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

Pink-footed Geese Flying North on Migration

5/3/2021

0 Comments

 
Picture

​A laughing call from a  fringe of trees beyond Kendal Race Course. A green woodpecker is clamorous, his call accompanying us for some while, fainter and fainter.
I’ve walked all the last week, still days when sound carries. Today, chevrons of geese were flying North,  high above Scout Scar escarpment and the Lyth Valley. 

The second flight was a large double chevron, like a letter M.   There came a third, and a fourth.  The geese must be migrating and if they do make landfall to feed and to rest overnight it would be the Solway Salt Marshes.
‘Pink Feet’ called a voice higher up the slope. ‘How do you know? ‘ I asked. He mimicked their honking  call.  ‘ Heading for Solway.’
This is the first time I’ve heard geese this last week and it’s been so still. If they’d been flying North I’d have heard them.
Toward St John’s Church, Helsington, a man sat on a rock, his Svarovski telescope trained  on the pools of Park End Moss below. 
‘What have you seen?’
‘ Little egret, gadwall, teal,’  he reeled off a list. ‘And pink-feet, all in an hour. Pink-feet, bound for Solway. I’ve sat  until I’m freezing. Yes, despite the thermals.’
There were few folk out today so it was gratifying to meet two men who were thrilled to see pink-footed geese flying North.
Pink- footed geese are winter visitors,  with numbers at Solway and the Ribble.  These birds will breed in Greenland and Iceland. They have a short pink bill and pink legs. 
Pin-head creamy buds on blackthorn in the shelter of a wall.  Flower buds on yew and on gorse.
 
6th March.
Another still and cloudy day,  an early morning chill. The first two lambs were born at Bradleyfield this morning, out on Kendal Race Course. I learn from the farmer  about Embryo Flushing.
The green woodpecker makes himself heard in the same fringe of trees.  ‘Where’s your pretty apprentice today? ‘ I’m asked by a man who has been listening to the green woodpecker.

‘ I want to learn,’ she says. I ask her what she want to know. ‘ More about wildlife.’  I indicate the skylark breeding territory, although the birds are not singing today.  And suggest they may hear geese.  You never know what the find of the day will be.

I fall into conversation with another woman, in truth, I listen . ‘ I’d never been up Benson Knott until lockdown. Not to the top. Now I’ve been there four times, in the pandemic.  I used to say, Oh God I’m not going walking. But there’s nothing else to do. I used to like going to the shops in town but it doesn’t feel safe and I can’t see with a face mask and glasses.  And I don’t like to touch anything.  I don’t have the gift of the gab,’  she scarcely paused to draw breath.  ‘ As we parted she said, ‘ I hope I haven’t talked you to death.’  She was born and grew up here, she told me. Her friends didn’t know Benson Knott either. I show her how to slither through a kissing gate without touching it. It works, this time.
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

    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