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Friends of Gill Beck Valley @gillbeckvalley.bsky.social · 05/09/2025

Strange times. Last week it was parched, brown and silent. All the local swallows vanished. This week it rains and we have 48 of them back again. Where did they go in between. 48 is more than we've had post-breeding for several years. Makes so much difference to have life back in the landscape

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Friends of Gill Beck Valley @gillbeckvalley.bsky.social · 26/05/2025

Wood pasture at the top of Spring Wood in the valley between Baildon and Hawksworth. The cows really like to get in there when it's hot but also when it's wet and windy

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Friends of Gill Beck Valley @gillbeckvalley.bsky.social · 23/05/2025

Several trees in the valley have suffered 'summer branch drop' in the last couple of weeks. Oak and Sycamore. This is often associated with abnormally warm, dry weather

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Friends of Gill Beck Valley @gillbeckvalley.bsky.social · 23/05/2025

Confluence of Gill Beck and the river Aire. A bit short on water but nonetheless lovely today with Brimstone butterfly, Banded Demoiselle and lots of Mayflies on the wing

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Friends of Gill Beck Valley @gillbeckvalley.bsky.social · 23/05/2025

Eggs of freshwater limpets... Also from the confluence of Gill Beck and Aire

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Friends of Gill Beck Valley @gillbeckvalley.bsky.social · 23/05/2025

Absolutely gazillions of baby leeches in our invertebrate count at the mouth of the Gill Beck today. There are 17 species of leeches in the UK... We have seen at least two in the beck

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Friends of Gill Beck Valley @gillbeckvalley.bsky.social · 29/04/2025

Grasshopper Warbler singing from this brambly streamside on Hollins Hall this evening. Also a thumping great bat cruising over which I presume may be a Noctule

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Friends of Gill Beck Valley @gillbeckvalley.bsky.social · 27/04/2025

A new plant for the valley: Fringecups. These have sneaked in amongst the wild garlic in deep shade on the banks of the beck adjacent to the confluence with the Aire. Not a UK native but quite widespread

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Friends of Gill Beck Valley @gillbeckvalley.bsky.social · 26/03/2025

Chance of an aurora tonight too. Scoter, toads and dancing lights

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Friends of Gill Beck Valley @gillbeckvalley.bsky.social · 26/03/2025

This afternoon there was a huge seething toad ball just on the ground by the path at Tong Park

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Friends of Gill Beck Valley @gillbeckvalley.bsky.social · 25/03/2025

Thousands of Scoter pouring East over north Leeds tonight. Hundreds of toads spawning.

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Friends of Gill Beck Valley @gillbeckvalley.bsky.social · 16/03/2025

Our upstream-est sampling site at Tong Park Viaduct

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Friends of Gill Beck Valley @gillbeckvalley.bsky.social · 16/03/2025

First session of invertebrate sampling in the Gill Beck for this year. Still some life in there then! These are stream mayfly larvae. Thousands of 'em!

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Reposted by Friends of Gill Beck Valley

Kane Brides 🦆 @kanebrides.bsky.social · 09/03/2025

Home time for the Whoopers 🥲 Beautiful cross country track under the cover of darkness for this one last night! Nene Washes to Keilder Water, Northumberland in 4 hours. #Ornithology

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Friends of Gill Beck Valley @gillbeckvalley.bsky.social · 01/03/2025

A flock of @15 Whoopers over last night. Tootling north over Guiseley. Illuminated from below by streetlights as they went over the ridge. Magic

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Friends of Gill Beck Valley @gillbeckvalley.bsky.social · 24/01/2025

For anyone who follows us for Gill Beck news and gets economics. Truth is every time you dig down into a real, local envtl issue you ultimately find economics. Every time a govt service is cut coz 'we don't have the money' it's never true. May be other valid reasons but it's never lack of money.

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Friends of Gill Beck Valley @gillbeckvalley.bsky.social · 22/12/2024

unherd.com/2024/12/a-fo... The corollary to this is that the state of our local environment becomes pressingly relevant to the lives of UK citizens. This is why we need intact ecology outside our front doors. Biodiversity, soil, pollution...they matter

unherd.com

A food apocalypse is coming

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Friends of Gill Beck Valley @gillbeckvalley.bsky.social · 21/12/2024

We lost Pied & Spotted Flycatcher, Redstart, Lesser Spot, Wood Warbler, Willow Tit, Marsh Tit but now we got Ravens 💪..and, to be fair, Mandarin Ducks and Red Kite

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Friends of Gill Beck Valley @gillbeckvalley.bsky.social · 21/12/2024

Tong Park Viaduct: completed in 1876. A masterpiece now forgotten behind a decidedly unglamorous industrial estate at the heart of the Valley of the Gill Beck

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Friends of Gill Beck Valley @gillbeckvalley.bsky.social · 21/12/2024

Invertebrate sampling at the mouth of the Gill Beck with David & Sam summer 2024. We are recruiting additional surveyors if anyone is keen to get water in their wellies!

