I decided to go to the Lake District National Park for a few days, despite the weather forecast being for rather poor weather. The national park took me about 3 hours to get to, but the journey took another hour as I was heading for the western lakes, probably the most spectacular part.

I headed into Eskedale and found a B&B at the foot of Hardknott Pass, a place called Wha House Farm. It was a nice place to stay with lovely views and the lady running it was very friendly. The weather forecast was wrong, with fairly good weather, just a little cloud and only on the highest mountains, so I went off for a walk at about 3.45pm. Starting at the Woolpack Inn, I headed uphill to Eel Tarn. A number of birds were easily seen with a Greenfinch at the pub and a Willow Warbler in the trees just behind. A small conifer plantation behind the Woolpack Inn provided the launching point for 2 male Redpolls to perform their song flight. Unexpectedly, the bracken covered hillside was full of Yellowhammers in song, the dark colour of the bracken providing a perfect contrast for the vivid colour of the male Yellowhammers.

After a short climb I reached Eel Tarn, a very pretty spot with views of Harter Fell in one direction and Scafell Pike in another. A pair of Ravens flew overhead and on the tarn itself were two Mallard and a Little Grebe; both seemed a little out of place up here.

Eel Tarn and Harter Fell

It felt a bit strange to be up there again as the last time I visited Eel Tarn was 27 years ago when I was just 7 years old. My father used to take me for walks up there whilst my mother was getting ready to go out on our family holidays to a farm in Eskedale; needless to say the views are as good as ever although it was sad that my father is no longer here to join me on this walk.

With plenty of time before darkness I decided to walk further along to Burnmoor Tarn, another place I last visited as a child with my dad. The walk provided great views of nearby Scafell Pike as the clouds cleared to reveal the summit, although the footpath was soaked and lost amongst Sphagnum Moss and Bog Asphodel. Just as I was thinking that I should have seen more birds, a male Whinchat began calling from nearby bracken. It gave me good views for quite some time. Also showing themselves were a Wren and a Kestrel.

After sinking up to my knees in mud I reached a lonely Burnmoor Tarn where a strange hunting lodge is situated. On the lake were a pair of Great Crested Grebes and two pairs of Wheatears with young noisily feeding and fighting. The only tree for miles around is located next to the lodge and a Tree Pipit had managed to find it; funny how easy this is to seperate from Meadow Pipit when the two are seen close to each other – up here it is a Meadow Pipit heaven.

On the way back down into the valley I saw some more Whinchats before walking through some woodland where I saw a number of species: Chaffinch, Goldfinch, Wood Pigeon, Dunnock, Robin, Coal Tit and a juvenile Great Spotted Woodpecker. I walked back to the Woolpack Inn along the valley, through more woodland and farmyards and just before getting back to the car a Grey Heron flew out of a small stream and a Common Buzzard flew overhead.

Then off to the George the Fourth pub for chicken and leek pie which by that time was urgently needed.

This afternoon I walked up to the lake at Eske, but very little about apart from a pair of Grey Partridges on the walk up. The water level of the River Hull has hardly gone down at all since the flooding a few weeks back and many fields are still so far under water that flocks of Black-headed Gulls, Common Gulls and Greylag Geese have taken to them. To see a Great Crested Grebe and Tufted Ducks swimming around on a pea field is rather bizarre, but they seem to have taken to it along with Lapwings, Oystercatchers and a Cormorant.

On the lake were about 20 Mallard in eclipse plumage, a few Tufted Ducks and 2 male Pochard. One Reed Warbler was still singing and a Common Tern was hunting over the lake but very little else. On the way back to the car I saw a Yellowhammer, a group of Linnets and a few Swifts and Swallows. Not one of the most memorable birding trips.

I haven’t been to Dartford Marshes for a couple of years now; quite frankly, that is because it isn’t that great a place and when I’m home I usually visit other sites; however, I decided to take a look today to see what was about.

Dartford marsh is not much of a marsh really, just a bunch of fields and rough land, but an open area of land in what is becoming an increasingly developed corridor along the River Thames which can sometimes turn up some interesting species. I drove as far towards the river wall as is possible and parked. I walked just a few metres when a Corn Bunting landed on a fence post and began to call. He was a real monster of a Corn Bunting and not at all shy allowing me to approach to about 3 metres. I watched him for about 10 minutes as he called across an area of ryegrass cultivated for a local model airplane club. The few times I flushed him, he immediately returned to the same place, indicating that this was his selected territory. at no time did I see any female or any other calling males. However, I didn’t walk around the whole area so they may have been other birds around, although the sun was out, ideal weather for calling Corn Buntings, and search as I might, I couldn’t detect any other Corn Buntings.

Further along a Reed Bunting was singing from a reedy ditch along with some Reed and Sedge Warblers and numerous Skylarks were singing away as was a lone Meadow Pipit.

