Hay meadows along the course of Swindale Beck Swindale Beck meanders through deep pools, fast-moving shallows and deep gravels where salmon and brown trout lay their eggs. In July, its flood plain of flower-rich meadows has drifts of melancholy thistle, with eyebright, yellow rattle, sneezewort, saw- wort, wood cranesbill and ragged robin. ‘ A suite of meadows’ along the course of the beck.
We hear of the farming community some two hundred years ago when Swindale Beck was made straight. It’s ‘an anthropogenic landscape’ says Lee Schofield, RPSB site-manager.
We hear of the farming community some two hundred years ago when Swindale Beck was made straight. It’s ‘an anthropogenic landscape’ says Lee Schofield, RPSB site-manager.
When I came here in 2016 a major restoration project was underway. The wonder now is the wilderness feel of the place. Swindale Beck is in the Eden catchment and there are glimpses of Eden in its abundant life and loveliness.
A distant peregrine calls. Redpoll are everywhere in the birch trees. Ringlets fly in the light rain, the only butterfly to do this. My companions are sharp-eyed and eager. Someone finds a migrant hawker, an immature male, I think. There’s always a helpful hand to show caterpillars deep in vegetation, to hold aside blades of grass for photographers. Sharing finds, sharing what we know, makes it so rewarding.
A distant peregrine calls. Redpoll are everywhere in the birch trees. Ringlets fly in the light rain, the only butterfly to do this. My companions are sharp-eyed and eager. Someone finds a migrant hawker, an immature male, I think. There’s always a helpful hand to show caterpillars deep in vegetation, to hold aside blades of grass for photographers. Sharing finds, sharing what we know, makes it so rewarding.
We stop for lunch below Forces Falls where Mosedale Beck flows into Swindale Beck. Low cloud shrouds the fells Hobgrumble Gill cascades unseen over crags, vanishes into a gully, then loses power and meanders across a boggy sump above Swindale Head. Among bog asphodel, cross-leaved heath and seed-heads of cotton grass a golden-ringed dragonfly is devouring a bee. We find bog orchid rarely seen, so rare and tiny, in sphagnum beside a flush in the bog. There is richly coloured sphagnum moss, mosses with fruiting bodies and green cranberries flushed with pink, sundew with glistening sticky drops to entrap insect prey. There are flushes through the bog with aquatic plants, saturated ground. The approach to Hob Grumble Gill is enchanting.
Heading back on the track beside Swindale Beck we find a colony of tortoiseshell larvae wreaking havoc in a bed of nettles, its leaves strewn with frass- their black droppings.
Heading back on the track beside Swindale Beck we find a colony of tortoiseshell larvae wreaking havoc in a bed of nettles, its leaves strewn with frass- their black droppings.
Heading back on the track beside Swindale Beck we find a colony of tortoiseshell larvae wreaking havoc in a bed of nettles, its leaves strewn with frass- their black droppings.
Enter Swindale and Hob Grumble Gill in Search ( top right of blog page) and you may read of earlier visits to Swindale, Haweswater and Hob Grumble Gill. In 2016 the restoration project was in full swing – today, Lee Scholfied, RSPB site manager is our guide. My thanks to him for interpreting the landscape, its wildlife and the 2016 restoration project. The RPSB has a video entitled Swindale Beck, which gives an overview of the project.
Thanks to everyone at Arnside Natural History group for a sharing of enthusiasm and expertise.
Enter Swindale and Hob Grumble Gill in Search ( top right of blog page) and you may read of earlier visits to Swindale, Haweswater and Hob Grumble Gill. In 2016 the restoration project was in full swing – today, Lee Scholfied, RSPB site manager is our guide. My thanks to him for interpreting the landscape, its wildlife and the 2016 restoration project. The RPSB has a video entitled Swindale Beck, which gives an overview of the project.
Thanks to everyone at Arnside Natural History group for a sharing of enthusiasm and expertise.
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