Cumbria Naturally
  • Home
  • Blog
  • My Books
    • Cumbrian Contrasts
    • A Lakeland Experience >
      • Introduction
      • Derwent
      • Langdale
      • Ullswater
      • Kentdale
    • About Scout Scar
    • Atlantic Odyssey
  • Other Writing
    • What Larks!
    • Further - Explore Shetland
    • Autumn Migration
    • Rydal and Nab Scar
    • Perspectives
    • The River Kent
    • Wings
  • Gallery
  • Contact

South Walney September 2020

25/9/2020

0 Comments

 
PictureSalt-marsh with mud creeks, and Piel Castle

Spotlight and floodlight  play over  Piel Castle and cloud-shadows flow over the salt-marsh threaded with creeks where curlew and redshank call. Shingle, mud-flats and deep-water channels are sunlit,  colour and fade. . 
To the north,  Piel Castle, Barrow,  Black Combe and White Combe, the outliers of the  fells. To the south, Morecambe Bay and Blackpool Tower. To the west, sand-dunes and the Irish Sea and wind farms.



Read More
0 Comments

Roudsea Wood and Raised Mire

17/9/2020

1 Comment

 
PictureSmall-leaved lime, Tilia cordata in Roudsea wood
Sunlight filters through a canopy of ancient woodland on a September day  at Roudsea wood. Insects are lively in the warm sun.  Speckled wood butterflies on the wing in glades between woodland fringe and rides,  settling in leaf litter, on leaf and flower. Common  darter and black darters bask in the warmth and mate. 
​ Rousdea wood  has  charcoal pit-steads,  tan bark barn, bark peelers house, potash kiln  and powder house, The industrial archaeology of ancient woodland.


Read More
1 Comment

Smardale and Waitby Greenriggs in September

10/9/2020

1 Comment

 
PictureGuelder Rose, Viburnum Opulus
I have longed for Smardale,  longed so deep that the reality may not live up to the longing. This year, this long year, spring and summer pass by  with Smardale unvisited, autumn is come and here we are, at last.
For my companion I choose  a looker, someone who delves  dimensions and misses nothing.  Someone curious.  Who has to include Waitby Greenriggs in the fading light to see how every loop of railway line connects,  from live lines with trains to disused railway tracks with embankments now habitat for flora and butterflies. 


Read More
1 Comment

Jenny Brown's Point and Leighton Moss

6/9/2020

1 Comment

 
PictureTales from the Stave: starling
I heard a chorus of birds and followed  to  find a flock of starling strung along triple wires between telegraph poles.  Dark shapes  like notes of music on a stave.   A stave of starling, that's my collective noun for them.  Plumage of subtle colour, sheen  and pattern.  Birds preening. fluttering  above and below the wires, then all off in a whoosh. 
A soloist sang close by in the reed beds, clear and insistent.  Forget the starling chorus, I'm the one.  


Read More
1 Comment

Scout Scar, August Bank Holiday

1/9/2020

0 Comments

 
PictureSunlit grasshopper
Cumbria Wildlife Trust reminds us that the stridulations of grasshoppers are the sound of summer.  This one was silent as it settled in bright sunshine on a chunk of limestone. 
I've noticed that there are days when few butterflies are on the wing but still the grasshopper chorus is loud in the grass. It's unusual to see one so well and the rock makes a perfect foil.
Beautiful weather for the Bank Holiday and the last days of August. So my theme is sunlight and shadow. Shadow-play over the fells to the west. The Langdale Pikes are always a focal point and all morning they are sunlit and shadowed, by turns. 


Read More
0 Comments
    Picture

    Author

    Jan Wiltshire is a nature writer living in Cumbria. She also explores islands and coast and the wildlife experience. (See Home and My Books)

    Archives

    June 2025
    May 2025
    April 2025
    March 2025
    February 2025
    January 2025
    December 2024
    November 2024
    October 2024
    September 2024
    August 2024
    July 2024
    June 2024
    May 2024
    April 2024
    March 2024
    February 2024
    January 2024
    December 2023
    November 2023
    October 2023
    September 2023
    August 2023
    July 2023
    June 2023
    May 2023
    April 2023
    March 2023
    February 2023
    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    January 2015
    November 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    September 2012
    July 2012
    June 2012
    November 2010
    August 2010
    July 2010
    April 2010
    January 2010
    November 2009
    January 2009
    January 2004

    Categories

    All
    A Local Patch
    Birdlife
    Butterflies And Moths
    Flowers
    Locations
    Views
    Walks
    Weather
    WIldlife

    RSS Feed

Website
Home
Blog
Gallery
Contact



​Cookie Policy
My Books
  • Intro - My books
  • ​Cumbrian Contrasts
  • A Lakeland Experience
  • About Scout Scar
  • Atlantic Odyssey
    ​
Other Writing
  • Intro - Other Writing
  • What Larks!
  • Further - Explore Shetland
  • Autumn Migration
  • Rydal and Nab Scar
  • Perspectives
  • The River Kent
  • Wings
Jan Wiltshire - Cumbria Naturally
© Jan Wiltshire 2022 All rights reserved
Website by Treble3