Blog Archives - Cumbria Naturally

Blue Moor Grass on Helsington Barrows

31/3/2021

Tussocks of Blue Moor Grass have steel=blue flowers that give pollen at Easter Tide. It's a plant of limestone grassland, rare nationally, abundant on Scout Scar. With days of warm spring weather its blue flowers open to pollinators. It's an early flowering grass, with blue flowers on anthills, little tussocks in a weave of vegetation. Later in summer its stems will grow tall.
Temperatures are so high this week I'm looking out for butterflies, although there are few flowers to offer them nectar. Blackthorn begins to flower. Yew tree flowers have pollen too. Synchronicity is key: the coincidence of flowers with insects to pollinate them.

Wild Daffodils at Brigsteer Wood

30/3/2021

Wild daffodils, Brigsteer Wood

After Sunday’s incessant rain and Mondays rain showers there were floodwaters in the Lyth Valley. Low cloud over floodwaters, with pools of glimmering light over The Howe and Row, toward Whitbarrow. The sun slowly dispelled cloud and the morning grew warm. Tuesday 30th March, the hottest day of the year, so far.
We're on the cusp of spring, another wierd pandemic spring. of hope and foreboding.

Foulshaw Moss in March

24/3/2021

Witches' broom on birch (left). Willow catkins ( right).

Foulshaw Moss is a lowland raised mire, coastal, close to Morecambe Bay. Late last century, this landscape would have looked very different, a plantation including Scots Pine. Osprey nest in Scots Pine, amongst dead trees that spike the mire, telling of that time. There’s a zone of birch carr, skeletal and decaying, succumbing to fungal rot. Like trees shattered by war: a landscape in a Paul Nash painting. Then the sun gleams and glistens on the watery mire which burgeons with life.

Foulshaw Moss: siskin, redpoll, tree sparrow

24/3/2021

Siskin at Foulshaw Moss

A morning with a chill wind and blue skies. Birds are in breeding plumage and looking smart and brightly coloured, like this siskin.
Redpoll were lively and vocal in the tree- tops. I could hear them in the shelter of tall trees behind the feeders, but few came down to feed. Tree sparrow, green finch and gold finch showed.

Fieldfare with starling

22/3/2021

First winter fieldfare ( left) adult (right)

Larksong fills the air.
Pink-footed geese, fly North, out of the sun and above me.
Distant pee-wit call of lapwing, and curlew.
A flock of starling in full voice, they’re noisy neighbours. Their dark forms show in the bare branches of an ash.

Hare, skylark, fieldfare and lapwing

19/3/2021

The Langdale Pikes in silhouette

As a naturalist, when I invite a friend to accompany me I hope for wildlife sightings. Will skylark sing this morning, can I conjure the hare I've seen recently, and the elusive lapwing? If not, will the sun shine to make magic of the fells. And there comes an eyelet of blue and the Langdale Pikes are silhouetted against a glow of warm colour and gleaming snow.

Out of control dogs on Scout Scar

16/3/2021

Welsh Black cattle grazing on Scout Scar near the cliff-edge

A sunlit morning on Scout Scar yesterday. Welsh Black cattle grazed close to the escarpment cliff, the snow-clad fells beyond. These cattle are docile, even when under threat, as I was about to witness. I was photographing the peaceful scene when a family with three dogs approached. The dogs went for the cow, harassing her, then two of them ran slavering and barking at me. I asked them to control their dogs. The man asserted, 'they are in control.' I was taking photographs, here's the evidence.

Weather-watching on Scout Scar

13/3/2021

Looking north, from Scout Scar escarpment

Fresh overnight snow gleamed off the Kentmere Fells, to the north.
' I'm surprised to see snow, It's all around when you reach the top. It's like a gift.'
I like her way of seeing, and warm to her.
Looking north, sunlight gleamed off snow. Floodwaters down in the Lyth Valley, after days of rain. Pools of water on the escarpment too, unusual for fast-draining limestone.

Triplets at Bradleyfield

8/3/2021

Triplets at Bradleyfield. A lamb nuzzles its mother's teat and waggles its tail as it feeds. Triplets born before Atlantic lows and the severe gales forecast for later in the week.
In the further pasture, deep crimson and yellow markings on the ewes' rumps tell the farmer the dates they were tupped and when he may expect they'll give birth.

Pink-footed Geese Flying North on Migration

5/3/2021

A laughing call from a fringe of trees beyond Kendal Race Course. A green woodpecker is clamorous, his call accompanying us for some while, fainter and fainter.
I’ve walked all the last week, still days when sound carries. Today, chevrons of geese were flying North, high above Scout Scar escarpment and the Lyth Valley.

Frost and a temperature inversion: Scout Scar

3/3/2021

Cloud to the cliff top, Scout Scar

Spectacular weather this last week. High pressure brings a sharp overnight frost, followed by sun. By late morning it’s been warm enough to sit and contemplate cloudscapes and the beguiling mist that has hovered about the Lyth Valley, sometimes rising and pouring over Scout Scar escarpment and enveloping me in veils of silence, silence because I find myself alone when fog surrounds me. Firm frozen ground thaws into mud during the morning.

Scout Scar: mist and cloudscapes

1/3/2021

Burnbarrow Scar, left. Morecambe Bay in the distance

A hard overnight frost lingered in frost-pockets during the early morning. Skylark sang and when I reached Scout Scar escarpment I saw billowing mist down in the Lyth Valley. Clouds of drifting mist, rising from the floodwaters, wreathed into the woods and elusive, dispersing and thickening once again. Fascinating to watch, whether it makes interesting photographs is for you to consider.