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Birdwatching in the Lake District

From a tract of woodland or from a group of roadside thorn trees from late April onwards comes the sweet song of the willow warbler, one of the 'leaf warblers', a diminutive and inconspicuous summer visitor. The marsh tit is among the birds to be seen and heard in Great Wood below Walla Crag near Derwentwater. The aforementioned tree creeper, small and mouse like, probes for food with a needle-like beak while scuttering up the trunk of an old oak. The long tailed tit stands out from other members of their family by having black and white plumage, suffused with pink, though you will be able to identify it from its high-pitched call and from its truly long tail. In winter it will have the company of others of its kind.

Massed conifers, which cover a large part of the Lake District, have a paucity of birds. The gold crest's thin call which someone compared to a fairy's sewing machine, is to be heard in the general woodland calm. One of the smallest species of bird on the British List, the goldcrest wears a somewhat dowdy green plumage but has a black edged crown, which is of yellow coloration. The pink of the chaffinch is to be heard among conifers. Mature stands are the resort of the coal tit, to which reference has already been made.

Mossland North of the fell country are tracts of fen and woodland, including eighteen acre  Dubs Moss, which is a reserve of the Cumbria Wildlife Trust and lies one and a half miles southwest of Cocker mouth. The bird population includes, among members of the titmouse family, the rarer willow tit, whose field characteristics are unlike those of the willow warbler. The willow tit has a somewhat mournful song. Nesting warblers include sedge, grasshopper, garden and willow, along with whitethroat, blackcap and chiffchaff The kingfisher is counted among the local birds.

Mammals The red deer, largest of the native mammals, is red only when in its summer coat, which is worn for a short time in late summer. Soon the longer grayish hairs of the winter coat are showing through. The nearest sizeable wild population spends part of its year in the conifer woods around Thriller and part on the adjacent fell sides. Red deer are embarked at Loather. Roe deer, the smallest of the native deer, are widespread where there is the cover of timber but in quiet places might be seen grazing at dusk in adjacent fields. They also frequent reedy thickets adjacent to lowland bogs. A roe looks foxy red in summer but grayish in winter.

The horns, worn only by the buck, are short and have a simple branch. At close quarters, notice the mustachio stripe. The alarm call is a gruff bark. The number of roe in Northern Lakeland rose with the cover provided by the new conifer plantations at Whinlatter.

The wolf, which used to cull the deer, has long been extinct in Lakeland and is only recalled through place names, such as Unlock Pike on Skidded and Ullscarf Pike, at the head of Borrowdale. Sightings of the shy pine marten are reported from time to time and the species will doubtless regain its own Lakeland haunts in due course. Perhaps the most charming of the native mammals is the red squirrel, which was beloved of Beatrix Potter who, as a child, spent summer with her family by Derwentwater.

The red is distinguishable from the sturdy grey squirrel (introduced from North America) by its graceful form and long ear tufts. Weasels occur widely, and stoats dine on the considerable rabbit population. Hares are less common than they were.

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