RSPB Hodbarrow, Cumbria

I paid a visit to this man-made lagoon in Cumbria near the town of Millom today, in sweltering, humid weather.

I don't often travel further north than Lancaster and have decided that I'm an idiot.

I was entranced looking through the window of the train, as green rolling hills turned into mountain peaks the further north I went. Natural stone villages and isolated cottages, dry stone walls, babbling brooks and expansive estuaries. Isolated huge oaks and dense woodlands clinging to the surface of thrusting limestone ridges, church spires and a screaming kid further along in the carriage, mum not noticing, bitching to Chantelle about Kevins inadequacies in the bedroom, ''innit though''

I love the British isles, we've a lot of beauty on our doorsteps to be thankful for.

Lost in my daydreams of the post being on time, police men being older than me, cricket matches and the vicar coming to tea, I wiped away a wistful tear and stopped humming Rule Britannia and noticed what I'm almost definately certain were two Ravens sitting on fence posts - essentially crows to my untrained eye, but about the size of a small dog. Then Blackbirds, some Goldfinches, lots of what I think were pipits of some description, propably meadow, Oystercatchers, Grey Heron, Jackdaws, Crows proper, Shelducks, Black headed gulls, Lesser black-backed gulls, Herring gulls and lots and lots of wascally wabbits. All this from the train - fantastic. From about Silverdale onwards the majority of the railway is coastal and crosses water in about 3 places; at Arniside and then just before Ulverston in Morecambe bay, and finally just after Foxfields over the Duddon estuary - stunning views. If I had the luxury of time, I bet there would be some stunning sunsets here.

Hodbarrow is very easy to get to from Millom station, it took me a lazy 15 minute stroll. At the end of the lane you simply keep walking into the reserve until you hit water, although it probably is a good idea to stop before that happens

It's basically a roughly semi-circular shaped bay, closed off with a wall to form the lagoon. So, make a choice, left or right, I went left along a leafy lane with loads of Sedge Warblers deafening the air, the obligatory Chiffchaffs were chiffchaffing and Blackbirds, Chaffinches and Thrushes were giving their twopenneth's worth.

The water is on the right hand side and at a clearing was a viewing platform. Some children were being instructed by adults in the ancient tradition of bread throwing for the quack quacks, in the process providing me with some great photo opportunities of the gulls coming in for a free meal. In particular was a very defensive Mute Swan that took offence to a Lesser Black-backed gull getting too close to his cygnets. There was lots of hissing and raised wings, as the gull came in for a tasty bit of Warburtons multi seeded barm, the swan struck and gave him a good clout with his wing - I was too engrossed to get a pic, it was an uppercut Henry Cooper would have been proud of. The cygnets got the barm on that occasion.

Further along, the lane widens as it approaches the shoreline, unfortunately the tide was out and not much was visible, except for some distant Cormorants. The lane continues along the top of the wall and is exposed to the elements - on this occasion heat!! Walking along are some great vistas of the mountains, today their peaks hidden by a veil of cloud and mist. Terns were noisily flying overhead and I was able to get some half decent flight shots of a Sandwich Tern and Common Tern.

In the center of the wall is a public hide, in front of which is a large island. There were many nesting Lesser & Greater Black-backed gulls in front of the hide. A little further out were two separate colonies of Terns, a colony of Black-headed gulls, all very noisy, and there were large flocks of Canada and Greylag geese and Tufted ducks swimming on the waters of the lagoon and several smaller groups of Oystercatcher, Redshank and Lapwing.

I shared the hide with three very nice birding chums who had spotted a plover (don't know what sort) I followed the direction of their scopes but alas, my poor old bins couldn't get it in their sights before it buggered off Feeling inadequate and revisiting feelings of lens envy, my spirits were quickly lifted by the appearance of a Drake, eclipse, Red-breasted Merganser, admittedly it was pointed out to me by these three nice chaps, and yes it was right in front of me, but hey, I got the tick, a lifer to boot, as was the Sandwich Tern as it happens.

It was all too soon to make my trek home (a six hour round trip by the way) and I continued on the lane above the wall, and eventually wound up back where I had started.

It has been a lovely day, very tiring though, but I would definately go back to Hodbarrow. I didn't have time to explore the coastal side, which would have been great, especially as the tide came in, so I'd like to go back and do that. I'd definately recommend it for a visit - the nesting Terns are regulars apparently, as well as the Common Tern and Sandwich Tern that I saw, there are Little Terns too.

I'll put some pics in a Hodbarrow album in a day or two - tried 4 times earlier and it kept crashing my computer (happens from time to time)