Castle wildlifeTour of Pontefract Castle, part 7
The yellow daisy-like flowers of Oxford Ragwort add splashes of colour to the craggy ruins, growing from crevices between the blocks.
My thanks to him and to archaeologist Pam Judkins, castle guide Michael Holdsworth, curator of Pontefract Museum Richard Van Reil and to Karen Vine for their help in compiling these pages on Pontefract Castle. Karen is designing activity leaflets (including the drawings you've seen on this virtual tour), aimed at children and families, which should be available at Pontefract during the summer holiday. Pontefract Castle is in the care of Wakefield Metropolitan District Council and, as previously mentioned, it is open most days of the year and admission is free.
Mining Bees; look out for the little mounds of excavated earth
around a hole. This hole is the nest, the bee is only about 12mm in
size.
Long-tailed Tits about 14cm form head to tail, half of this
length is tail. Dark brown to black with white to pink head and chest,
found in groups of about eight to ten.
Wren the smallest but probably the noisiest , he's about 10cm
long, bark brown with a short cocked tail.
Chaffinch about 15cm, sparrow size, look for double white wing
bar. Males have slate blue head and pink breast. The female is greenish
brown.
Goldfinch 13cm in flight, you can't miss the gold flashes on
the wings. Look also for the red face. Some black on head and wings.
A Liquorice plant is grown in the bed in front of the Keep.
After the demolition of the castle liquorice was grown as a crop in
the inner bailey.
Pontefract Links on www.welcome-2-europe.com A website which gives a brief introduction to the history of the Castle.
Richard Bell, 
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On my visit to the castle a Great Spotted Woodpecker climbed up the branches of a Sycamore and later pecked about on bare ground at the foot of a weeping ash.