It didn't show, and it must have run away when i arrived where it was often seen (according to the warden who we spoke to). so I wandered down to the river to have a look there. I should explain that this was a shallow rocky river and that there was deciduous forest on either side. The warden also said "Name a bird and we will have it!". I though that was a bit optimistic considering that there are 10,000 different types of bird in the world.
Down by the river there was a bridge and from it I spotted a grey wagtail and so i decided to follow what looked like a path alongside the river. Although the "path" became distinctively less path like the further you went along it, until it disappeared all together. the wagtail had also disappeared leaving me in the on the edge of a river, with steep banks on either side. I decided to have a peek under some rocks because i know that native crayfish live in the lake district and that this might be where they live. I lifted up a promising rock and a young brown trout swam out.
Further on I decided that enough was enough and that i was going to have to climb the bank and get back on an actual path. I realised that I was at the top of the Field where the cuckoo apparently likes to sit, although it had probably flown away by now because I had not heard it since I arrived.
However a few minuets later my parents and brother appeared from round the corner so I joined them as we carried on towards the waterfall. When we got there (it was just around the corner) It was pretty spectacular, but what impressed me the most was that the bridge over the top of it was actually a traditional stone bridge and not a horrible metal modern one.
At the top there was a small area of birch woodland and in it there were a number of wild flowers like the dog violets and wood anemones. back at the river I spotted a dipper and followed it up although it eventually eluded me by moving to far up river, although I caught it as it was joined by its partner. I walked along the top of the valley where there was also some open woodland and on top of a Birch tree I spotted a willow warbler, which so far had been one of the most common birds all holiday.
Just a bit further down the track i spotted a chaffinch that had been collecting sheep's wool from the barbed wire and it looked rather comical, like the bird had a beard
further in the woods i spotted some more of the dog violets which seem to spring up everywhere, so i took some more photos of them, just for good measure.
And there were a blue tits and great tits and chaffinch's in the woods, adding to the wonderful noise of the woods. This blue tit was up to some stereotypical blue tit antics on this birch tree.
Near the end of the walk I heard a strange bird call which i did not recognise, not that, that is of any major incidence, but I managed to find the birds and took some quick photos. From the photos, I had a look to try and work out what it was, it appeared to be a stonechat so I moved to try and get a better view, but in doing so I spooked it because i trod on a twig or something that went snap and frightened it away. Back at the car I had another look at the photos to see if it rang any bells. It jumped straight out at me, It was a redstart! I don't know how I had not realised it, but now I felt a bit bad, Had I recognised it on site,i would have been able to appreciate it but no. Never mind, it is still a great bird to see.
I had to loiter around the car for a while because I had gone a different way to my mum and dad so I couldn't get into the car. When the eventually arrived they said that I should have a look at the cafe because There were some very tame chaffinchs there. As I walked over to it I spotted a bird doing a funny flight and call. I immediately wondered if it was a tree pipit because of photos I have seen of tree pipits doing this kind of flight but i couldn't be sure because of their identicalness with mipits and my poor identification of bird calls.
When I got back i realised my hunch was right because it flew from tree to tree rather than from ground to ground like a mipit. So there we have it a new tick for the holiday, which is a rare occurrence in lakeland. On the note of the chaffinches that lived there, I saw none because there were some kids with their dog being a pain, but never mind! Photos were running a bit low anyway. Back at the campsite I went for a walk along the lane because I had time to spare. I spotted a rook at the top of one of the decorative trees in the campsite and went to take some photos of it. It was quite obliging with the photos and so i managed to get some of the shots I wanted.
A bit further down the lane i found an entire rookery which had about 30 nests in it with rooks constantly coming in and out. This allowed me to get some acceptable shots of rooks in flight, although the light was annoying because of the lack of it due to the overcast weather.
A really good day, in terms of lake land, for birds and with a new bird in the bag its looking up for the holiday.
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