Lake District 2015 - fauna

In this blog post I'll be focussing on some of the birds and other animals I encountered during my holiday in the Lake District last week. As I had my new camera with me, I was hoping to be able to get some better photos of birds than I'd been able to previously, and happily this did prove to be the case!

On the morning of our first full day, we had the only really bad weather of the week - continuous heavy rain, which kept us indoors for a few hours. Despite the confinement however it ended up being an action-packed few hours! Our bedroom looked out over the cottage's lovely front garden, and the neighbours had several well-stocked feeders in their garden. This meant that there were birds aplenty constantly passing through our garden, and I found that I could use the bedroom as a comfy hide from which to take photos through the open window. The heavy rain meant that the light wasn't great, but I did manage to get a few shots I was quite pleased with.

Slightly soggy Siskin.

I was especially pleased to see a Nuthatch fly into a pipe embedded in the wall, for shelter from the rain. It stayed there for a long time, drying off and preening, and every so often checking on the rain to see if it had slackened off enough to head out again. Here are a few photos!

Nuthatch sheltering.

Has it stopped raining yet?

Nuthatch checking up on the weather.

Staying indoors for a little bit longer.

My photo hide backfired somewhat as I left the sash window open quite wide while I went off to do something else - when I came back a Robin had flown in and was trapped in our bedroom. However I was luckily able to trap and release it quite easily. When I came in it obviously became more distressed and was flying against the window which caused it to slip down between the two layers of sash window. I grabbed a spare towel and used it to block off the gap at the top while slowly lowering the bottom window to release the Robin into the towel. I carefully wrapped the towel around it, quickly opened the window again and opened the towel. The Robin flew away with no problems so hopefully there was no harm done. On top of that we then watched the Labour leadership election on telly, it really was a morning of non-stop excitement!

I had several more goes in my bedroom photo hide during the week and these are my best results from those. Fortunately the weather was rather good for the rest of the week so these are less gloomy than my photos from the first morning!

My favourite - a juvenile Blue Tit.

Juvenile House Sparrow stuffing its face.

Although a relatively quiet time of year for birds, we still saw some nice Lake District favourites on our walks. Ravens were everywhere, honking away, and there were large flocks of Meadow Pipits preparing for migration on the tops of nearly every hill we went up.

We also saw some great mammals! On our second day, Chris and I went on an awesome walk/climb up Eagle Crag. This was a challenging ascent (by my standards anyway) with several scrambles up steep gullies, slippery in places after all the recent rain, and some rather precarious narrow paths through the rocks.

Eagle Crag on the left hand side. Yep we went up that way.

The walk started along Greenup Gill, which we walked with Chris's parents Dawn and Dave (we would rendezvous with them later after descending from Eagle Crag). Along here we had a great encounter with a Stoat looping its way through the grass straight towards us, seemingly not realising we were heading right for it! In the end though it did notice us and turned around.

Greenup Gill.

About halfway up Eagle Crag we followed a short detour which Wainright informed us would lead to a viewpoint. That view turned out to include a magnificent young lone Red Deer stag, eyeballing us from further down the slope! I didn't have my zoom lens with me so you'll have to scrutinise the photo closely to find him ;o)

View full size to find the stag!

We had some superb views from the top, and the descent was much easier. Dave and Dawn were watching and guiding us from afar too, to the safest place to cross Greenup Gill which was rather swollen after all the rain!

View of Langstrath valley from Eagle Crag.

The terrain on the descent was much gentler!

On another day we took it a bit easier with a stroll around parts of Borrowdale.This took in different terrains and habitats, where we encountered various characteristic inhabitants of each! On bracken-covered slopes we spotted a pair of Stonechats and some migrating Phylloscopus warblers (either Chiffchaff or Willow Warbler, we only had brief glimpses). 

Brackeny slopes.

Along the shallow pebbly-bedded rivers there were Grey Wagtail, and a Dipper only a few metres away from the path, seemingly oblivious to our presence. 

Perfect Grey Wagtail and Dipper habitat.

