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

East Baugh Fell with golden plover and cloudberry

19/6/2014

0 Comments

 
PictureCranberry flowers
East Baugh Fell might seem rather bleak moorland but for naturalists it’s a treasure trove.  Golden plover are calling  as we change into our boots and I’m eager to see them. Merlin possibly.  You never know.  
A young bird flies up from the heather and its panic brings a  family of red grouse clamouring and tumbling  into view. Birdsong accompanies us all along our walk, skylark and pipit always, and curlew  fall silent as we climb higher and pick up the call of golden plover.
All day, we meet only a couple of  walkers who wonder why we are down on our knees amongst hummocks of heathers.  There are tiny flowers  to delve and discover.  No crowberry flowers but I like the contrast of glossy green leaves and red stems- sap rising. 


The morning is warm and still.  Clouds of midges swarm invasive and set us coughing. We cover our ears to keep them out. Plentiful food for the creatures of East Baugh Fell.
Everywhere,  tunnels in a weave of grass, burrowing into hummocks of sphagna. A scurry of brown bodies - mouse, vole, shrew, we cannot be sure. There must be a population explosion because we come upon  tunnel entrances all day.
These flowers are tiny, half-hidden in a weave of ericas.  We are struck by the beauty of design and it takes macro-photography to highlight  bell-shaped flowers. Barbara scans  the underside of the leaves, where dark spots define cowberry.
Austin hears golden plover and  pinpoints a bird, outlined on a bluff against the sky. Having set my heart on golden plover, I like sightings to get better and better. And so they do.
I’ve found cloudberry in Norway and Scotland but it’s  rare in the Lake District, so I’m delighted to find it here.  The plant grows on hummocks of sphagna in the blanket bog in the Pennines, above 450 metres, and after my first find we come upon them thick and fast, although we find only a few plants that have flowered- leaving rosy sepals, the white petals gone.
East Tarns are somewhat desolate-looking, with few aquatic flora. (If I had realised we were so close to Knoutberry Haw, a stronghold of cloudberry, there would have been a pilgrimage to see how they fare.)  Over lunch, we hear golden plover calling. As we begin a long descent toward Haskhaw Gill, tributary of the River Rawthey, we have a splendid sighting and by this time the light is perfect to show the wonderful plumage. We  hear two birds and spend some while amongst the peat hags admiring them. Austin locates them. He’s  doesn’t realise he’s a good spotter. To gauge distance and direction and is harder than you might think.  Cryptic colouring on the mantle of the bird blends them into the blanket bog, despite that wonderful black belly scrolled with white.
Down beside Grisedale Beck we hear again the call of the curlew and find  lapwing too. Pastures of buttercups burnished with sorrel  as we approach the farmhouse at Moor Rigg.
Barbara spots clusters of green-veined whites on rocks in Grisedale Beck. Several ruined farmsteads along our way.  Not sure whether the smart Moor Rigg is a holiday home, probably. We are still coming upon tunnels of small mammals and Austin catches a glimpse of a brown creature.
Back at the car, a golden plover is still calling from a perch on a wall. The green-veined whites do well this year, they’re everywhere.
Another great day out!
Thanks to my botanist friend Fiona’s reminder that dark spots on the underside of a leaf are definitive of cowberry.
March 2019 I reappraise this day on East Baugh Fell.  This spring, the dawn chorus has lost volume significantly- as bird populations crash. If only we might share the Viking experience, the abundance they knew.
0 Comments

Your comment will be posted after it is approved.


Leave a Reply.

    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

    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 2021 All rights reserved
Website by Treble3