lakeland day 3

Okay, So Today was the day that my dad and I decided that we would climb a mountain. We had decided to climb helvelyn, because there are some glacial features on the top that could help me with my geography exam. But before we even got started on the mountain I found a moth in the toilets. I had to bring it outside for a photo. As usual I have no idea what type of moth it is, because I dont own the book!!
-Moth
so we begun our walk...It started well ,with a red squirrel scurrying in front of us as we walked in the wooded bit. But then the climb started and it was not fun. There were good numbers of male wheatears on the hills, as well as mipits, but the best bit was the view, which was spectacular.

-A small mountain stream

-Thrilmere
As we reached the top there was a feirce honking call which heralded the arrival of some ravens, dancing in the thermals produced by the sun. It makes up for the distinct lack of ravens on Arran, I can now say that I have a raven photo.

-raven
As we reached the top we got even better views of red tarn, striding edge and thirlmere

-Red tarn

-Striding edge

-Striding edge

In case anyone was wondering from the photos, we did indeed walk across striding edge and back up swirllel edge. Secretly I was hoping for water pipit or ring ouzel but neither appeared. What we did get were more great views of ravens. I can only imagine how good the photos might have been if I had my big lense. I took my small lense to make the most of the stunning views.

-raven

-Red tarn

-Red tarn from swirrel edge

-Red tarn from the top

-Me at the top!

our descent had to be speedy so we could catch my mum and brother in good time. Ironic that all the wildlife began to spill out about this time, starting with the ravens that had been the highlight of the whole day!

-raven
The next bird we found was a skylark, but it was some way off and in song flight so I could not really stop and waiot for it to come down! At the bottom I spotted my favourite beetle, the imfamouse green tiger beetle! little I could do in the photo department as I diddnt have my big lense, but you can tell what it is, and it could tell what i was, Its black, evil eyes followed my every move, so we left it in peace!

-Green tiger beetle
Back the caravan site, I set up to try and take some photos during lunch, but the only bird that came was a chaffinch, so I took a few quick shots!

-Chaffinch
That afternoon we decided to go for a row on the reservoir and see if we could see any unusual birds, that would be the usuals. The weather was ideal, a cloudless sky and the water was completely flat. The first bird we encountered apart from the mallards and usual werethe barnacle geese, they had moved islands to a private island, which implies that they had got fed up of being on a none private island and therefore being harrased.

-Barnacle geese

Further round we encountered the mergansers fishing as usual and giving me another oppertunity to photograph them.

-Red breasted merganser

Back at the boat station I decided to try and get some interesting shots of the ducks, like the one below dabbling!

-Mallard

It was a tough day but well worth it for the view. Sadly it diddnt get any easier that evening! After a game of frissbe with my family I walked to listen to the game, which was a draw! I was really hoping that Spurs would do the double over arsenal, Never mind!

lakeland day 2

Today dawned overcast but it was still pleasantly warm and dry at least. We decided to go for a walk to "aira force" which was apparently a big waterfall. As soon as we arrived we heard a cuckoo, which would be my first, so whilst my family went to have a coffee I wandered on to have a look for the cuckoo.
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.

Lakeland holiday day 1 part 2

leaving the woods we came out onto an open bit of grassland by the lake. There is an island opposite this bit of land with a reed bed to the left hand side as you look towards the water. And there I spotted our first mergansers of the holiday, about 20 meters out, so not much good really. After about 5 minuets trying to get closer to those ones my dad noticed that a trio had begun swimming towards the land from the island. This was a much better opportunity to get some photos and so i walked up to where these birds where.

The males were doing their comical display and then calling their unusual call, echoing all around. eventually they drifted away so We began to wander off, but I glanced back and noticed that the birds were double backing on themselves so I tracked back to try again. sadly though the sun had gone in for these shots so The reflection is awful but you can see that one of the males is about a third of the way through his display so its a decent effort given the conditions.

