The Delights of Spring

While there was a hard winter, March and spring has been a good one thus far. The last week has been delightful. I have been seeing the signs of Spring bursting out all over. From Daffodils flowering to catkins appearing and the leaves bursting from dormant trees and hedges. As I am now living in Sheep country, the lambs too.

Therefore with the combination of some great weather and my need to travel into Consett twice this week, I had the delight of seeing how spring is developing on the Dales. The journey to and from Consett is a wonderful little bus trip across the high fells of Durham making you feel that you are moving through a living painting. This is however a living and working landscape, hard upland farming country, where sheep farming is the way that the land is used and farmed. While there is also some cattle here too, the traditional hardy breeds, the winters are to hard and the wind to brisk for anything other than sheep.

That also makes it a very good habitat for upland species of birds, and Lapwings are the bird that I see most frequently. During the winter they were flocking together scratching a living on the fields and fells, but now they are pairing and nesting. As a ground nesting bird, the isolation of the location means they are left undisturbed. Hence from the bus, the road, it is possible to see them sitting on the nest.

Further, it is possible to see other birds such as Curlew, Skylarks, Red Grouse and Partridge. During the late winter I even saw a Great Grey Shrike, a first for me, and a small flock of Snow Buntings.

However the sightings that has been most remarkable is of the hares. While I have seen hares before, they have been rare and often at a distance. Here, I have been seeing them more often than I have rabbits. While I was not expecting it though, I have discovered that there is a Badger sett near to me too. It was a pleasant surprise to find that and I may latter in the year go looking and watching, but it takes time to get to understand the layout and dynamics of a Badger Social Group, and it could be that they are more cautious of humans than were the ones I was watching before I moved.

The last sighting that I have had that is worthy of note was possibly an Osprey. I say possibly as I really did not expect to see her and it was at a distance and in poor light. I had gone out before sunrise to watch the passage of the International Space Station. Something had reminded me to look up sighting opportunities and while I had missed one good one, there was an even better one coming up. So I went out and I was in luck as the sky was as clear as a bell, and yes I did see the ISS. I had walked to a hill top close by to view the ISS and I was feeling cold but elated. As the sun cast its early light in the sky I spotted what looked like an Eagle. In the early light I initially thought that it could be a Golden Eagle.

But the more I thought about the location and situation, a Golden Eagle just did not seem likely. The more I thought about the situation, the geography and the likely hood was it would be an Osprey. Even at this distance, I could see she looked like an Osprey. It would have been a female as they are normally the first to migrate and while it seemed a little early, she appeared to be flying between two reservoirs that for her would have been feeding stations. Where was she heading? I just don’t know, but to see one in Early April was remarkable.