Country Diary: West Yorkshire

There is a good feeling to being out and about really early at this time of year. Dawn begins around 4am, and the bird chorus is awesome. Even in the suburbs between Leeds and Bradford - countryside, but only just - the wildlife is impressive.

I had been in the valley since 5am doing a formal wildlife survey, but the casual observations were more enthralling. Down by Fagley Beck, a roe buck stepped boldly from the undergrowth to nibble gently on buttercup flower buds, seemingly oblivious to any threat. Rabbits scuttled off everywhere, grazing the already short grass. In groups of four or two, there was always one sat upright, keeping watch.

A rustle among the brambles revealed a late foraging hedgehog. Above my head, family parties of recently fledged blue tits, great tits, coal tits and dunnock chatted incessantly, moving like troupes of monkeys, swinging between the twigs and branches.

Suddenly, all hell was let loose; blackbirds clattered, mistle thrush scolded and a shadow slid through the tan gle of bent trees. A female sparrow hawk, she disappeared behind a clutter of branches, reappearing with a bundle of feather and meat in her talons, a young great tit, snatched from its perch, now plucked on a bough.

For maybe 10 minutes, the woods went quiet, stunned by the violent slaughter. Then, gradually, the birdlife relaxed. A chaffinch chuckered away over on the far side, the tits resumed their contact calls, a wren called shrilly from the bramble. The hawk chicks had breakfast. Most human young were still asleep.