Elterwater collage

I’m fascinated by the variety of wildlife that can be seen up here in the Lake District, and intrigued by how different our sightings of it can be from year to year. One year we saw a heron many times; another year there were dippers in the beck every day. Two years ago I saw my first ever yellowhammer and stonechat on Elterwater Common, but have never seen either of those since. This year has been the year of the kingfisher! (Eight sightings so far, thank you for asking.)

This year we haven’t seen a single heron, and not many dippers either. I decided to go on a nature walk on Elterwater Common this afternoon, in the vain hope of hearing the unmistakeable sound of stonechats. Over the past few days I’ve seen a thrush and a meadow pipit on the Common, but today any birds around were heard but not seen.

So here’s a collage of a few of the things which caught my eye on my walk. The shot of the chimney pots with the telephone wire was my attempt to record that I’d seen one swallow on a telephone wire, but he flew off before I could get a shot, although I heard lots more in the area around the rooftops.

There is one of the locals in the centre, surrounded by tormentil (potentilla erecta), common butterwort, a singing blackbird and a swallow that’s gone AWOL.