Beyond Those Mountains

The one thing that can be said about this week, and it's the same nationwide, is that it has been bl**dy cold! I have been doing bird surveys beyond those mountains in the middle of Cumbria and with 4:00 am alarm calls the the thermometer has been showing a negative figure! After I had finished a survey in north Cumbria yesterday I had to see a couple of clients in Bowland and driving over the top from Bentham to Slaidburn it was like driving through the tundra! I should have stopped and taken a few shots of the snowy landscape but I couldn't spare the horses to make sure I was at my meetings on time!

 Looking back towards those mountains.

The cold spring has been having an impact on migration, and still there are only dribs and drabs of summer migrants coming through. Also, when it is weather like this birds just seem to appear quietly on the breeding grounds, and the two surveys I have completed this week are a case in point. Some of the species I have recorded are summer migrants and they have been my first sightings of the spring, completely bypassing coastal hot spots, and appearing at historic nest sites.

My surveys have been in new-ish plantation woodland and I have lumped the interesting sightings together for both sites as follows; four Willow Warblers, two Tree Sparrows, three Reed Buntings, a Lesser Whitethroat, a Stock Dove, seven Lesser Redpolls, two Redstarts, a Blackcap and a Song Thrush.

 Plantation Woodland

It's going to be wet in Cumbria tomorrow morning so I haven't got a 4:00 am alarm call so I might just have a beer or two this evening!