a weekend in the Lake District
Hoping for a repeat of our Wood Warbler experience of 2022 we headed up to Sophie’s in Kendal for three days but quickly realised that timing is everything and that a forecast of a hot sunny weekend, the Windermere Marathon and a variety of other events meant that it was rather too humanified for me but we had some good birds and a really nice variety of odes that I did not expect.
Grasmere May 2024
The woodlands were in full leaf making Pied Flys and Redstarts hard to see and we never managed a Wood Warbler at all - maybe they had already stopped singing?
Friday we arrived late afternoon and headed up to Ambleside for the Dippers - the young were just fledging with some still in the nest but sadly Soph spotted a Mink in the stream where the birds were feeding: by the Sunday two birds had fledged but the Mink was back and actively hunting them looking in every nook and cranny in the retaining wall where the young were sheltering - fortunately one flew quickly as the Mink approached and fingers crossed they survive. Took rather too many images all with the Canon R62 and the RF 100-500 with and without the 1.4 converter
Juvenile Dipper on the Sunday evening only two days out of the nest but already starting to look for food in the moss though still being fed by the adults - hopefully it will survive
The North American Mink in the stream - a beautiful mammal but should not be here
Grey Wagtails were feeding young on the same stream as the Dippers
The Esthwaite Ospreys
Male Osprey - never close and in the heat haze
Down the roadside a cracking Golden Ringed Dragonfly landed on the back of an overgrown wall hence the very poor angle and image - then it flew off never to be seen again
Easy to hear male Pied Flycatchers singing but the closed canopy made seeing them a bit of a challenge
male Pied Flycatcher
not seeing many spring birds I tend to forget they can have quite pale rump
This male was quite distant and under the canopy so the RF 100-500 with the 1.4 extender produced a shutter speed of just 1/250th second at ISO800 and f10 hand held but the IS on the lens and body combo is very good
female Pied Flycatcher paired to the male above
this male has a mix of old brown juvenile and new black adult primaries
we picked up a few Beautiful Demoiselles but they were mainly up in the oaks and hard to get an angle on - a nice bright female -
male Beautiful Demoiselle up in the riverine trees
On a very hot 23C Sunday we headed to Foulshaw Moss NR in the hope of seeing White-faced Darter that I had mistakenly assumed did not emerge until June but which the net suggested could be on the wing in late April and surely with the weather as it was there was a decent chance? On arrival even without the aid of the new 8x21 Swaros that we bought for Julia at Minsmere, she spotted an Adder sat on the track by the welcome centre cabin - a promising start
Adder on the track at Foulshaw Moss
the area swarmed with Large Red Damselflies landing on anything particularly clothing and hair and there were odd Four-spotted Chasers and Azure Damselflies but not the hoped for darters then we picked some up darting over the pools but at 40m not close enough for photography - two intruding Ospreys displayed but in the intense heat images were very very poor.
Intruding Osprey carrying a fish? and displaying Foulshaw Moss May 19th 2024
the other intruding Osprey
Persisting with the search for a close White-faced Darter, Julia and the new bins picked one up almost within camera range but with some very dodgy lighting - but it was my 42nd species of odonata in the UK and long overdue
nice perch but about 60m too far away
White-faced Darter closer but tricky lighting and on a boardwalk you cannot just get round it
while searching other pools for darters those new bins came across this perched Downy Emerald but as was becoming the norm it was partly obscured and at a tricky angle fro the light but a species I had not expected to see in the area due to lack of research
Downy Emerald Foulshaw Moss May 19th 2024
with a couple of hours to spare and cooler weather on the Monday morning we headed back to Foulshaw to try for perched White-faced Darters on the premise that it was not so hot and they might be less active; the boardwalk was littered with sunning Common Lizards and while the AF struggled to find their eyes Sophie resorted to MF with my gear and of course got the best shots
Sophie’s Lizard shot - good old MF
Common Lizard Foulshaw Moss
In the cooler weather my hunch paid off and several White-faced Darters were warming on the wooden boardwalk - not the most aesthetic of perches but nice and close for some images
having seen a lot in Sweden the urge to visit a site in the UK was not high but this was a good add on
about time they were reintroduced to Thorne and Hatfield where they historically occurred