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South Walney at high tide

28/10/2023

Piel Castle and the old pier almost submerged

An incoming tide floods a last shoal, dislodging roosting oystercatcher. They rise in a pattern of black and white and alight on a shoreline that darkens with countless birds. Widgeon swim by and out on the spit there are cormorant and male eider.
We hear redshank, geese and the occasional curlew. There's a flock of lapwing, waders fly overhead and it's all so evocative.
Afterwards, the images of the day bring surprises. We saw a sole male eider, my camera found forty. And it caught the fast-flowing tide when we were close-focused on grey seals.

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Kentmere at Halloween

25/10/2023

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Red Squirrels- read the notice. The track is strewn with hazel nuts, acorns and sometimes crab apples. They lie in a bed of fallen leaves and the wood has hues of autumn, green-gold and metallic colours.
Fallen trees sprawl the woodland floor like giant spiders, their trunks fruiting with fungi. Our track looks down upon a lost way bounded with ancient trees green with moss and epiphytes. The shapes of trees show forth as their leaves fall.
Bands of sunlight play over the fells and mist clings to the tops. Sunlight and shadow, the morning light plays to the Halloween motif.

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Fieldfare and Redwing return to Scout Scar

22/10/2023

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Scout Scar escarpment. Looking north-west to the fells

Sunday morning is spectacular, with luminous white cloud enveloping the fells. Beneath a canopy of blue the Scout Scar ridge is well-lit. Slowly, the cloud-mass rises, the fells show faintly and a dark cloud over Morecambe Bay casts shadows across the Lyth Valley. It's a day of sensation. Climbing toward the ridge the warmth is lost to a chilly air. A flock flies silently overhead. I'm sure they're fieldfare but I wait to hear them and for the sun to show their colour before I claim my first sighting.

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Bearded Tits at Leighton Moss

17/10/2023

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Car park FULL, the sign announced. But someone is leaving so we secure the only space. What’s going on? Bearded tits are about, the Bearded Reedling is lured from the sheltering reeds to feed on seed-heads, down to the seed-trays where they feed and ingest grit.
The afternoon sun dazzles on the water and the light is tricky for photography, but here they are.

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Dry-stone walls on Scout Scar

15/10/2023

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Dry-stone walls pattern the pastures east of Scout Scar, giving the landscape a distinctive character. On a bright day the sun gleams on limestone and highlights sheep and Belted Galloways. The walls enclose livestock, keeping them safe. Although a few lambs escaped from Kendal Race course, venturing forth. Venturing too far. One died alone beneath a stone wall and lies saturated by September rains. Sometimes lambs jump up and strand themselves atop of walls. So farmers are constantly faced with wall repairs.

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Sizergh in October

14/10/2023

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Spindle, Red Cascade, Sizergh Gardens

Welcome the sun and a bright day. September was mild, gloomy and wet, so autumn colour comes late. Today, there's a chill in the air and the gardens are sunlit under a blue sky.
We stop by the orchard at Holeslack to look for redwing and fieldfare. Last year, they fed on windfalls beneath the trees but there are few apples and no winter thrush. The National Trust has created new paths through woodland, by wood-pasture and a pond where a heron calls and ducks fly up in alarm.

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South Walney at high tide

Kentmere at Halloween

Fieldfare and Redwing return to Scout Scar

Bearded Tits at Leighton Moss

Dry-stone walls on Scout Scar

Sizergh in October

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