We've spent some enjoyable time walking in two areas of Northern England - the Upper Tees and the northern part of the Lake District. Good friends of ours, kindly let us have their static home at Barnard Castle, which was to be one of our bases for this 'not exclusively birding' break. Birding was not left out by any means, but you cannot fail to spend time on the scenery of Upper Teesdale and the Lakes. It was also the ideal holiday for Ellie the dog, who unfortunately doesn't accompany us to the Algarve! Barnard Castle is a most attractive town, with many of its buildings, old and new, constructed from local stone. The River Tees runs along the bottom of the town and is very picturesque, with weirs and falls, as it twists and turns. The photo above, would strike any birder as classic Dipper country and I was not disappointed here. Dipper busy feeding directly under the falls. This location was close to our friends' static and the wooded river banks held Great Spotted Woodpecker, Siskins, Willow Warbler, Chiffchaff, Grey Wagtails, 2 flyover Crossbills and this Spotted Flycatcher. One day, we took a drive through Weardale and turned left onto the moor below Chapelfell Top. At one point, we met two German birders who had a distant Red Grouse in their 'scope. I was grateful for a quick look and was able to find them a summer plumaged Golden Plover in its breeding grounds. They looked at me with some disbelief when I said they could probably see Black Grouse as well, and advised them to travel on, to Langdon Beck. They were in luck, five in all but a fair way off! It's been three years since I've had Black Grouse on 'the list' so it was good to see them again. Our next stay took us to Appleby-in-Westmorland, home of the famous Appleby horse fair. The Settle to Carlisle Railway runs through Appleby and a ride to Settle would provide some more stunning scenery. We made our way up to the station, which looked like a very well done, model railway layout! It would also provide Ellie with her first train ride! The journey to Settle was indeed impressive, including the Ribblehead Viaduct and we spent the afternoon there, before returning to Appleby. The River Ribble at Settle. Footbridge and signalbox at Settle station. Close to where we stayed at Appleby was Rutter Falls, an idyllic spot with an old mill and a ford through the stream. This was Dipper country again and it wasn't long before they made an appearance. Climbing the waterfall. It was here that I came across my first young Dipper, lacking the brown belly of the adult and having an altogether scaly appearance. After a while, both adult Dippers showed together, on top of the waterfall. Sharing the same stretch of water were a pair of Grey Wagtails and again, they had produced young. Young Grey Wagtail. This is just a small part of what we saw in good weather, as we made our way to Ullswater and spent time in the Lake District. Ullswater.
Helen Keough
2/7/2016 12:42:21 pm
lovely photos of the dippers, nice to talk this morning! Comments are closed.
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