Another great reason to visit Leighton Moss

As if you needed another great reason to go there!  Today saw the grand opening of the Sky Tower - regular visitors will have noticed its presence over the past few months - it's hard to disguise a 9m tower - but it wasn't until today that we were finally allowed to climb the 48 steps to the top.

The official aims of the tower are twofold - firstly they allow guests to get a raised view of the reedbeds - by looking down from above you get a great picture of where the reedbeds are being renewed and all the various pathways and pools within them.  Secondly, from a conservation point of view, they allow the RSPB to keep a clearer watch on the movement of different species in and out of the area.

Between you and me the third benefit of the tower is the fact that it offers the best mobile phone signal in Silverdale - but don't tell Annabel I mentioned that...

Rather than me wittering on the best way to show you how great the Sky Tower is is by showing you how great the Sky Tower is - definitely worth finding an excuse to nip over there to check it out for yourself.

Clear views of the new reed planting.

Annabel had even organised perfect weather for the day too!

Room for plenty & stopping off platforms on your way up.

It's Leighton Moss - of course there was cake!

30 Days Wild: Day 10 - My little peace of heaven

My life is usually pretty hectic, racing from one end of the country to the other and being on my feet all day delivering training courses.  Like most folks I need a little down time, somewhere I can relax and unwind and, ideally, enjoy a bit of cake.  Whenever it all gets a bit too much, Leighton Moss is where I head for, the entire reserve is a haven of peace and quiet, but I have my favourite spots - most of which I'll tell you about...

The sensory garden is a fantastic place and greets you as you arrive - in the summer it's alive with bugs and bees and an absolute riot of colour.

Lillian's Hide - the big one everyone heads for and perfect for panoramic views across the reserve.

Next up is Pubic Hide - busy during the day but deserted from around 5pm - great for otter spotting and the occasional bittern...

THIS is my absolutely favourite spot - I love this bench.  I love it so much I'm not even telling you where it is - if you know the reserve well you might know where it is, just promise not to tell anyone else... 

And if you're going to hide away on your favourite bench, you need some fabulous food to nibble on!

Lower Hide - just how I like it.

During the course of a few hours I spotted buzzards, a variety of ducks, little egrets, black headed gulls by the score, marsh harriers, wrens, a tawny owl and some whopping great dragon flies.  Sometimes you don't need to go out there and chase nature, sometimes you can just sit still, enjoy the peace and quiet, and let nature come to you.

By the book.

Since starting this blog I've probably written thousands of words, but now I'm required to string 20,000 of them together for a book I'm starting to panic, but only a little.  I've often wondered what goes into writing a book, well now I know - blood, sweat, tears and a few snowy hikes.  I'm guessing the snowy hikes weren't part of J K Rowling's requirements, but they're a part of ours.

Over the past few months we've been doing a LOT of research and since the start of January I've been putting pen to paper, eyes to books and feet to fells.  Luckily we've been very curious about our surroundings since we first arrived, but now we're wading through the research, we're realising how little we actually know.  The book will cover the natural, ancient and recent history of 10 sites in Cumbria - which is really exciting as it means we can tell the world about the whole county - don't get me wrong, we LOVE the Lake District, but there is so much more to see and explore in Cumbria, places like...

Here,

here

 and here.

But it's not all about running around the hills - sometimes I have my nose, and entire desk, buried in books.  Hell - absolute hell I tell ya.

Original sketch of GImmer Crag from 1934

Fantastic access to the resources of Mountain Heritage Trust

We're incredibly lucky to have the support of people like the RSPB, Cumbria Wildlife Trust, Mountain Heritage Trust and assorted local history groups - all of whom are taking the time to meet with us, tell us a few inside stories and allow us access to materials, some of which have never been in print before.  Along the way we've already dug out some fabulous facts, gripping stories and fascinating people.

Seeing as the book will be an equal balance of Steve's fab photos and my inane ramblings we're trying to take advantage of any breaks in the weather and as today promised blue skies and snowy summits we headed for the Langdale Valley (one of the few sites we're looking at within the National Park).  Our plan was to get to the top of The Band to get some shots but around 3/4 of the way to the top it felt as if we'd stepped directly into the Jet Stream so, discretion being by far the better part of valour, we turned and headed down.

Getting blown away in every sense of the word.

The luscious Langdales

I've seen many films and documentaries where explorers are caught in similar situations with wind and snow whipping all around them and it always looked rather exhilarating - but the reality is it's more akin to standing in a freezer, in a force 9 gale while someone pelts you with boiling hot needles.  On the plus side I've had a full facial exfoliation and probably now look 10 years younger - take that Oil of Olay.

