A skyful of birds

On our way down to Norfolk we stopped off at Frampton Marsh RSPB reserve. The first sunny, dry and warm day for quite a while! A welcome break dominated by thousands of Golden Plover and Lapwing wheeling round and catching the light as they turned. Other highlights included the Tundra Bean Geese  -thanks to the help of a friendly bird watcher with a scope and spotting the Merlin that was responsible for continually moving the birds round. 

Lapwing and Golden Plover.

Incoming Golden Plover.

Dark-bellied Brent Geese....and below.

Reeds in the sun.

Feeding Wigeon.

And the culprit that kept putting the birds up...on the post, a Merlin.

Beda Fell from Boredale Hause

Remarkably, it was easy to park mid-morning in Patterdale, despite it being half term! This was probably due to the closure of the Kirkstone Pass, as there was nothing wrong with the weather, which was cold and dry with no wind. A great walk - first up the well trodden track to Boredale Hause and then along the ridge to Beda Fell. The ridge is lovely with good views, albeit a bit murky later on. It was nice to see five Red Deer near the Hause and also to watch the trail hounds descending into Patterdale as we came back. 

From Patterdale looking towards the Kirkstone Pass.

Towards Fairfield.

Crunching snow...

Frozen ....

Towards Beda Fell.

Nice lichens - I searched for club mosses and White Worm Lichen to no avail..

Cold.

Icicles.

Red Deer on the snow....

and off they went.

Hound trailing.

Herdies in the valley bottom. 

Wintery Wedholme

After our walk on the fells, a walk on the moss. Nice to have some sunshine and to see the first signs of spring: Hare's-tail Cottongrass.

Frozen.

Reed Bunting.

Criffel in the distance.

Hare's-foot Cottongrass.

Stonechat.

Winter's light.

Wansfell Pike and Braystones

A decent and dryish day on the fell. Starting from Ambleside it was up straight up onto Wansfell Pike with some cracking views over Lake Windermere. Then along a rather damp and slushy ridge to Baystones - the true summit of Wansfell and regarded as the Wainwright Wansfell for purists. I doubt I am a Wainwright purist, especially for my second round, but it made a day of it and meant we had a more gentle descent via Nanny Lane into Troutbeck (sandwiches on the bench in the rain) before skirting round Wansfell via Robin Lane. Lane may have been a debatable term, given the stream-like nature, in places, of both lanes. Rocky will be tired, bless him, but he loved it - especially the ridge, the Ravens and snow. 

Stock Ghyll.

How are those boulders not falling down?

Wintery Pikes.

The Kirkstone Pass.

From Wansfell Pike along the ridge towards Braystones.

Windermere.

Chasing ravens!

Baystones summit.

And into Troutbeck.

A wild goose chase or 2!

Over the past few weeks there have been various reports of different geese on the Solway. Being local we made several trips down to see what we could see...some more successful than others! So here are the highlights....

The Lessonhall Ross' Goose ...

It finally moved from behind the wire which obscured the view...which in the first place was obtained through a narrow gap in the hedge!

Not a goose, but a Spoonbill just opposite Campfield Marsh turning.

Part of a huge flock of geese at Drumburgh - the Russian White-fronted Geese were easy enough to spot and we were lucky the single Taiga Bean Goose was with them, hence easy to spot! 

The 'orange- footed' Taiga Bean Goose.