Christine's walking & birds blog

On Monday we set off from Ambleside to walk the Fairfield Horseshoe in a clockwise direction. It was mild and fairly sunny to start with, and two buzzards were circling above Nab Scar.

The western side of the horseshoe is a broad ridge giving great walking. Greger leaves Heron Pike and heads towards Erne Crag.....

We have a mini white Christmas.....

By the time we reached Fairfield, the wind had got up and the clouds were down. As we turned to head south on the disorientating plateau, a flock of birds went skipping past. They were snow buntings, although in the damp air of the summit they took on the appearance of fish!

Once on the ground, the buntings were very difficult to see. I wanted to stay with them, but we still had a long way to go.....

The clouds had now settled on the hills with a vengeance; and it was muddy, scrambly work down a route that is really better used as an ascent. It was only as we approached Low Sweden Bridge that visibility returned - lessened now in any case by the encroaching darkness. Where the fellside gave way to the first steep, narrow lane of Ambleside, two bats were hunting.

On Tuesday we drove to Elterwater in search of dippers. We had great views of one through the scope, but failed to get a decent picture. A goosander came flying down the river and under the bridge. She fished for a while on calm shallows near the bank but eventually made her way upstream and under the bridge again. She was completely at home in the rapids - in fact it became hard to tell where water ended and goosander began.

On Wednesday we tried our other site for dippers - on the river at White Moss, between Grasmere and Rydal Water. Greger decided to try a shot by holding his posh new mobile up to the telescope. Judging by the swearing, it wasn't easy. However, he managed a much better shot than I did - although he modestly protests that he "didn't mean to do it".

Greger having decided to live one day in advance, we went back to the flat where I cooked the Christmas turkey. This meant that we had Christmas Day free, and we drove to the Whinlatter Pass, west of Keswick. We walked up through the forestry plantation and crossed a stile to gain the open fell. A couple of walkers descending wished us Happy Christmas - otherwise, we had this nice moorland area to ourselves.

We sat in the sun eating Christmas cake and drinking coffee, and on the way back we spotted a male stonechat in the heather. He's on the skyline to the left. On the right is Lord's Seat (Greger thinks this picture is very funny, but he's just getting uppity because of his dipper).....

Dropping back down through the forest we had good views of a red squirrel.

Friday began cloudy but became a day of blue skies and sunshine. We went up onto Loughrigg Fell - as did about five million other people - seeing a marsh tit on the way up.

Looking down at Grasmere and northwards through Dunmail Raise.....

Just the job when you're stuck at home with a cold!

A quick midday visit to Burnham Beeches/Egypt Woods gave me a lesser spotted woodpecker in a new location.