Walking between Castle Crag and the adjacent ridge, which sloped downwards towards us and was strewn with small rocky outcrops, scree and intermittent stunted Hawthorns and Rowans, I spied a small flock (ten or so) of Ring Ouzels making their way south along the ridge! Having only seen my first Ring Ouzels earlier this year, this is still a VERY EXCITING bird for me to see. Although distant, their silvery wings catching the sunlight were unmistakeable. 

Ring Ouzels to be found at the top of the left-hand slope!

The most exciting encounter of this walk was along the wooded river valley and was one I'd been hoping for, no trip to the Lake District is complete without it! Chris and Dave were up ahead when I spotted a quick movement on an Oak next to the path - it was a Red Squirrel! I whizzed over quicksharp to get a good look. Luckily it stayed frozen for a few minutes while we ogled it, before scampering further up the trunk and out along a bough. I was too excited to think of taking photos of it!

My favourite bird encounter of the week was on our highest walk. Chris and I walked from the slate mine on the Honister Pass to Green Gable, and then up Great Gable. The cloud base was low and as we ascended Green Gable we entered the clouds. The view from the top was cryptic to say the least!

As we couldn't see much we decided this was a good opportunity to stop for lunch before heading on up Great Gable.

After a surprisingly quick ascent up Great Gable (perhaps fog can make time appear to pass differently) we were making our way towards the summit when I heard a few muffled, gentle peeping calls. Scanning through the fog I found a super-smart male Wheatear, and three Golden Plovers not too far away, wandering through the rubbly stones which provided the perfect camouflage. I watched them for a bit but Chris had already headed to the summit, so I went to catch him up and enjoy the intermittent views which appeared every so often through the clouds.

View of Wast Water from the top of Great Gable.

I wanted to watch the plovers for a bit longer though so went back and relocated them. In the misty murk this chance encounter with these unexpected travellers had a slightly mysterious and magical air.

View full size to spot the Plovers!

The final wildlife encounter of the week was much closer to home. On the last morning we were all rushing around packing our bags and tidying up as we had to leave the cottage by 10. I heard a sudden exclamation from Dawn - she'd opened the front door only to find a large Common Toad sitting on the doorstep! In fact it was more draped over the threshold (it must have been huddled against it before the door was open) so the door couldn't be closed again without crushing the poor amphibian's feet. I only had time to take a few quick photos, before I gave the Toad a gentle poke to try and encourage it on its way. It seemed very reluctant to move however, so I picked it up and carefully deposited it in some ivy covering the ground in the garden. The last I saw of the Toad was it crawling away into the undergrowth. Godspeed, Toad!

Common Toad.

Lake District 2015 - flora

Last week I was on holiday in the Lake District with my partner Chris and his parents. We go there pretty much every year and always have a great time, walking in the hills and valleys and enjoying the wildlife. As always I was on the look out for new plants to try and identify, and although autumn was in the air we were still able to find plenty. Chris's mum Dawn is a wildflower fan also so we had fun trying to identify what we'd found!

I spotted the most new plants on the very first walk we did, which was from our cottage in Stonethwaite over to Watendlath and back again. It had been raining heavily in the morning but luckily by the afternoon it had pretty much stopped, although was still rather grey.

Looking down to Watendlath.

As well as new plants, I enjoyed trying out my camera on some old favourites. I'm a big fan of the heather triumvirate!

Bell Heather (Erica cinerea).

Cross-leaved Heath (Erica tetralix).

Heather (Calluna vulgaris).

 

Lots of lovely heather on this walk.

And also the cute buds of Devil's-bit Scabious:

Devil's-bit Scabious (Succisa pratensis).

On to the new ones....I hope I got the identifications correct for these:

Bog Myrtle (Myrica gale). Lots of this growing on certain parts of the hills between Dock Tarn and the path down to Watendlath.

Grass-of-Parnassus (Parnassia palustris). Nearly missed this hiding away in undergrowth beside the path.

Bog Asphodel (Narthecium ossifragum). I'd seen lots of the orange seed pods on walks around the same time last year, but hadn't found any still in flower until now.

We also found a patch of orchids, but we found another much bigger and better patch of orchids on another walk, coming down a valley towards Seathwaite after descending Great Gable. I think they were all Heath-spotted Orchids, but I'm not very sure!
 

Heading down the valley.

