Lake District May 15 and 16 (1 Viewer)

[Himalaya]

Wanted to go to Suffolk but could not manage it in the next few weeks so somewhere closer to home would have been more convenient. More of a walking holiday with nature and nice landscapes rather than a specific birding trip.
Day 1 after much thinking my first stop was going to be Ullswater and a hike to Gobarrow Fell. I hiked up via Aira Force and in the woodland came across singing Pied Flycatchers and Common Redstarts lighting up the woodland. There were quite a few with a brief Wood Warbler for good measure. A family of Long Tailed Tits made plenty of noise. A fledging already this far North? Right at the edge of the woodlands a Cuckoo or two called and further up slope the first Tree Pipit of the Lakes sang. How any bird could have so much energy after a flight from Africa made me think. Further up slope a Whinchat sang briefly and a family party of recently fledged Stonechat near the peak alarmed. Ravens and Buzzards soared in the sky. Walking down from the slope few more Cuckoo revealed themselves and even more Tree Pipits. Tree Pipits called to each other lower down and a Specked Yellow moth, a first for me, fluttered around.
The walk ended with a stop at the National Trust cafe where I had a cream tea and luckily they had run out of the curried cauliflower pasty which had 900 plus calories in!

 

[Himalaya]

Next stop was a walk to the summit of King's How which looked down on to Derwentwater. I parked at the National Trust Bowderstone car park and looked up. Immediately I heard Willow Warbler, Cuckoo and Wood Warbler. It was something like a 300-400 metre ascent through woodland. The woodland had small carpets of bluebells and probably about 5 singing Wood Warblers and a couple of Tree Pipits too. Redstart and Pied Flycatcher also occurred here. The walk up was steep and I was dreading the walk down. My legs were already aching from the previous walk and now they were going to turn to jelly and I was not even half way up. I was told by a lady I had done the hard part but another bit of the hard part appeared near the summit. I could see dark clouds coming in from Derwentwater and I was on the summit in a t-shirt with no coat. The rain arrived and I sat on the summit with my backpack covering my head as the rain turned into hailstone and I very patiently waited for it to disappear.
When the cloud passed and the sun came out a butterfly or moth species came out and flew around like it was on speed without giving me a chance to identify it. It was a fast slow walk down. I wanted to descend quickly but it was steep. I came across a Tree Pipit near the bottom and I started to watch it walk along the branch with ease calmly pumping it's tail up and down. It just flew from one branch to another walking up and down them and then joined by another. They didn't sing but I think they were a pair.

 

[Himalaya]

The following morning I felt a bit down and tired but I had set my self the goal of having a hike to Rannerdale Knotts. If it wasn't for the Tree Pipits and their pumping energy I am not sure I would have made it. The Lake District isn't most birders cup of tea by the looks of it. I seemed to be the only one actively birdwatching on my travels and most of those I started chatting too didn't know the calls of Redstarts, Pied Flycatchers, Tree Pipits and Cuckoos. The first two always made me think which species is it when they were singing away and I hadn't heard them for a while.

I heard a sound which I did not expect to here. I thought at first it was part of the Tree Pipit song but they were not mimics to my knowledge. Then there it was again “a little bit of bread and no cheese” and again and again and from a different spot and the Tree Pipits were quiet for now. It seemed to be coming from the gorse but I could not see it. Before I dragged myself to the top of Rannerdale Knotts I had heard 4 but not seen one. Just as I descended from the summit I heard a tiz tiz and then saw a Yellowhammer male drop in the short grass and feed. I had never seen them like this or in this terrain. I had only ever seen them around agricultural land or other lowland areas. There may have been at leas 10 singing males here.

I managed to find a good patch of Bluebells in the woods between Buttermere and Crummock Water. It was nice to see and hear more Cuckoos, Redstarts, Pied Flycatcher and Tree Pipit. The Lakes may not be the most ornithologically diverse area in Britain but it definitely has it's highlights and surprises. I did stop off at Whinfell Tarn hoping to see the Hooded Merganser but on the day I plan to go, it leaves.

 

[greer3]

'The Lake District isn't most birders cup of tea by the looks of it.'
It's generally not my cup of tea. The Lake District National Park receives 19million visitors a year; an extraordinary number of people, so I tend to go elsewhere to avoid the crowds or the traffic having to drive through places like Ambleside chock-a-block with cars and pedestrians. Although I live just outside the Lake District, I tend only to go birdwatching on the fringes of the National Park or locations in Cumbria beyond its boundaries. These places are excellent for birds and seldom visited. One of the reasons the birds are thriving is the lack of human (and dog)disturbance.
One of he best birding locations- just within the NP boundary- supports Cuckoo, Northern Wheatear, Redstart, Whinchat, Pied Flycatcher, Spotted Flycatcher, Stonechat, Dipper, Meadow Pipit, Skylark, Common Snipe, Barn Owl, Tawny Owl, Reed Bunting, Redpoll, Siskin and other birds. It's one of the least visited locations in the Lakes, saved from mass tourism for two reasons. One, was a decision made over a hundred years ago to drain a lake in the upper part of the valley. If there was still a largish lake there, it would most likely have been a magnet for visitors. The other was the decision not to signpost the valley from the main road. Drivers whizz past totally unaware of its existence. There's a parallel valley just further north which is equally as good and sees virtually no visitors. There's no public rights of way and the farmer will deter anyone who goes there - unless they do as I did and received written permission from the estate owner to carry out bird surveys.
I don't advertise the names of these or other such locations, for obvious reasons.