Its International Dawn Chorus Day and that's my theme as I head for Scout Scar.
There's a slender whitebeam where for ten years a redstart has sung and displayed but he is not here. A redstart is singing, somewhere in the hanging wood below the escarpment. If I'm still and quiet the bird will settle and resume his song. Closer, closer. I'm searching amongst whitebeam leaves and branches, when someone calls out to me.
There's a slender whitebeam where for ten years a redstart has sung and displayed but he is not here. A redstart is singing, somewhere in the hanging wood below the escarpment. If I'm still and quiet the bird will settle and resume his song. Closer, closer. I'm searching amongst whitebeam leaves and branches, when someone calls out to me.
A couple waves at me. Do I know the way to the farm? Yes, I do. It takes me moments to work out why they call me away from the redstart. The ground is rough, they tell me, if I fall over the cliff no-one will find me. I'm grateful for their solicitousness but I assure them I know this ground. But determination to see the bird that sings so close may go too far. The redstart disappears over the cliff- edge, I must not. Whilst not seeing redstart I hear the woodland birds singing, hear the bleating of lambs down at Barrowfield Farm and see dairy cattle in the pasture beyond. I glimpse a red kite on a thermal over the Lyth Valley. The cliff-face becomes yellow with bird's-foot trefoil and horse-shoe vetch. Soon hoary rockrose will be in flower.
Small brown butterflies spiral over the sunny bank where I found the green -hairstreak butterfly.
The glory of the morning is sunlit clouds that gather over the distant fells. Mountains of cloud against a bright blue sky and, at altitude, there are streaks and wisps of cloud created by wind-shear.
As for Covid 19, today I sense compliance fatigue. The pied piper is abroad. He seems to have gathered all the young he can find and brought them onto Scout Scar. The concept of social-distancing hasn't reached him.. A father and his children head out into skylark breeding territory, a zone where usually no one goes. Farewell skylark and linnet. Ground-nesting birds will not fare well with people and dogs amongst them.
Not everyone is aware of skylark, including a woman who urges her children to listen to something on their phone, ignoring the skylark singing its heart -out.
After weeks of lock-down people coming here have begun to explore, off- piste. There are cyclists zipping about. Cyclists are not allowed up here. A walker laments the increase in litter. Leave no trace: the Country Code is simple enough. On Kendal bypass the volume of traffic seems pre-lock-down. More cars are parked on the Brigsteer Road too.
But what is given, resplendently, is cloud-scape. All morning clouds are gathering, billowing sunlit clouds. And at altitude there are great sweeping streams of wind-shear that tell of The force and energy whilst down here the morning is bright with merely a light wind.
Small brown butterflies spiral over the sunny bank where I found the green -hairstreak butterfly.
The glory of the morning is sunlit clouds that gather over the distant fells. Mountains of cloud against a bright blue sky and, at altitude, there are streaks and wisps of cloud created by wind-shear.
As for Covid 19, today I sense compliance fatigue. The pied piper is abroad. He seems to have gathered all the young he can find and brought them onto Scout Scar. The concept of social-distancing hasn't reached him.. A father and his children head out into skylark breeding territory, a zone where usually no one goes. Farewell skylark and linnet. Ground-nesting birds will not fare well with people and dogs amongst them.
Not everyone is aware of skylark, including a woman who urges her children to listen to something on their phone, ignoring the skylark singing its heart -out.
After weeks of lock-down people coming here have begun to explore, off- piste. There are cyclists zipping about. Cyclists are not allowed up here. A walker laments the increase in litter. Leave no trace: the Country Code is simple enough. On Kendal bypass the volume of traffic seems pre-lock-down. More cars are parked on the Brigsteer Road too.
But what is given, resplendently, is cloud-scape. All morning clouds are gathering, billowing sunlit clouds. And at altitude there are great sweeping streams of wind-shear that tell of The force and energy whilst down here the morning is bright with merely a light wind.
There will be studies of the impact of lock-down on habitat and wildlife. Scout Scar and Whitbarrow are limestone grassland but (if lock-down restrictions are observed) there will be fewer visitors to the more extensive Whitbarrow. Scout Scar is within walking distance of Kendal and footfall is high when the weather is set fair. It is a Site of Special Scientific Interest but to those who simply want freedom and fresh air that means little or nothing. I've spent years studying the flora and fauna of Scour Scar. I know how fragile the hold of some species. I've witnessed species loss. I understand the frustration of people at lock-down but it won't last. If species lose habitat, through disturbance, they may not return.
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