Heath-spotted Orchid (Dactylorhiza maculata), possibly.

Heath-spotted Orchid (Dactylorhiza maculata), possibly.

Heath-spotted Orchid (Dactylorhiza maculata), possibly.

Next up, a blog post about the Lake District fauna we encountered :o)

Cornish holiday - further adventures on the South West Coast Path

Here's my final post about my recent Cornish holiday in and around the Lizard peninsula. We were there a week and visited many and varied places, but only the most nature-related material will appear here!

Chris wanted to spend one day chilling out in the cottage and doing a bit of work(!). I can't get my head around bringing work on holiday but he said he'd only brought reading and writing that he'd enjoy doing, and that it was like a writing retreat to do it in such pleasant surroundings. Perhaps I'll understand better if/when I ever get a job I actually enjoy! Anyway, I didn't want to miss any opportunity to spend as much time as possible outdoors, especially as the weather was so good, so I set out on my own from the cottage to the South West Coast Path. Instead of going north as we had previously, I planned to go south instead and see how far I could get, and what I could spot along the way. Although I love walking with Chris, and indeed other people too, I also like going out on my own sometimes - I like to stop and look at birds, plants, rocks and butterflies but Chris likes to keep moving, so I was looking forward to taking my own good mystical time on this walk. Hence, this is going to be a very photo-heavy blog post!

I first walked to Chynhalls Point, which we had briefly visited previously, but I wanted to spend more time there investigating the flowers.

Chynhalls Point.

These two were new to me:

This lovely flower was EVERYWHERE! I believe it is Spring Squill (Scilla verna).

Fuzzy flowers are always nice. Kidney Vetch (Anthyllis vulneraria).

Common Milkwort (Polygala vulgaris) was not new to me, but I had never seen it in so many different colours before! I decided to try and photograph them all using my field lens and smartphone camera combo, for some super macro fun:

Blue Common Milkwort (Polygala vulgaris).

Dark pink Common Milkwort (Polygala vulgaris).

Purple Common Milkwort (Polygala vulgaris).

Light pink Common Milkwort (Polygala vulgaris).

For some reason I get that weird lens flare sometimes when taking photos through my field lens, will keep experimenting to see if I can prevent it.

While I bumbled happily around Chynhalls Point I was observed by a pair of Stonechats. Also there, and indeed all along my walk, I saw Wall butterflies.....so many Wall butterflies! They were the most numerous butterfly species I saw on the holiday which was something of a marvel to me, having only previously seen one in my life (they are pretty much absent from Birmingham to my knowledge!). As I made my way south along the cliffs I also added Small Copper and Holly Blue to my list.

Wall (Lasiommata megera).

Small Copper (Lycaena phlaeas).

Holly Blue (Celastrina argiolus).

I walked as far as Ebber Rocks before heading back to the cottage, still only a short distance away, for some lunch. After that I came back down to Ebber Rocks to continue where I left off!

Ebber Rocks in the centre, Chynhalls Point in the distance.

I soon reached Black Head, which as a prominent headland before the coast path turned west, I thought might be a particularly good spot to check for cetaceans and seabirds. There were Gannets aplenty out on the sea, and a bit of scanning around soon rewarded me with a small pod of Harbour Porpoises unobtrusively making their way along!

Black Head is the one with the little white hut on it.

As I continued west I seemed to be making fairly good time, so I decided to try and get as far as the headland at Lankidden before turning round. I encountered another bird that had become a special feature of the holiday (we'd seen them in two other places) - passage Whimbrels, this time a flock of eight coming in off the sea, marvellous! I also saw a Kestrel carrying a snake in its talons, wriggling furiously! And I found another new plant:

I think it is Early-purple Orchid (Orchis mascula).

Having reached the end of the (very windy) headland, I turned around to retrace my steps as far as a small inlet where I could take a path up to the farm neighbouring the one we were staying at, making a somewhat circular route. It had been another superb walk and having written about it now, I want to go on holiday again. Better get planning....

Here are a couple more views west along the coast path, and a map showing my route (more or less).

South West Coast Path looking towards Lankidden headland.

South West Coast Path looking towards Lankidden headland.

View from the South West Coast Path.

My route.

