Fans of the BBC drama series Gentleman Jack will recognise the Shibden Valley as the place through which the 19th century heroine Anne Lister strides purposefully on her various forays from her home at Shibden Hall.
It’s steeped in history and gloriously scenic – and it’s also great for wildlife. I’ve seen green and great spotted woodpeckers, buzzards, kestrels, whitethroats and a host of other birds there.
The highlight of this morning’s brief walk was one of my favourite woodland birds – a chiffchaff. In some milder parts of the UK, these little leaf warblers can be seen all year round. Not being fans of West Yorkshire’s horizontal sleet, our local birds tend to head off to Africa for the winter.
Their return in early March is one of the first signs of spring, which they herald by singing their own name loudly and somewhat monotonously.
True to form, I heard this morning’s chiffchaff before I saw it. These birds like to sing while flitting around at the top of trees, so trying to find the source of that song often involves a lot of neck-craning and wobbly camera-pointing at a tiny shape silhouetted against the sky.
Here’s where Shibden really comes into its own. It’s a steep-sided valley, used for lung-busting hill climbs in the Tour de Yorkshire cycle race. Its topography means you often find yourself at a vantage point where you can look across at – or even down on – the treetops.
So today Mr Chiffchaff was happily blasting out his somewhat limited repertoire at the top of a hawthorn tree, while providing me with a scenic background and allowing me to photograph him without having to lie on my back and hold my lens at a crazy angle.
And we even managed to avoid being disturbed by any energetic figures in black top hats wielding walking canes.