I DON’T know about everyone else, but my regular walk for the last few weeks has included hundreds and hundreds of pheasants. Over the weeks, I’ve watched them grow from pullets to what they are now - very splendid looking exotic creatures, but with hardly any brain at all, or so it seems.

Many a time have I seen cars swerve violently to avoid hitting one as it strolls across the road, or come to a juddering, emergency stop - despite all the squashed ones on the road, I don’t think there are many drivers who would deliberately run one over.

There’s also that mad way pheasants have of repeatedly running into a fence in an attempt to get away from you - it’s like they’ve forgotten they can actually fly. No wonder they are such easy pickings for the buzzards.

However, putting even the most splendidly coloured of the cock pheasants I’ve seen is this Reeves’s pheasant (pictured). A native of China, the extremely exotic looking bird is named after the British naturalist, John Reeves, who first introduced the bird to Europe in 1831.

This fine example is one of a pair, I am told, and his name is Jimmy. I got very close to Jimmy, who was perilously close to a road - I shot off quickly after getting my photo, really didn’t want to see him run over by a car.

PADDLING along the Leeds and Liverpool Canal recently, I spied some fishing line caught up in a branch half in and half out of the water. I pulled at it, and on the end was this rather nasty looking triple hook, complete with weights.

It looked like it had been in the water for some time, fortunately, it didn’t look like any animal had got caught up with it. I got it out, of course, ripping my fingers in the process, but at least it was my fingers and caused little damage, rather than the insides of a birds mouth.

On the subject of the canal, I came across a snippet in one of the old papers how kingfishers had been seen sitting on anglers’s fishing rods, and even helped themselves to buckets of bait - not sure if this still happens, perhaps an angler can let me know.

SALVAGE Hunters is on the hunt for locations across Yorkshire for its latest 16th series on Quest TV and Discovery Network.

The shows follows decorative antiques expert Drew Pritchard as he travels around various locations in the UK and abroad on his quest to find and buy unusual objects with an interesting history.

Drew really visits everywhere – beautiful estates, old family businesses, barns and attics, museums and factories, even collectors and iconic religious sites, the list goes on. He buys all sorts along the way – from gorgeous country house furniture and music memorabilia to giant glass laboratory domes and anything in between. If you have unwanted things waiting to be discovered, then get touch.

If you think you fit the bill or know somebody that might then reach out and speak with a member of the production team.

Call on 0203 179 0092 or alternatively send an email to - salvagehunters@curvemedia.com

FANS of the classic 1960s television crime fiction series, Cluff, featuring Sergeant Caleb Cluff and filmed in Skipton, will be pleased to know the books the series was based on have been re-published.

Cluff was a BBC television detective television series set in the fictional town of Gunnershaw in the Yorkshire Dales - a sort of ‘Maigret of the Dales’.

The novels were written by the late Gil North, the pen-name of Geoffrey Horne, who was from Skipton, and who died in 1988.

There were two series of Cluff; they ran from 1964 to 1965 and featured Leslie Sands in the title role of Sgt Cluff.

Geoffrey Horne was born in Skipton in 1916 where his father was the town clerk. He went to the town’s grammar school, then studied at Christ’s College, Cambridge, before embarking on a career as a civil servant in Nigeria and Cameroon.

He later returned to pursue his writing ambitions in Skipton, which was not only the inspiration for Gunnarshaw, but also the location where the television drama Cluff was filmed.

Now, a whole new audience will be able to enjoy four of the books after they were republished by Great Northern Books.

They are: Sergeant Cluff Goes Fishing; More Deaths for Sergeant Cluff; The Blindness of Sergeant Cluff, and lastly, Sergeant Cluff Laughs Last.

Detective-Sergeant Cluff is at home in the bleak, moorland market town of 1960s Gunnarshaw. A gruff and gloomy loner, he has spent a lifetime observing local folk – and knows their lives inside out.

They know him, too – a bulky, macintoshed figure who watches from the shadows of Gunnarshaw’s ginnels as they go about their daily business, his dog Clive always at his side.

But it’s not just criminals Cluff has to watch out for. Never satisfied with easy answers to cases, Cluff is a maverick and no flatterer to authority – much to the bemusement of Detective-Constable Barker, but much more so to the despair of the hapless Inspector Mole, who tries at every opportunity to outwit or contain Cluff’s singular methods of detection.

But beneath Cluff’s dour exterior beats the heart of a truly compassionate man who possesses a deep understanding of human nature, in all its sordid and depraved details – details which frequently push Cluff to bend the rules in his pursuit of moral justice.

The books are available at: www.greatnorthernbooks.co.uk

FANS of the old stone road markers - and I know there are a lot out there - will be interested in this one.

It is next to the A59, between West Marton and East Marton, and has only just been revealed, having been hidden by undergrowth for at least 20 years. It can only been seen now, because the Gledstone Estate has been re-building the dry-stone wall.

It is situated at the top of Ingthorpe Lane, which is now a bridlepath, much used by horseriders and cyclists - and the side facing the lane says: Settle, 11 miles - which must mean Ingthorpe Lane was at one time the road to Settle. On the other side, facing the A59, it points right to Skipton, five miles; and left to Gifburn (Gisburn). Fascinating stuff.

FINALLY, we’re all hoping for an almost back to normal Christmas this year - whether we can get our hands on a turkey or presents or not, and the good people at Ingleborough Cave, Clapham, are preparing to welcome back excited children - and their parents - to their Santa’s Grotto.

They’ve been running the grotto now for more than 30 years, and what better place to have it - deep in the show cave beneath Ingleborough - it’s got to be more exciting than going to a supermarket.

Tickets went on sale at the start of October, and the grotto will be open for several days throughout December, right up until December 23, which this year is on a Thursday.

Santa, accompanied by his elves, will be in his grotto from 10.30am to 4pm, and tickets will include a present, and also entry to the lovely Ingleborough Estate nature trail - early booking is strongly advised.

To book a ticket, go to: ingleboroughcave.co.uk/