Outlet

duck

A mallard – possibly a youngster as it seems to be in the process of growing secondary wing feathers for the first time – standing at the cascading outlet of Newmillerdam lake this morning.

mallard

Meanwhile this adult female and her mate were paddling alongside the Boathouse Cafe.

Coot

coot
Coot by the war memorial at Newmillerdam this morning.

At Newmillerdam most of the black-headed gulls now have their chocolate brown masks but they all seem remarkably laid back this morning with no noisy disputes. Soon they’ll be gathering at their nesting colony at St Aidan’s.

Another reason for it seeming so peaceful is that there are no Canada geese around. Last week I saw a flock of more than a hundred by the canal opposite the Strands and a similar flock on the Wyke.

By the outlet at Newmillerdam a lone coot was diving for freshwater mussels. In the few minutes as we passed by it apparently finished feeding on one and then dived for another. The mussel was the size of a small grape.

The View from the Boathouse

Boathouse cafe

Just a taste (in this case a Bakewell and a latte) of the research that I’ve put into my article The bear, the bulldog and the boathouse, celebrating the 200th anniversary of the Boathouse at Newmillerdam, in the March issue of The Dalesman, out today.

Boathouse cafe

That chair is on the spot where sharp-shooting French bulldog enthusiast Lady Kathleen Pilkington (see article) sat 121 years ago in 1902.

My thanks to Experience Wakefield, www.experiencewakefield.co.uk for their support when I was researching this article.

Links

Dalesman website

The Yorkshire Dalesman

The Boathouse, Newmillerdam

Experience Wakefield

Newmillerdam Community and Conservation Association

Frosty Morning

The view from the Boathouse

It was muddy going around Newmillerdam yesterday but this morning it’s crunchy underfoot and ice has formed over parts of the lake.

Canada Geese, Thornes Park

Canada geese sketches

11 am: All the geese leave the pond and a flock of about 50 graze on the grassy slope.

Canada geese sketches

After two hours I’d almost finished this spread in my sketchbook but the last Canada goose was drawn back home from a photograph on the big screen of the iMac. I’m pleased that it looks equally as messy – let me rephrase that ‘equally as spontaneous’ – as the sketches done on location, sitting by the outlet of the Thornes Park Fish Pond, sometimes under an umbrella as fine rain fell.

Ice on the Lake

ice on Newmillerdam lake

Newmillerdam: below zero and the lake looks like the surface of another planet.

frozen leaf

Near the war memorial on the sunny side of the lake – if there was any sun – ducks, coot and gulls have found a slither of open water.

alsatian

Definitely a morning to head for the Boathouse Cafe for a latte and to draw this Alsatian with very mobile and expressive ears.

Alsatian

The cold was enough to reduce the pressure in the front tyres of our car by enough to trigger the ‘low pressure’ alarm.

frozen lake

Grebe, Gull and Heron

grebe and gulls

After recent heavy rain Newmillerdam is cloudy and khaki. A great-crested grebe pops up just yards from my table at the water’s edge at the Boathouse Cafe with a small silvery fish in its bill.

heron

Down by the outlet a heron is watching, waiting and stalking its prey, so intent on fishing that it allows me to rest my iPhone on the railings just 10 yards away from it to take this photograph.

heron
The M&S cafe this afternoon in Wakefield.

Cormorants, Crows and Coffee

crow

Boathouse Cafe, Newmillerdam, 11.20am, hazy sky alto-stratus, a few small spots of drizzle in a coolish breeze

A gulls gets the better of a crow, which stops to preen on the ridge tiles of the boathouse roof.

cormorant

A juvenile cormorant – brown with a light breast – splashes its wings as it makes its way down the lake in what I presume is some kind of preening routine. It then takes off, skimming low over the water to join seven adult cormorants on their favourite resting place, the boughs of a half-submerged fallen tree.

Sketchbook page, attempting to draw black-headed gulls as the wheel past the Boathouse Cafe balcony at eye level.