Heron on the river………..

Decided to get a little exercise as it was a lovely afternoon and the temperature had risen from 2c yesterday to 14c today, in fact it was more like a balmy spring day than nearly mid December.

I usually walk from Wellhouse to Slaithwaite and back, but today did it in the reverse order. This was particularly advantageous for taking photographs as the sun was at my back on the first leg of the walk.

Some of the trees still have their leaves and there are remarkable colours of brown, green and yellow, presumably because we have had a fairly mild winter so far (with the exception of one snowstorm).

On my journey today I spotted a rather large Heron which appeared to be fishing in the river that runs parallel with the Huddersfield Canal. It stood perfectly still for several minutes before taking off for a short flight to a position up the river. I managed to get a few photographs of the bird stood by the side of the river and then shortly after it took flight.

It is the biggest Heron I have ever seen and liked majestic in flight. How lucky we are to have all this wildlife on our doorsteps and it is one of the reasons I come on this walk on a very regular basis. Below are some of the photographs I took this afternoon.