Cornish holiday - Kynance Cove & Lizard Point

Here's another post about my recent Cornish holiday in and around the Lizard peninsula, a beautiful and fascinating part of the world that I wish I was still in!

On the second day of our holiday, although the wind had not dropped, the sun had come out and was to remain so for the remainder of the week - result. Today we drove over to Kynance Cove, from where we planned to walk to Lizard Point and back again. I had a quick(ish) look for a Western Subalpine Warbler which had been reported in the area on Twitter within the last couple of days, and spoke to another couple of birders doing the same thing, but it seemed that the high winds of the previous day had seen the bird off. It meant we got to enjoy a bit of heathland though before heading off along the coast, and I also saw my first Whitethroats of the year, as well as plenty of Stonechats.

I love heathland.

Kynance Cove gradually revealed itself as we walked down the path towards it, with the spectacular serpentine stacks and outcrops coming into view. One of the main reasons I'd wanted to come to the Lizard was to see the serpentine so I was pretty excited about the geological delights in store! I was not disappointed - the serpentine was like no other rock I'd ever seen before, with an incredible range of colours (reds, browns, greens, greys, blues and creams) and bizarre textures and veins. The beach and surrounding area consists of two different types of serpentine, tremolite and bastite, but to be honest I couldn't easily tell them apart due to the highly variable nature of the rocks and the effects of weathering. It didn't detract from my enjoyment of the marvellous geology though!

Kynance Cove coming into view.

Kynance Cove.

Serpentine.

Serpentine.

Serpentine.

Kynance Cove.

Serpentine.

Kynance Cove.

Chris eventually managed to drag me away and we set off south along the good old South West Coast Path. As we were feeling quite hungry already, we decided to walk to Lizard village first to find some lunch before going on to Lizard Point. Along the way I spotted my first Swallows of the year, the ubiquitous Linnets, several Rock Pipits and a few Shags and Gannets offshore. I stuffed my face with humongous mussels at a pub in Lizard village and bought a small souvenir chunk of polished serpentine from one of the many rock shops.

View along the South West Coast Path.

Lizard village.

After that it was a short walk down to Lizard Point, the UK's most southerly point. The clifftop paths were thick with maritime flowers and we saw what was to be the first of the week's many Wall butterflies flittering around. There was a constant trickle of migrating Swallows flying in, and we also saw a few Grey Seals in the sea although were a few days too late for the Basking Shark that had been recorded on the sightings board! Down on the beach at Polpeor Cove there was more exciting geology in store, as the rocks had changed again since Kynance Cove into lovely wavy schists.

Thrift (Armeria maritima) on the cliffs.

Lizard Point.

Heading down to Polpeor Cove.

Polpeor Cove at Lizard Point.

Schist, showing nice wavy lines of aligned platy minerals caused by metamorphism.

Schist.

We walked back along the coast path to Kynance Cove, spotting a few Skylarks on the way. Stopping for a short sit on the grass at one point, a long-billed head suddenly popped up on the cliffs nearby. It was a Whimbrel on passage - it must have only recently arrived on the cliffs. It took off and flew away, calling as it went; a great sighting that I hadn't been expecting at all!

On the drive back to the cottage, we made a brief stop at Goonhilly Downs, a large area of heathland very close to where we were staying. As well as being an excellent site for plants and wildlife (I added Willow Warbler and Blackcap to my bird list, and Cornish Heath to my plant list) its human history also goes back thousands of years. There are Bronze Age barrows and a menhir, and many derelict buildings dating back to World War II, when there was an RAF radar station on the Downs. One of the old buildings has been turned into a viewpoint - you can climb the stairs to stand on the roof for excellent views across the heathland.

Dry Tree menhir.

Goonhilly Downs from the roof of one of the old WWII buildings.

Cornish Heath (Erica vagans).

As a historian, Chris enjoyed the parallels between the similar roles Goonhilly Downs had played as a hub of communication for people over time - in the Bronze Age, during WWII, and now in the present day as it was the nearest place to our cottage that we could actually get any mobile phone reception! Having checked the weather forecast and tide times for the next couple of days, we drove back to the cottage after another top notch day on the Lizard peninsula :o)

Map showing (more or less) the route of our walk.