At the river a number of gulls were loafing around; a few Great Black-backed, about 10 Lesser Black-backed, 3 Herring Gulls and lots of Black-headed Gulls including a few of this year’s juveniles, but most interesting were two first year Yellow-legged Gulls – Dartford Marsh is a pretty reliable site for this species. A Common Sandpiper flushed from the river bank and headed towards Essex. Further along 3 more Common Sandpipers were feeding and a family of Linnets were feeding on weed seeds.

I walked along to Littlebrook power station to look for Black Redstarts that used to nest there but found only House Martins, Starlings, Pied Wagtails and Cormorants.

By this time I was getting hot and was late for lunch with my grandparents so I hurried back to the car seeing a Green Woodpecker and a Whitethroat on the way.

Littlebrook Power Station and Queen Elizabeth 2 Bridge, Dartford Marsh

I really fancied going to the New Forest in search of Dartford Warblers but the weather forecast for that region was terrible. However, the weather at Ashdown Forest was supposed to be a little better so I hoped to find my target there.

On arrival I got soaked! The rain was a persistent mist and I searched pretty much vainly for birds, although I did find a Whitethroat, some Coal Tits and a Treecreeper, always a nice bird. The habitat was very nice though with gorse, bracken and open woodland, mainly Scots Pine and Oak.

Eventually the rain began to ease off and the birds came out with a pair of Stonechats providing some welcome colour to a grey day. Soon, though, plenty more species were around with a couple of Yellowhammers, Linnets, some singing Goldcrests, Blue Tits, Great Tits and a Green Woodpecker. With the weather improving I had a chance to take a couple of photos of some Bog Ashpodel in habitat that was put me more in mind of northern Britain rather than a location just 20 minutes from Gatwick airport!

Bog Asphodel

I took an early lunch in the car and headed to a second part of the forest with lots of open heathland. I had a lovely walk in the sunshine! It didn’t take long before I came across a pair of Woodlarks which foraged around on the ground, giving me excellent views before they flew off. A little further along a family of Long-tailed Tits were feeding in trees and a distant Tree Pipit was in song. However, a suden influx of Meadow Pipits, a couple of Woodlarks a number of Skylarks and another Tree Pipit, all in flight at the same time, but not singing, gave me a real identification headache.

Moving down a valley into some woodland another Green Woodpecker flew off, uttering its ridiculous laugh and a whole load of other common species were in evidence including a distant, but noisy Whitethroat.

It is also worth mentioning how common Stonechat was on the heathland around here. I lost count of how many I saw, with lots of juveniles being fed by their parents. Still, by now I was getting a bit frustrated at not seeing any Dartford Warblers, but just as I was taking a break I heard some raucous chirpring coming from a gorse bush. After several minutes of searching I found 2 very young juvenile Dartford Warblers – seperable from Whitethroat by the dark upperparts. However, this was not really as good as getting the adult.

Just a few hundred metres further along I stopped to watch some Linnets, another Tree Pipit and countless Stonechats and Skylarks when suddenly an adult Dartford Warbler flew straight at me and landed in some nearby gorse. What a view! I watched this female for ages as it hunted for food and saw it very clearly catch a small green caterpillar and eat it. Here is a fairly poor record shot of the bird.

Dartford Warbler

Dartford Warbler is a special bird for me as it is the species that got me interested in bird watching. I remember seeing one with my dad on some cliffs in Cornwall when I was just 7 years old. I couldn’t believe that Dartford (where I come from) had its own bird – I thought that was brilliant and was good enough to make me buy my first pair of binoculars the next day. Dartford Warbler is probably still my favourite bird of all, maybe one day it will find its way back to what is left of Dartford Heath – that would really be my ultimate birdwatching experience.

Plenty more birds on the way back to the car including 7 flyover Herring Gulls, a Willow Warbler, a couple of Blackcaps and a whole load of Swifts as well as a monster Mistle Thrush.

birds, birding, nature, national parks

Yesterday evening I went for a stroll to check out the Corn Bunting population near my mother’s home in Hawley, near Dartford. Most of the oilseed rape had already been harvested, leaving just a few fields of wheat standing. I saw a few Skylarks and Linnets but no buntings; quite unusual.

A few other birds were around: Swift, Swallow, Wood Pigeon and a singing Whitethroat, but it wasn’t until the last field that I saw a Corn Bunting, followed by another and another…. I counted 22 all in just about 1 hectare of land. Many were juveniles with just 3 calling males. Strangely these were the only Corn Buntings I saw. I hope that this isn’t all that is left otherwise theyare in trouble here. I think more likely that most of the population is already lying low, moulting after completing breeding quite early.

Not much else on the way back, just Magpie, Carrion Crow and Stock Dove, but that is expected – Corn Buntings are the only real speciality of these arable fields.