We woke to a beautiful warm and sunny morning and I celebrating by cooking a fry up on the Camping Gaz BBQ.
After a relaxed breakfast in the sun we wandered out for a walk through the local Rather Heath woods in the hope of finding butterflies to photograph. Unfortunately there was quite a cool breeze and the sky clouded over and we narrowly avoided a heavy shower. I did glimpse a hairy dragonfly though. We haven't been here in June for a couple of years and we delighted in the mantle of lush green taken on by the woods field and hills. Buttercup, red campion, foxglove, bracken and ferns abounded. As always I find the close up details of nature amazing and spent some time examining and photographing the sori (spore bearing bodies) on the backs of the fern fronds. The luxuriant growth of lichens on trees, walls and fallen branches is indicative of the lack of pollution here. We walked as far as the lake where we found a pair of swans with three well-grown cygnets. Nuthatches were identified by their constant busy- sounding strident calls and we saw chaffinch, great tit, pheasant, magpie and crow. The wonderful bubbling song of a curlew, as it defended territory over the nearby field, stirred the soul. We see wintering flocks of these magnificent birds on the mud flats of the Humber estuary in the winter but in spring and summer they return to the uplands to breed. I am always fascinated by the way thousands of waders can find sustenance in winter estuaries without out competing each other. They all have slightly different feeding methods and different length bills enabling them to exploit different levels in the mud. Curlew, with their great scythe of a curved bill, favour the deeper layers finding juicy morsels and, perhaps, a huge lugworm delicately rinsing them in the tide and before gulping them down.
On returning from the walk we drove into Ambleside for a potter before repairing to the Langdale Chase Hotel for a wonderful afternoon tea overlooking the lake. Back at the caravan it was time for a snooze before walking out to 'The Tree' for sunset.
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