So having had an extraordinarily healthy day full of hiking, fresh air and facials, there's only one thing for it - feet up in front of the fire, a bottle of red and my body weight in peanut M&Ms - I'm counting the orange ones as one of my 5 a day.  I have this healthy living malarkey sussed!

But did you see the Pterodactyl?

Finally - the pot of gold?

Our very first birdwatching expedition took place on 7th May 2012 - you can read all about it here.  The odd thing is that, despite living virtually next door to Leighton Moss for 3 months in 2011 when we first moved up here AND being aware of the legendary status of their carrot cake, it still took us nearly 18 months to visit.  In an effort to make up for lost time we've been back at least once a month since and eaten so much cake that I'm now on a pre-Christmas crash diet.

I tracked our progress with the "novice birdwatching" columns in Walks & Wildlife magazine but now that the magazine is no more I felt there was one final tale to be told -1 final bird to be seen before we could move on to new challenges - the elusive Bittern.

Hutton Roof Crags

We have pursued it with dogged determination and have been taunted along the way with folks telling us "you should have been here yesterday", "Oh they popped out just after you'd left" and "yeah, last week they were out there tap-dancing on the ice" (OK - the last one may be a lie but there were 4 of them spotted circling overhead within hours of one of our visits, which is every bit as bad).

Along the way we've mistaken them for cows, tractors, trains, snipe and rutting deer (yes I know only one of those is another bird) and have darn near frozen to death in our quest to get even the briefest of glimpses, but last week we decided enough was enough.  Everything was perfect - we had a free day, the weather was right and we knew they'd been spotted regularly from Public Hide - flasks packed and away we went.

Not a creature was stirring...

We arrived just before 9am - the water was perfectly still, the sky was mostly blue, the snow was glistening on Hutton Roof Crags away in the distance and most importantly, Public Hide was empty so we nabbed the best spots and hunkered down.

During the day people came and went, birds came and went, but still no Bittern.  I dashed back to the visitors centre to replenish the flasks and acquire soup and cake, but still nothing.  By 2pm we were frozen solid and seriously questioning our sanity when it appeared - flying low and slow, from left to right directly in front of the hide. The moment was perfect - it was like when Ross & Rachel first kissed, when the Nescafe Gold blend couple finally got it together and when Sheldon Cooper finally told Amy Farrah Fowler that he loved her.  And yes I do realise how sad and geeky that makes me sound.

The proof!

It disappeared into the reed bed for a while before re-appearing along the channel known as "Al's Alley" where it sauntered around and posed nicely for photos - allowing a couple of visitors who'd dropped by on the off chance, on their very first visit, to get a splendid view.  Not that I'm at all bitter.  We even saw it fluffing its feathers and chasing another Bittern away.  Looking at the "beginners luck" newbies I knew exactly how it felt.

The upside of our many visits has been the chance to see so many other birds, other animals and marvellous sights - including the spectacular rainbow at the top of this blog - but I have also realised that whatever you've seen it's never quite enough.  I kept a note of everything we spotted during the day we were waiting for the Bittern and it looks like this:

Teal

Coot

Moorhen

Wren

Great Tit

Blue Tit

Crow

Robin

Tufted Duck

Mallard

Pochard

Bearded Tit

Cormorant

Assorted gulls (still need to work on those)

Heron

Swans

Grebe

Snipe

Marsh Harrier

Buzzard

Sparrowhawk

Water Rail

Bittern

Otters

Now I didn't think that was bad for one day, but when a gentleman asked if he could take a look at my list he read it, sniffed, peered at me over his horn-rimmed specs and said "but you haven't seen the short eared owl yet, have you?".  

No, we hadn't but we did see the Bittern AND we got to sit and watch the otters doing this - and until the Pterodactyl shows up, that will do us nicely thank you.

The Rules of Bird Watching

As you'll know if you've read any of my other blogs, we've been getting to grips with the local bird life over the past year or so, during which time we've learned a lot about birds and bird watching.  Having spent another fabulous day down at Leighton Moss I thought now was a good time to share with you some of the "rules" we've picked up along the way.

