Malham, Yorkshire

On Tues we went for a walk to Malham in the Yorkshire Dales. For all my years spent in Yorkshire I didn’t realise that the Yorkshire Dales was a place name for a specific area in Yorkshire, I always thought it was just a term used for all the dales in Yorkshire (18 dales altogether).

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But no, the Yorkshire Dales is also a specific area in Yorkshire and a National Park.
The area we went to was Malhamdale, famous for it’s Limestone. My sister who’s been to Malham several times on school geography fieldtrips was able to tell me lots about the area. ‘That’s Limestone, that’s a lake, that’s a bird’, she was a great help.

The walk we did was from Malham village over to Janets Foss then over to Gordale Scar, lunch then up to Malham Cove and back down to the village again. It wasn’t too long a walk but it was amazing and a definite for birdwatchers.

If I had known what we were about to see there’s no way I would have left the camera in the car, but there you go, I did and I’m kicking myslef – so all these photos are from Google image search.

Janets Foss, Malham

It was walking through the woods to this waterfall that I saw my first Spotted Flycatcher, I actually saw two, which was pretty impressive for a first sighting. They were quite tame in the trees, obviously used to tourists trekking through the woods. Also heard Chiffchaff and Willow Warbler and saw a Chaffinch and Coal tit.
When we walked to Gordale Scar there were loads of Carrion Crows and Jackdaws, I didn’t spot any Ravens though I’m sure they would be around too.

Gordale Scar

Just before Gordale Scar there is a flat area of land which is given over to campers and campervans, we had lunch here.

It was here that I saw another bird I’d never seen before. It was the size of a Robin and had such unusual colours, a rusty, orangey belly, a black face and chin, a white punk patch on the very top of its head and blacky, brown wings. As if all that wasn’t stunning enough, when it flew away there was a flash of rusty orange which made me think if the Black Redstart I’d seen down in Dun Laoghaire. This bird, I later found out, was a Redstart. A migrant from Africa or Saudi Arabia which can be seen in England from April to September and there it was flitting around between a tree and a rock right next to us. I don’t think we get these in Ireland (?) so it was really nice to see this Redstart so easily and up close.

After lunch we walked the path up to Malham Cove and things got even better (I think this footpath was part of the Penine Way).

We spotted a flock of Starlings over to the right which drew our attention to a Kestrel which was hovering over some potential prey. The flock of Starlings were trying their best to mob the Kestrel, they eventually succeeded and the Kestrel moved to hover about 2 metres away from our heads – did I mention I left the camera in the car? So not only was there a Kestrel hovering within touching distance but then the Starlings all came over to try mob the Kestrel again and for about 5 minutes we watched the Kestrel keep it’s exact position over its potential prey whilst a flock of about 50 Starlings flew around and around the Kestrel trying to scare it away.

It was a pretty amazing spectacle.

When we walked up to the top of the Cove things got better again.

Malham Cove

We got to the top of the Cove and were walking along the Limestone pavements when a guy told us that there was a Peregrine just at the top ledge. We all sat down at the top of the Cove and looked down at the ledges. There the Peregrine was, just roosting on a branch jutting out of the Limestone. Then we heard the partner Peregrine flying somewhere below in the valley, such a screeching sound. Eventually the partner Peregrine flew up and landed near the other Peregrine, I couldn’t see which was the female and male, but I did see that there was also a juvenile Peregrine roosting on another tree growing out of the Limestone!

It was all quite amazing and what really struck me was that Everyone knew that the Peregrines were there, it was common knowledge to the general public. Imagine. We saw when we got to the bottom of the Cove we saw that the walk was actually called the ‘Peregrine Way’ in addition to this some RSPB workers were down at the bottom with telescopes and binoculars showing people where the Peregrines were nesting!
So different to Ireland where the prevalence of poisoning means that any knowledge of the nesting sites of Peregrines/ birds of prey being made public is simply not an option.

It does seem to have taken years for the RSPB in Yorkshire to have reached the point where they can risk publicising a Peregrine’s nesting site.
The following is taken from Yorkshire Dales National Park website.

The peregrine population crashed in the late 1950s due to agricultural chemicals such as DDT accumulating in the food chain causing egg shell thinning and reduced breeding success. These chemicals were banned and from the mid 1960s the peregrine population began to slowly recover despite persecution and the threat from egg collectors.

During the 1960s, the peregrine disappeared as a breeding species in the Yorkshire part of the Yorkshire Dales National Park and was restricted to perhaps one or two pairs in the north west (in Cumbria). The first pair to return to Yorkshire nested in 1978 and thanks to the diligent efforts of a number of organisations in protecting these birds, peregrines have continued to spread so that there are now around 20 sites where peregrines have been known to nest within the National Park. However, problems still persist, as recent research has shown that the number of peregrine chicks raised from nest sites on grouse moors in the Dales is much lower than nest sites away from grouse moors.

Whilst it is not possible to publicise most sites, a viewing scheme run by the RSPB and the Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority is in place at Malham Cove during the breeding season as part of the RSPB ‘Aren’t Birds Brilliant’ project

Hopefully in years to come Birdwatch Ireland or NPWS might be in a position to run a scheme like this without fear of any harm coming to the nesting birds.

Around the Cove there were also lots of Swifts, Housemartins, Jackdaws, Carrion Crows, Grey Wagtails, Chaffinches, Tits and Blackcaps.

When we got back to the car we drove upland again to Malham Tarn, a glacial lake now owned by the National Trust.

Malham Tarn

This time I took my camera with me, but I’ve left the images on my mums computer in Yorkshire and I’m writing this in Dublin, so again, no photos.
At the lake, which is the highest natural lake in England, we saw Curlews, Skylarks, Swallows, Tufted Ducks, Black headed Gulls and not much else without a telescope.

It was a lovely day and it was nice to be up at the lake but like my mum said, ‘I bet when it’s cold up here, it’s cold’.

We left here and headed home.
On the way back home Dad thought he saw a Grouse in one of the fields and I saw a couple of Oystercatchers feeding in farmer’s fields.

If you ever go to Malham, take your camera and definitely a telescope, you’ll be well rewarded.