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Skylark, Cuckoo, Redstart and Hoary Rock Rose on Scout Scar

20/5/2023

Male skylark with breeding crest

A male skylark sings to assert that this is his territory, so the look is aggressive. His song is ravishing, the song usually heard in display flight. Individual feathers show on his raised breeding crest and his toes clutch the juniper twig.
For weeks now I've been hoping to find cuckoo but he was elusive. Today, I heard a cuckoo in the direction of Warriner's Wood so was off in pursuit. He was somewhere high in the green of larch trees. I always have binoculars but today I'd forgotten them.

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Sizergh Gardens in May

17/5/2023

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The orchard at Sizergh Castle

Sunlight poured down through apple blossom to reach seeding grasses and the fragrance of narcissi was in the air. Bees were busy about the orchard hives and swallows flew high, swooping low over the lake below the castle. The morning grew warm with only a hint of breeze.
Last autumn we were struck by a beautiful Rowan, Sorbus Vilmorinii where bullfinch feasted on its bright pink berries. For everything there is a season and in May this Rowan is unremarkable.

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Flowers for a Queen

6/5/2023

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Herb Robert in a limestone wall

'There's nothing there, just weeds. Why are you photographing weeds?' she asked.
Nothing but a limestone wall and a hay meadow winter-grazed by Herdwicks to bring forth lady's smock, then yellow rattle and diverse flowers. The high wall is a nursery of ferns, of toadflax and Herb Robert. And overnight comes a profusion of the tiny white flowers of rue-leaved saxifrage. Rare on Scout Scar, it thrives atop a wall on Queen's Road overlooking blossoming trees in an old orchard and the fells beyond. A precious place off a busy road where Nature thrives. Queen's Place and Queen's Road, named for Catherine Parr whose family were castellans at Kendal. But for Coronation Day I think Rue-leaved Saxifrage is fit for Queen Camilla.

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Bluebells of Warriner's Wood

2/5/2023

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Bluebells in Warriner's Wood

Bluebells In an English woodland in May, what could be lovelier. The morning was cloudy so there were no butterflies on the wing and the light was low but after rain and cool days bluebells were fresh and beautiful. Bluebells come into flower as leaves unfurl and there's a contrast of sharp greens and shades of blue. For a photographer, the loveliness of a bluebell wood is elusive, that's the challenge. I like a foreground flower with a wash of massed bluebells beyond. Sunlight through the wood was the only thing lacking

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Skylark, Cuckoo, Redstart and Hoary Rock Rose on Scout Scar

Sizergh Gardens in May

Flowers for a Queen

Bluebells of Warriner's Wood

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