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English Lake District 4th-11th June 2004 – 3/4 (1 Viewer)

IanF

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English Lake District 4th-11th June 2004 – 3/4
Walney Island, Muncaster Castle and RSPB Campfield Marsh

Tuesday 8th June was a fine and sunny day with clear blue skies right from the start. The day saw us heading south west through Conniston, Ulvertson to Barrow in Furness and then onto South Walney to the nature reserve.

I don’t normally spend much time on twitching species but I must admit that my main reason for heading to Walney was to see the Spoonbills. They’re a species that I haven’t had much luck with as regards decent views. We do get them annually local to where I live but always distant views. RSPB Blacktoft Sands attracts them, but I have only ever seen them flying overhead. Anyway South Walney has held three birds for quite a while with almost guaranteed views, as much as that is possible in birding.

On reaching the reserve we were greeted by the wardens in the car park. There were only ourselves and one other birder present, but then the tide was well out and so not too many waders close in shore. The wardens were very helpful and chatty as regards the birds that were about and gave us good directions as to where to get best views. I was quite happy to pay the £2.00 entrance fee, though we didn’t plan on exploring the whole reserve. It was a little worrying to see a large pile of hard hats in front of the warden’s hut, but we were assured the Gulls hadn’t been attacking people that week. I was already aware of the large Gull breeding colony on the island and on seeing the hats I had visions of Hitchcock’s ‘The Birds’ with Gulls swooping down and pecking at heads. At that moment in time I hadn’t considered their other nasty habit which I’m sure wasn’t even hinted at in the movie!

Anyway we decided to dispense with the hard hats but make do with BF caps. Though it was a nice sunny day there was quite a stiff breeze in such an exposed location so I donned a lightweight waterproof coat over my shorts and teeshirt. How fortuitous that proved to be.

The track from the car park took us towards the first hide through the tufted grass covered dunes. I hadn’t realized just how close the gulls nests would be to the path and how densely packed they were. On that first stretch of path they there must have been a nest every square meter. It was eerie walking through the nests with the birds flying up and hovering in the wind a few feet over head. I soon realised what they were up to when I stopped walking to talk to my wife. ‘Splat’ is the best description of what happened. I realised that the hovering was so that the birds could line them selves up in the best position to void their bowels. I got well and truly bombed. The secret without doubt is to carry on walking, even just slowly and you escape unscathed as the Gulls haven’t quite mastered moving targets yet ;)

One of the offenders is shown below.

We soon rejoined the main track and headed down to the ponds beside the Oyster farm. There were several ponds in this area, all quite large and holding numerous Eider, at least 30 pairs, Oystercatcher, Tufted Duck, Shelduck and several Emperor Geese which I guess must be escapees from somewhere. Along the paths we found numerous Linnet and Whitethroat. My main target birds though were the Spoonbills of which we located three. I managed a few photos before rather annoyingly the only other birder about walked around behind them and predictably they took off relocating on another pond which was inaccessible and a great deal further away. One of the wardens had seen his activities and later chastised him for straying off the paths. At least I managed the best views of these birds that I have ever had and likewise a few photos though not as good as I’d have liked.

Being pressed for time with another venue to fit in that day we headed back to the car park and then headed north. Whilst the reserve is situated in a remote location, anyone visiting that part of the country would be well advised to add it to their itinerary. I wish that we’d made time for a full day visit rather than just half a day.

Our next stop off point was Mucaster Castle near Ravenglass. We have long wanted to visit but being a little more distant than our normal haunts we have never made it before. Apart from the wonderful gardens which you can stroll around it is home to the World Owl Centre, with numerous species being tended for and flying displays every day. We have visited several birds of prey centres in the past but Muncaster was by far the most impressive with large clean flight cages. The birds looked to be in very good condition. In addition wild Grey Heron up to 20 of them come to the castle for a free feed each day. We spent the rest of the afternoon there before heading on back to our cottage.

Next day started off rather dull so we decided to head on up to Carlisle for a bit of shopping in the morning. We lunched there and then headed west over to RSPB Campfield Marsh on the Solway Estuary. By then the skies had cleared to some lovely sunny weather. Unfortunately the tide was out again so we didn’t see the waders that the area is noted for other than a few Shelduck. We called at the other birding locations along that stretch of coast and had some pleasant short walks, but the birding was very slow indeed. I was hoping that at Campfield Marsh the long staying Common Crane would still be about and sure enough it was. It was a fair trek up to the furthest hide and to be honest the views of the Crane were distant but certainly viewable with the scope. I’m not sure of it’s origins but Crane are spectacular birds to see in the wild. I managed a few photos and then checkedout the area for other birds. Really though apart from the Tufted Duck and Shoveler on the small ponds, there wasn’t much to see apart from a few Swallows and then some Greenfinches on the feeders by the farm.

After spending a couple of hours at Campfield we headed on south again stopping off at Dodd Wood by Bassenthwaite in order to view the Ospreys. We didn’t bother with the climb to the viewing point as from previous visits we found we got better views from the bottom of the hill. It had only been a few days earlier that the first chick had been born, but we didn’t get to see it. However both adults put on some superb flying displays before settling down with one on the nest and the other perched atop a tree a few yards away.

All in all a good ending to a very nice day.
 

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