May 02nd, 2020

Long-tailed tit

Ewes with lambs are come back to Kendal Race Course and what a joy it is to see them.  Hopefully, next spring they will be born here.
LInnet are calling somewhere amongst the golden gorse bushes.  But the birds which perch  amongst the ash buds are long-tailed tits.
Redstart are come,  on cue.  I heard one several days ago but today is my first sighting.  He's rather too far off to photograph well, but he's in fine voice. The whitebeam leaf-buds unfurl, pale as flowers.  And Scout  Scar escarpment has all the freshness of Maytime.

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A morning of sun and scudding clouds that cast shadows over Scout Scar.  There is little wind so it's perfect for listening to birdsong.   Redstart display on trees rising above the escarpment cliff, dipping down into the hanging wood if disturbed.  It's warm enough to sit quietly and wait for the bird to return to his perch and sing again. I wait for the sun to emerge from behind the clouds to see him better.

In the distance a cuckoo calls. He's somewhere over the Lyth Valley, toward Whitbarrow.  A mature oak tree on Helsington Barrows comes into catkin as leaf buds unfurl.   Hazel catkins are the most familiar, appearing before the leaves.  Oak catkins can easily be confused with the unfurling leaves.  
I hear the alarm call of a stonechat.  It must be the bird I found here about a fortnight ago.  So there are at least two stonechat breeding on Scout Scar.  There were years when it was impossible to find any, so that's good news.
Lily of the Valley is a beautiful flower and grows wild in a few places on the limestone.