Yorkshire Wolds & Tophill Low

I thought I would try somewhere different this weekend so I headed out to the Yorkshire Wolds with the aim of photographing some brown hares.I thought I would head out to Thixendale first then just drift round the minor roads using the car as a hide.
The first thing that struck me was how narrow the roads were and how much repair work needs to be done! I was ok with this though because the poor quality of the roads meant less traffic-and so it proved I must only have seen half a dozen cars all day.
The second thing that struck me was the amount of pheasants and red legged partridges that were around-in stark contrast to the complete lack of any grey partridges.
At first the hares were a little difficult to find, eventually though I did manage to see a few and a couple were close encounters.
No real sign of any 'boxing' however there were a couple of minor skirmishes.
I also managed most of the obligatory Wold bird species including red kite, buzzard, yellowhammer, marsh tit, lapwing and green woodpecker.
I had a drive down to Allerthorpe Woods in the hope of an adder but the cool breeze and fleeting sunshine did not make for ideal conditions.I retraced my steps on the way home but most of the wildlife had gone to ground in the afternoon.
On Sunday I headed for Tophill Low in the hope of an otter, so was up early and I did get distracted by more hares on the way but they remained distant although the early morning light made for good photographic opportunities.
Unfortunately the otters did not make a show (I began to regret not going for adders) but did have some compensation in the form of a very vocal and confiding chiff-chaff.In the warm early morning sunshine and amongst the willow buds the male chuff-chaff was proclaiming his newly claimed territory, this was early Spring epitomized for for a few fleeting minutes all was good in the world.