Walking the Westies

Took the camera with me this morning when walking the Westies, the main reason for this was the fact that we had had the first real frost of the season, and I was hoping for some good shots. Its better if there has been a mist with the frost, but not this morning. So the following photos are just a general sample of the walk.

Looking S-E  towards the big house, the frost beginning to melt as the sun took over.

Clear blue sky and a white frost make for good walking days, looking N-E , the tree in the photo is an Ash, which has taken some punishment from wind over the years, bur I haven't seen any sign of Ash die back.

And a few pics of the little Westies on the top track.

Misty & Kyfer

Kyfer scanning the field

Frost on Nettle

Sycamore caught on wire, also caught the frost.

Shadow fun.

A wander through Lowther

Lowther estate is just a 15min ride from Penrith, and as the sun was shinning yet again !! decided to make the most and have a drive over to see how their Autumn colours are progressing. As can be seen they haven't peaked yet but they are getting there, and when the sun is out they look good.
       

 The first two photos are looking across and area of estate parkland.

 This church lies within the estate       

                                                                                                                                                                   

The river was swollen and running fast after all the rain we have had.

And in the church yard evidence of a kill, probably Sparrowhawk, hadn't been there long as the feathers where still dry, and only hours earlier there had been rain, the victim, Woodpigeon

The first of various views of the castle

 

Lowther Castle.

Maidenhair Spleenwort growing on the church wall

And lastly two more views looking across the park.

 

More From Borrowdale

Blease Fell, Blencathra

The sun was shinning fitfully today, so knowing that bad weather was on the way in the next few days, I decided to make a move.  I drove over to Borrowdale, stopping on the A66 to take these two pics of Blencathra .

Blencathra

I drove through Keswick and on to the Borrowdale road pulling in for my first stop at Big wood. Big wood is on the left hand side of the road and Derwentwater is on the left, as you leave Keswick. The wood itself starts by the side of the road, on fairly level ground to start with, then on to steep ground, and eventually up into the gullies and west facing crags of Walla Crag, (an easy height to remember, 1234 feet)

A view in Big Wood from the drive,

unfortunately nearly all the land in Borrowdale belongs to the National Trust, and they now charge people for every car-park and pull-in all round the lake. Now for none members of the trust wanting to do a drive round, and just pull in for the occasional photo this could become quite costly at a minimum charge of £1 for 30 mins.

Ashness Bridge and Skiddaw in the distance

Ashness bridge.

Looking over Derwentwater, with just a glimpse of Bassenthwaite lake beyond.

The lake is very high at the moment after all the rain, and the reed beds and the island are swamped. The Ladore landing can be seen, and it was just off these landings that the Great-crested Grebe built its nest earlier in the year,(pictures in an earlier post)

I spent a bit of time wandering through Ashness woods, the Bracken in places is looking very good, having turned to various shades of brown and gold, with just a hint of the summer green hanging on.

One of the many small streams that make there way down to the lake.

Birch Polypore, a young bracket fungus on Silver Birch.

And lastly the web of a spider that I think belongs to the Amaurobios family of spiders .The spider hides in the crack on the trunk of this tree, till an unsuspecting victim lands on the web. There is also quite  bit of other life in this shot, mosses and lichens

A ride over to Derwentwater

Looking down Derwentwater into the jaws of Borrowdale, the weather wasn't  good in fact at times the lake looked quite stormy.

I go over to see my mate Les and have a good chat, and at the same time take a few pickies. I also took the Westies with me so they had an enjoyable run around as well.

I found this small group of Mallard sheltering from the wind.

And another small group near the Isthmus

Still a few tourist about braving the weather, as one of the launches heads off down the lake.

The Autumn colours are beginning to show, if only we could have some sun.

The Annie Mellor just returning from a trip round the lake.

Almost there.

Silver Birch which looked good but would have been better for some sun.

Buzzards on the patch

The weather was fantastic today, blue sky and lots of warm sun. I had already been out with the westies first thing, and so after doing a few jobs in the house I was out again wandering round the patch.

There was very little on the ponds of the Thacka beck reserve, I counted 5 moorhens and 3 Mallard just about visible in the sedge.

There was a couple of juveniles sharing the water with adults

And one of the adults

During the setting up of the reserve quite a bit of tree planting was done including a fair amount of Rowen

The trees are still quite young but are bearing a lot of fruit this year, all good feeding for the birds.

I slowly made my way up to the flash area, and soon picked up a Buzzard which seemed to have just lifted from near the remains of the flash. I watched it until it drifted off over the M6. As you can imagine due to the severe persecution of Buzzards in our area I was delighted to see this bird.
     However things where to get better, as I scanned the Electric pylons I picked out another sitting on a pylon within the Newton Rigg land, (this bird really must have a death wish). As I watched, it lifted off and headed down towards the flash area, and just as it was about land in the field, unbelievably a third Buzzard came up to meet it. I have never seen so many over the patch in years. I lost track of one but did follow one of the two, which finely headed off towards the Beacon.

A few distant shots of the one that headed for the Beacon.

 

It was great to see them again,I hope they can stay free of guns and traps!!!!.

And lastly little misty just after I had sheared her, this is the first time I have given the westies a hair cut myself.