Lotherton Hall near Leeds (1 Viewer)

First post for a wee while but I thought you might like to know about Sheila and I's little trip out last Wednesday. We went for a drive to Harrogate to look at the crocuses on the Stray, not a patch on those along Soldiers Field in Leeds so we finished up at Lotherton Hall which is just outside Leeds, quite close to Aberford. This is a lovely little Edwardian home (now owned by Leeds Council) that boasts a deer park and bird garden as well as being home to some fine exhibits of ceramics and costumes. No prizes for guessing why I wanted to visit.

We had a wander through the grounds but as luck would have it we visited at that point in the gardening year when all the beds were empty, however I did see something I hadn't seen for a good many years, double digging to get the manure right into the soil. In one corner of the garden is a large statue of an oriental gentleman astride what I believe is a water buffalo, I'm sure that this must be Lao Tse but I am ready to be corrected. In the Italian Sunken Garden there are some very interesting examples of spiral worked topiary, there must have been hours spent training the bushes.

At last we got to where I wanted to be, namely the bird garden. It had been at least a decade since my last visit, probably more as our youngest wasn't at school last time and he started 6th form last September. Still free to enter, although the car park has charges now. We wandered the paths looking at the birds, Sarus crane, maribou stork, white stork, flamingoes, red-breasted goose, an assortment of parrots and the endangered Bali starling which the bird garden is helping by being part of the breeding programme. There's a small pool with several British waterfowl on it, so it was really nice to get a close up view of pintail and eider.

A new feature since our last visit was a large walk-through aviary with free flying birds entitled 'An African Experience', life at an African waterhole. As Sheila is not a bird person she didn't accompany me through this aviary, she stayed behind having another look at the waxbills and zebrafinches.

Once through the 'airlock' system I was in amongst the birds, non of them pinioned so they could all fly as they wanted. There were waldrapp (or bald ibis), along with sacred ibis, at least one hammerkopf (a gorgeous little bird with a head profile that was just like an axe), and white-faced whistling ducks, night herons and crowned cranes to name but a few of the birds. It was magical walking through the aviary, at one point I had a small flock of sacred ibis almost at my feet. I managed to get loads of photos of the various birds, well almost all as the hammerkopf wouldn't play ball, he/she would not stay still for a moment.
All in all a very pleasant morning out for Sheila and I.

The website for the Hall is HERE for anyone who wants to know more.

I don't call that house little. Keith, at all.|:d|
Super photo's of the topiary, statue & the birds. It looks a nice place to visit.

What a great opportunity to see birds that you would normally need to travel thousands of miles to see and spend thousands of pounds. It slightly reminds me of a place that we visited is the middle of Hong Kong city 4 years ago. There they had birds flying inside a vast dome that was stocked with rainforest plants. Lotherton Hall sounds much bigger with a more diverse range of birds.

I know that a lot of people don't approve of captive birds of any kind but this sounds very well-managed. Thanks for the link. I'll certainly consider taking a detour when we visit our son in Manchester.

Pat

They had a friendly laughing rock thrush and kookaburra the last time I was there. I suppose they get so used to people and perhaps they may have food sneaked to them.
Also Bill Moss's favourite, snowy owl. Even his least favourite the marabou stork.

Chris we didn't find a snowy owl but did find all the others you mentioned.

Pat it would be a whopping detour Leeds to Manchester, something like 40+ miles and one of the busiest routes to negotiate between them.

Val compared to other vintage homes in the area, Lotherton is tiny... it's actually not much bigger than a pair of semi-detached houses. The statue hasn't been done justice with my picture, I'll go back on a sunny day and get a better one.

It is a good 4-5 years since I was last there so perhaps the snowy owl has moved on in some way. I remember some small hornbill like bird in the Africa enclosure as well as those you've mentioned, that was a good little diversion.