Another planned day out finally arrived, and little did i know how excellent a day it would actually turn out to be.
I was picked up at 07.00 by Colin Noble and i was introduced to his fellow birders, Keith Fisher & Dave Atkinson.
Our first stop of the day was to Langden Beck in Teesdale to see Black Grouse ( a new species for me ). On arriving in the area Dave quickly picked out a single cock bird, which we viewed from the car. Then they thought we`d be better off visiting the Lek site but unfortunately it was a bit too early in the year for any displaying birds. So we decided to turn round and head back to where we had the original sighting when ( again ) Dave picked up quite a few birds in a distant field. On looking through our optics we could see they were all cock birds. An amazing 18 in total and then Keith found 3 females, slightly closer than the others. These 3 females gave me the opportunity to try and get a record shot, albeit at distance ;
Before we set off, i got a couple of scenic shots of the area ;
The green field in the centre of this pic held the 18 males
Quite chuffed with our sightings we headed off to our next port of call at Haweswater in the Lake District ( not before adding another 2 male & 7 female Black Grouse around the corner from the other birds ).
Out target species at Haweswater was Englands only resident Golden Eagle ( there used to be a pair but the female sadly died a few years ago ).
It did`nt take us too long to reach our intended destination and while driving up by the lake Dave thought he saw a Red Squirrel run across the road, which was confirmed as we watched it run along through the adjacent woodland.
We decided against using the main car park ( as it was full ) and also against walking to the eagle viewpoint. So we parked on the roadside and set up a watch in view of the area the eagle was known to frequent. Things were`nt looking promising as there was loads of walkers along the ( eagle ) ridge, but we stuck at it. About an hour later, Keith shouted " i`ve got it ", a few seconds after that and we were all on it. What a bird!!! giving excellent if not distant views. In fact a better performance than any i`ve ever seen in Scotland. We watched it for at least 10 minutes before it was lost to view. During this time, it`s huge size could be clearly seen as it dwarfed the 8 Ravens that were in the same area. Just one word to describe this experience " AWESOME "
Also had a Dipper from here, which was observed swimming in open water and coming up with 2 small fish ( twice ).
( the ridge where the Eagle performed )
What a truly inspiring part of the country this is. I`m more than pleased to have booked the lakes as our holiday destination this year :)
As time was getting on we decided to make our way home, calling in at the Harewood House area to see the Red Kites. Once again we did`nt fail with our target, with 14 birds being seen along with 2 Common Buzzards. You can`t tell, but the 3 biggest trees in the pic below held at least 4 Red Kites & a single Buzzard ;
And last but not least, i would like to thank Colin, Dave & Keith for inviting me along on this very memorable day. It will take something really special to beat this outing.
Copyright Dean Stables