1. If, when you enter a hide, all the "bins" and "scopes" are pointing in different directions, there's probably nothing important to see.
2. If, when you enter a hide, all the "bins" and "scopes" are pointing in the same direction, whip yours out quickly and join in, nodding sagely whilst desperately scanning the horizon.
3. The name of the bird often bears little resemblance to their appearance; female Blackbirds are brown and, as we discovered today, Green Winged Teals do not have green wings.
4. Trying to describe to someone where you've spotted a bird in the distance is the quickest way to start an argument. "No, not *that* tree, the one with the branches, just to the left of the one with the leaves.  Never mind, it's gone now!".
5. However long your camera lens is, there'll be someone there with a longer one.
6. The second you look down to take your flask out of your bag a Bittern will tap dance past the hide.
7. The quieter the hide, the louder the crisps.
8. Most seasoned birdwatchers don't mind you asking questions and are usually fairly forgiving when you make a mistake.  ("Is that the Bittern?" Long slow intake of breath. "No, that's a Snipe...")
9. The smaller the bird the prettier the song.  Big birds seem only capable of screeching.  Pheasants in particular will lie in wait behind a bush and time their screech perfectly to scare the bejeebers out of you as you pass by.
10. DO NOT look on the "Spotted Today" board as you enter the reserve.  These are malevolent works of fiction and serve only to reinforce your feelings of inadequacy when the most exotic things you can come up with are a Lapwing and Shoveler.

Lapwings. Still bonkers, still my favourite bird.

Bittern Spotting for Beginners.

The beautiful Leighton Moss RSPB Reserve

We’re novice bird watchers but learning fast (does that make us fledglings?) and thoroughly enjoy a few hours pootling from hide to hide around the reserve.  At this time of year there are many migrating species moving through the region so there’s a lot to keep up with, and each time we visit we usually see something new.  This time we spotted Teal (very pretty little ducks), Pochard (very pretty slightly larger ducks), Shovellers (duck sized but huge bills) and Marsh Harriers (very large and not at all duck like).  However our mission was threefold: to see a murmuration of Starlings, to see (or even hear) a Bittern and to see the resident Otters.  It’s fair to say our success in these missions was, at best, patchy.

This is not a Bittern.

First up the Starlings.  As we arrived a couple of hours before dusk we got lucky with this one and, although comparatively small compared to what it apparently grows to later in the season, we did indeed see a minor murmuration.  However small the flock it’s still quite breath-taking to see them swoop, switch and dive in unison with no collisions; far better choreographed than the dance routines most people were watching on TV that evening.  Pretty soon they settled down to roost amongst the reed beds with their distinctive chirping. Oddly this is a sound which always reminds me of Birmingham because, as a child, when we visited Birmingham (to see Santa in Rackhams) the starlings would be roosting in the bank opposite the ramp leading into New Street station, so their sound has always held magical connections for me.  (Not often Birmingham is described as being magical).  So, mission one accomplished.

Mission two: the Bittern.  One of the rarest birds in Britain these creatures are usually heard rather than seen and have a distinctively deep, booming call.  This is good to know, but not all that helpful when you don’t know what their “deep, booming call” actually sounds like.  We got excited at several “deep, booming” calls which disappointingly turned out to be (in order) a cow, a rutting stag and a distant tractor.   We may be fledglings but we clearly have much to learn.   We read the info board which, helpfully, had a large picture of them and pointers as to when was the best time to see them.  Dusk is best apparently, around the edges of the reeds.  They’d been seen that day but sadly didn't make an appearance for us.  That said the info board also said they were “masters of disguise” so I tried to convince Steve I’d seen one disguised as a swan.  He didn't believe me.

This is also not a Bittern.

And lastly the otters.  Or rather, not the otters for they too assiduously avoided us.  They had apparently been out partying in the sunlight for the hordes of observers earlier in the day but when we arrived, sitting stock still and silently sipping tea in the Lower Hide, they stubbornly refused to reappear.  We’d been told to watch the other birds for clues as to the location of the otters, which conjured up images in my mind of a row of Warner Brothers style ducks sitting bolt upright holding “Otters this way” signs.  It seems I misunderstood.

And this most certainly isn't a Bittern.

There were many fantastic things we did see though; on our way to Lower Hide we stopped to watch a group of deer, including a stag, grazing and then lying in the warm afternoon sun.  They knew we were there but were far enough away to not be too troubled by our presence.  As I mentioned before we were lucky enough to see the Marsh Harrier again swooping around and I’m sure someone claimed that the large bird we saw chasing some of the Starlings was a Peregrine, but I could be very wrong about that.  We also saw a huge flock of Little Egrets gathered in the trees at the far side of the lake; at least 30 when we tried to count them, though they’re fidgety things and didn't hold still long enough for us to get a more accurate count. 

My very best shot of the suspected Bearded Tit.
Whaddya mean "it's a bit dark"?!

