Lake District and Scotland 31/5 - 7/6

Being 'Friends' of Abernethy Reserve, we were invited to this years open day for a guided tour of the reserve. For the uninitiated, Abernethy is right up in the Cairngorms which is a long way from Bristol, so we thought we'd better make a week of it!

We planned to have a short break in the Lake District before continuing our journey north, and booked to stay in Keswick. Arriving in Windermere early on Monday our first bird was a greenfinch which was hiding in a tree but making enough noise that I could find it eventually! We took a short stroll along the lake and saw swallows, house martins, mallards, geese and swans, and lastly a song thrush. From Windermere, we took the Wrynose pass to Hardnott Roman Fort, which produced wheatears and meadow pipits and some stunning scenery. From there, we headed to Haweswater in an attempt to see an eagle! We saw buzzards on the way, as we had regularly on the way up the motorway, and a kestrel, but no eagles en-route to the car park. The information boards seemed to point us in the wrong direction but luckily my other half has orientation skills better than I and we headed off in the right direction, a little disheartened to have learnt that a) there was only one eagle (I remembered reading about the female going missing once I'd had my memory jogged) and b) the view point shut at 4 and it was a 45 minute walk away (it being about 3.40 by this time!). We virtually sprinted up the hill, and halfway up I was about to ask a couple of birders coming down how much futher it was and whether the eagle was about, when I hesitated. Yes, that was Bill Bailey walking towards me!! I decided against interrupting their conversation and ploughed on up the hill, lots of wheatears but no visible ring ouzels (which was to become a recurring theme!). We arrived at the viewpoint at 15.55 just as the RSPB man was starting to pack up! He told us we were in luck, the eagle was there, and he kindly agreed to stay open until the advertised time! The RSPB scope was pointed straight at the eagle, which was sitting under a tree looking resplendent in the sun, so it was pretty much the easiest bird I've ever had to spot, England's only Golden Eagle! Poor old thing, I thought. He's been on his own for six years now but the RSPB have no plans to 'interfere', which on balance is probably the right thing to do.

Later that evening we were walking home from the pub surrounded by little bats overhead, which was nice. I have absolutely no idea which type, but they were small and would imagine they were pipistrelles. They followed us right into the B&B car park, and then we could continue to watch them from our bedroom window!

The following day we went for a walk on Walla Crag in the drizzle, and saw some interesting views of the fells and lakes. Not much bird activity, but we saw willow warblers and chaffinches, and a buzzard. After lunch we visited the Forestry Commission's Dodd Wood which overlooks Bassenthwaite Lake and contains a nesting pair of Ospreys. And beautiful they were too, especially when the male came in with a fish, perched, and then was up again to chase off a crow that had flown to close to the nest!! So that was both big birds I'd hoped to see in Scotland ticked off before we even got there! On the way back down, we saw blue tits, coal tits, great tits, siskins and a great spotted woodpecker, as well as a very fat red squirrel on the feeders.

(part two to follow, silly length limit!)