The Langdale Pikes under louring cloud Where was the promised brightness? Louring cloud over Scout Scar threatened heavy showers. I thought of heading home when I heard lapwing and followed their call through a scrub of hawthorn and gorse until I reached a dry stone wall topped with a double strand of barbed-wire. Finding a spot where I could see into the pasture beyond, I searched amongst summer flowers lush after rain, their constant calls guiding me to lapwing parents with two chicks.
Their young were almost hidden in grasses and flowers but my images show their change of stance and the protective positions of the parent birds. Out in the open pasture a depth of vegetation hid the chicks well. I found a number of lapwing earlier in spring, put up when the farmer came to feed his Belted Galloways and the herd followed after him. This is the first time I've found lapwing breeding on my local patch.
This is not access land. It's a location I study I see clearly how wildlife fares so much better when protected by stone walls from the intrusion of walkers and dogs. On Cunswick Scar the pattern is the same. Ground nesting curlew and lapwing might breed in a network of enclosed pastures but they cannot thrive on the open fell which is too much walked.
This is not access land. It's a location I study I see clearly how wildlife fares so much better when protected by stone walls from the intrusion of walkers and dogs. On Cunswick Scar the pattern is the same. Ground nesting curlew and lapwing might breed in a network of enclosed pastures but they cannot thrive on the open fell which is too much walked.
Sometimes the most memorable image is the one that eludes you, the one that lingers in the mind's-eye. I heard the insistent warning call of stonechat and through my binoculars I came upon a male linnet with crimson breast and one of his brood. A quick switch to camera, not quick enough. The linnet were gone.
I found yarrow of the deepest pink I think I've ever seen in the wild.
A meadow brown alighted in limestone clitter- they often bask on the stones for warmth. The underwing is a wonder of cryptic colour and pattern.
I returned through the most sheltered scrub where there are butterfly hotspots- and more. Pockets of heat amongst outcropping limestone, brambles and juniper. I met a neighbour who told me he'd seen an adder- not sure he meant today. And lizard too. We talked of the kestrel of the place which he'd been watching, as I have. We believe they have young and he thinks he's seen three fledglings. We've both been looking out for curlew here and so I told him where I'd found the lapwing family. It's gratifying to meet someone who has been following the progress of wildlife so eagerly.
I found yarrow of the deepest pink I think I've ever seen in the wild.
A meadow brown alighted in limestone clitter- they often bask on the stones for warmth. The underwing is a wonder of cryptic colour and pattern.
I returned through the most sheltered scrub where there are butterfly hotspots- and more. Pockets of heat amongst outcropping limestone, brambles and juniper. I met a neighbour who told me he'd seen an adder- not sure he meant today. And lizard too. We talked of the kestrel of the place which he'd been watching, as I have. We believe they have young and he thinks he's seen three fledglings. We've both been looking out for curlew here and so I told him where I'd found the lapwing family. It's gratifying to meet someone who has been following the progress of wildlife so eagerly.
On last Sunday's Countryfile Adam Henson showed the effects of a prolonged drought, through April, May and June, on his crops. There were yellow patches where rock was close to the surface, where grasses failed to thrive. And seed-heads thin and scant. Scout Scar is limestone grassland, with limestone clitter, outcropping rock and little depth of soil. So in spring and early summer drought grasses and the flora of Scout Scar did not flourish. The rains of July see the landscape green once more, with new growth.
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