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Friends of Gill Beck Valley @gillbeckvalley.bsky.social · 15/12/2024

This old Sycamore used to be the most reliable Oyster Mushroom tree in the valley but even the fungi seem to have decided there's nothing left to take this year

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Friends of Gill Beck Valley @gillbeckvalley.bsky.social · 12/12/2024

A post-apocalyptic feel to the lower Gill Beck valley as a sullen easterly laps around Tong Park mills

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Friends of Gill Beck Valley @gillbeckvalley.bsky.social · 19/11/2024

There's a glaring issue with incomes of smaller farmers squeezed to oblivion between suppliers and buyers. Against this background, choosing to burn political capital over a pittance of IHT is alienating a lot of relatively poor people whose help with climate/biodiversity we desperately need

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Friends of Gill Beck Valley @gillbeckvalley.bsky.social · 10/11/2024

Until the last couple of decades most of the valley was pasture. Much of it is now golf course. Despite 20 years of 'improvement', drainage, mowing and fertiliser, a lot of fungi persist. Crimson, Golden and Parrot Waxcap this week

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Friends of Gill Beck Valley @gillbeckvalley.bsky.social · 28/08/2024

Just some pics from the Gill Beck. We're officially counting inverts...but unofficially the fish are more exciting;) stone loach and brown trout. Invertebrates were also present in decent numbers

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Friends of Gill Beck Valley @gillbeckvalley.bsky.social · 15/03/2024

Clear evidence of spring in the valley this morning. 5 chiffchaffs, 30 Redwing, 4 Kites, 2 Buzzard, Raven, Little Grebe. Bullfinches in Blackthorn blossom... always nice

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Friends of Gill Beck Valley @gillbeckvalley.bsky.social · 06/03/2024

An image to sum up how we all feel about the state of the weather this winter

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Friends of Gill Beck Valley @gillbeckvalley.bsky.social · 06/03/2024

Considering they're all big white birds with coloured bills, I'll admit to a reprehensible level of swan snobbery. Whoopers are beautiful.

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Friends of Gill Beck Valley @gillbeckvalley.bsky.social · 06/03/2024

Bizarrely, a solitary Whooper Swan on Tong Park dam the last two days. It looks fully functional but getting chased around mercilessly by the resident Mutes. It's not an easy take off for a swan due to ring of surrounding trees but hopefully will eventually pluck up courage

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Friends of Gill Beck Valley @gillbeckvalley.bsky.social · 14/01/2024

A bit of cathartic footpath clearance by ninja FoGBV chairman. Huge female peregrine over Hollins Hall Golf

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Friends of Gill Beck Valley @gillbeckvalley.bsky.social · 12/01/2024

Dipperland: Spring Wood. This stretch of mature, semi-natural oak/holly/birch extends about 3km from Tong Park to the moor road. Frustratingly, in 20 years I've never seen a Redstart, Pied Flycatcher, Spotted Flycatcher, Wood Warbler, Lesser Spotted W/P, Marsh or Willow Tit in there 🤷‍♂️

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Friends of Gill Beck Valley @gillbeckvalley.bsky.social · 12/01/2024

A Dipper at the stepping stones. Not a bad shot through the binoculars I thought

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Friends of Gill Beck Valley @gillbeckvalley.bsky.social · 12/01/2024

Sunny Brow. A chunky female Sparrowhawk, two Buzzards, a Kite and a couple of Goldcrest. No sun

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Friends of Gill Beck Valley @gillbeckvalley.bsky.social · 12/01/2024

A few pics from the valley today. Willy Wood hiding modestly behind the Tong Park sight screen. Flushed a Woodcock from the stream behind

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Friends of Gill Beck Valley @gillbeckvalley.bsky.social · 01/01/2024

The catchment of the Gill Beck....our patch 😍 from friendsofgillbeckvalleyorg.wordpress.com/2021/03/04/a...

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Friends of Gill Beck Valley @gillbeckvalley.bsky.social · 01/01/2024

Shaggy Scalycaps on the huge old Ash trees at Hollins Hall. Love the look of these

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Friends of Gill Beck Valley @gillbeckvalley.bsky.social · 01/01/2024

Night time view through Tong Park viaduct to the chimneys of Denby's Mill

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Friends of Gill Beck Valley @gillbeckvalley.bsky.social · 01/01/2024

Great Scented Liverwort (I think) in Great Wood. We neglected to sniff it properly...return visit scheduled

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Friends of Gill Beck Valley @gillbeckvalley.bsky.social · 01/01/2024

The same confluence looking upstream towards Weecher. Lovely wood pasture ...you wouldn't believe this is a couple of miles from the northern suburbs of Bradford

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Friends of Gill Beck Valley @gillbeckvalley.bsky.social · 01/01/2024

John Franklin of the Aire Rivers Trust at the confluence of the Gill Beck and Weecher Beck in Great Wood: Dec 23. Beautiful section of the valley

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