Leaving them to go and join my mum and brother at the Keswick boat renting place where we would get on a boat before lunch. I suggested that we go over to where the mergansers were, although that is where we go normally anyway, so my idea would probably not have not made much difference anyway. It was only about half way round the island that we encountered the birds I had hoped, in the form of a pair. The boat gives you a different perspective3 on the birds than from the land, and you could also get much closer to them.

we followed this pair around the island until we came to rather a lot of mergansers, all at pretty close quarters and doing their display again. These were a bit less shy than the pair that we had found originally and didn't swim away as much.

Then my brother, who was rowing, spotted a pair on the shore, not a view you often get with mergansers so it was a bit of a surprise to see this but never-the-less a wonderful photo oppertunity. Even on land the male was displaying which i would have thought a bit difficult becuase in the water they often dip themselves under the water with just the head sticking out, but he seemed to manage OK on the land!

This pair was then joined by another female who seemed to be in the way rather a bit becuase the female of the pair suddenly stood up, although it may have been our fault so we backed off a bit. I cant say much about merganser family life so I dont know if they are loyal to a partner or what but it seemed to create a tenser atmosphere in merganser terms!

Just as we were setting off to leave a pair of stunning males swam past us, seemingly uncaring and gave me another chance to get some great merganser photos, although I will say that none of them came out very clear.

Moving round to the farther islands we spotted a colony or flock of branacle geese, which i would have though being a bit late so i was doubtful was to weather they were actually wild animals, but i think it is likely given their numbers. They were on an island a bit further out, which was not privatly owned so i wondered about, if they were a colony, how they got on with people landing on the island who would think it funny to chase the geese. Indeed as we were there watching a group of kayakers landed on the shingle beach and wndered into the woods. It must have made a difference becuase on subsequent days they were on the privatly owned islands.

As you can see from the above, there were rather a lot of barnacle geese there and they were calling as well, their honking calls booming out from the trees. A bit further on, as we were crossing the lake a lone adult flew past us offereing me great photo oppertunitys, although i diddnt take them because my photo ability is naf!

The other side of the lake was much less busy, the main noise coming from the songbirds, chaffinches and robins, singing from the woods along the side. It was also very calm, hardly a ripple and very limited birdlife. However, just before we were going to set off back a lone male merganser appeared and swum past us so i got a few more photos just for good measure!

After that we took a trip into town which provided very little aside from tourism. Keswick is a very pretty little town and it is not dominated by big name brands, the largest supermarket being a "booths" which i have not seen anywhere else in Britain, although doubtless it is there.

When we arrived back at the caravan site I tried to find something to kill the time and so set up a photography stage with some blackthorn leaves and a bird feeder. As i was cutting the blackthorn an Orange tip butterfly flew past me. This is the last butterfly I need to complete my "Butterfly record collection" because when i got the idea last year, their flight season had ended. However I soon learnt that these were not the butterflys that landed on pretty flows, seldom they landed at all! the below photo is the only one out of about twenty orange tips that i saw all weeks that landed. And even this one landed beyond a barbed wire fence and brambles, so was impossible to get to.

Back to the stage and It was almost ready except that...the light was being blocked by the trees! what a nightmare. It did however do its job and birds landed on it almost immediately. The first birds were blue tits but they look virtually black! I decided to leave it and try again later, when the light would be better. It was convenient that there was a football match on at that time so I could photograph birds, sit in the caravan in comfort and listen to football all at the same time! eventually the sun dipped so that the light was behind the bird, but at least it was there. In the new conditions the first bird was a coal tit.

They were a reasonable effort I suppose but the blue tit that followed offered much more to the photo, and the sun had dipped even lower in the sky, so the light was even better.

They are a little rough but what can you expect, I'm not a pro. The football match, in case anyone was wondering was a 5-0 thumping for Bolton by stoke, who were the team I wanted to win the match anyway given that Bolton are a lancashire team, and stoke are not, so a good day all round really!