the wheat.  A hare ran out in to the stubble

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