And did we see a Bearded Tit?  Well, on our way back to the car in the late dusk we spotted a small bird pecking around in the gravel ahead of us, very near to the gravel trays.  It didn’t seem too jumpy and, had it not been really rather dark by this point, we’d have probably gotten quite a nice pic, but as it was all we had to go on was its silhouette and, let’s face it, we can’t spot a Bittern in broad daylight so our chances of identifying this were non-existent.  As we reached the car it was getting quite dark and all we could hear away in the distance were owls calling to each other – another bird we could add to the “heard but not seen list”.  At least we think it was an owl, it could have been a distant train, or a car alarm, or a mobile phone, or a… 

Hide and Seek

Leighton Moss

I can't believe I've never been bird watching before.  If you've read previous blogs you'll know I've been trying to get to grips with identifying birds (specifically the "doink doink" bird) as we've hiked around the fells, but today was my very first time at an RSPB reserve with the specific intention of spotting birds, and what an amazing day we had; I'm not sure if it was just beginner's luck of if the birds are always this abundant up here.

Lapwing

We'd spent most of the morning hiking around Hutton Roof Crags (more of those in a future blog) and after a sarnie decided to head across to the RSPB nature reserve at Leighton Moss.  As RSPB members it was free to get in; it only costs us £3 per month for our membership so a very cheap day out.  The lovely lady at reception gave us a quick guide to the reserve and told us what birds had been spotted already today.  I mentioned that we were newbies and that I'd be hard pressed to tell a Pigeon from a Parakeet, but I was armed with my binoculars and my iChirp app and I was keen as mustard.

Black Tailed Godwits (apparently)

We started off at Lilian's Hide where there were dozens of Black Headed Gulls nesting and making a right old racket.  My none bird head wondered what I could possibly see here but I settled down with my binoculars and pretty soon I was engrossed in my own Attenborough style wildlife programme - except this was right in front of me.  I saw territorial battles, the odd spat and what I'm guessing was a demanding female bird beating up her hen pecked partner and demanding fish, which he duly supplied.

Marsh Harriers and Hutton Roof Crags

Leaving the screeching gulls behind we next headed for Tim Jackson hide and hunkered down for a spot more spotting.  I was immediately taken with a rather odd looking bird at the waters edge; large and blackish but with big pointy feathers sticking out of the back of its head.  I took a snap and started comparing it to the list of birds the RSPB had helpfully adorned the hide with and pretty soon it had a name: the Lapwing.  It didn't do much at first but then it began flying around and calling - what a brilliantly bonkers bird! It flies like it's been on the gin all day and sounds like a short wave radio.  In fact I think maybe those large feathers sticking out the back of its head disguise an antennae and it actually is receiving short wave radio.

Marsh Harrier

Whilst the Lapwing may have been relatively easy to identify other birds proved a little trickier, especially to a complete novice.  There were some brown speckledy birds wading around in the shallows and I'd thought they were Snipes, but a very nice man pointed out they were in fact Black Tailed Godwits and he was far more interested in them than he was in my Lapwing, but it was the two large brown birds away in the distance which were causing the most excitement.  When I asked what they were I was told they were Marsh Harriers and they were gamboling around in the air in much the way I might had I suddenly been granted the gift of flight.

Osprey

After a brief visit to Griesdale Hide we walked across the reserve to Lower Hide, which was very lovely and very quiet with nothing unusual to report, but we were in for a treat on our return journey.  As we passed a man gazing into the sky with his binoculars he turned and stopped us and asked if we'd seen the Osprey and pointed towards more large birds in the sky.  Our untrained eyes had thought these were still the Marsh Harriers, but apparently not and, once we got our eye in, we began to spot the differences.  I couldn't believe how lucky were were being on our very first ever bird watching trip and I was beginning to feel ever so slightly hooked on the activity.  I'd already decided that I needed new binoculars and Steve definitely needed upgraded camera equipment if he was to capture these amazing creatures on film.  (Well, OK, not "on film" anymore, but you know what I mean!).

Avocet

Our last stop of the day was over at Allen hide which is just down the road from the main nature reserve and overlooks Morecambe Bay, by now it was getting late (8pm) but we thought we'd pop over see what we could see.  Turns out we got to see Avocets.  These were the only birds of the day that I had never even heard of before.  I've watched nature programmes and heard most of the others mentioned but not these.  To be fair there were no experts around to back up our identification, but they are quite distinctive birds with beaks that curve upwards at the end so we're pretty sure we got it right - though please do let me know if we're wide of the mark.

After all that excitement we decided it was time to head for home.  On top of all the birds above we also saw loads of birds you might find in your garden, spotted a group of Swallows swooping and looping overhead and I think I may possibly have spotted a Bearded Tit in the reed beds, but it was too tiny and too far away to be sure.  And the perfect close to the day?  Being serenaded by the "doink doink" bird (or Nuthatch as he's better known) as we got back to the car.  Perfect.

Sunset over Kent Estuary