From Cumberland to Cumbria

An account of the first physical contact between CBC and CBOC - in the form of visiting birder Barry Lancaster. This account appeared in CBOC Newsletter, Vol. 22, no. 22 (Sept/Oct 2000). It has been slightly modified for publication here.)

As you all know, the Cumberland Bird Observers Club, NSW, has twinned up with the Cumbria Bird Club. I happened to be visiting to Cumbria in July so Tony Dymond asked me to present our CBOC credentials to Roy Atkins, Chairman of the Cumbria Bird Club. One of the reasons why I joined CBOC was because I was born in Cumbria (or Cumberland as it then was). Cumbria is a special place, as is the Shire of Cumberland or Sydney where I now live.

Cumbria for those not sure of their geography is at the top left hand side of England against the Scottish border. It is also the English Lake District, a place of astounding natural beauty. It is one of the best places in England for birding and has the only pair of Golden Eagles in England.

I went to the remote valley behind Haweswater which the Golden Eagles call home and got great views of the Eagles. From February through October the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds mount a 24-hour watch over the Eagles. When I visited they had three people on duty and another up on a high ridge. They were set up with telescopes for members of the public to view the Eagles. I met Dave Shackleton at the RSPB viewing point; Dave is also a committee member of CBC.

On Wednesday 26th July I went to meet Roy Atkins and another committee member Jeremy Roberts. Roy lives in a magic little cottage at the edge of a large wood in the countryside just outside Carlisle. Carlisle is the county town of Cumbria and has a long history - mostly of turning back Scots invaders. Hadrian started his wall at Carlisle and on one of the few occasions that the Scots didn’t get turned back the city was occupied by Bonnie Prince Charlie and his Jacobites.

The brief time we spent in Roy’s garden yielded ten birds, with a first for me - a Goldcrest. There was also a Great Spotted Woodpecker. But every time the woodpecker appeared I was looking the other way. We quickly dispatched the business of handing over credentials - Roy on the left above. Then Roy and Jeremy kindly took me for a day of birding.

Cumbria has a large coastline with the Irish Sea, and Carlisle is right at the start of the Solway Firth. The area including the southern coastline of Cumbria on Morecambe Bay is a great place for shore birds and waders. However the tides were not right so we left the sea for another day. For Aussie readers: just a little anecdote about English, and particularly Cumbrian, weather. Where I was born we were about 14 kilometres (in those days it was and still is in Cumbria miles) from the coast but we were high enough to be able to see the Solway and the Irish Sea. A fair way out in the Irish Sea is the Isle of Man. The Isle of Man was used to predict the weather. The rule went like this: If you can see the Isle of Man it’s going to rain ; if you can’t it is raining . . .

On that day we could have seen the Isle of Man so we quickly headed off for the River Esk in the northern part of Cumbria. On the way we stopped by some ponds near Longtown and saw 10 species. There were lots of Coot but among the 10 we also saw Mute Swans, Great Crested Grebe, a Buzzard and a Sedge Warbler. In England the birds are much more wary of people than they seem to be in Australia or other countries. Roy reckons that the birds of today are the descendants of survivors from the time when the local squire and landed gentry shot at anything that moved. That probably also included some of my ancestors.

We then moved on to the River Esk which at this stage in its journey is winding its way through some of Cumbria’s best farming country. The river attracts waders and shorebirds because it is not far from the sea. Let’s face it - in England, nowhere is really far from anywhere. On and around the river we saw 30 species which ranged from a Kingfisher to a Linnet, also included was a Goosander, Snipe, Common Sandpiper, Redshank, Willow Warbler and, for that season, a not-so-common Common Gull. We also saw some Stoats foraging and playing along the river bank. Stoats are small mammals, I think, of the polecat family. It was good to see those beautiful little creatures again.

The Esk starts its journey in Scotland and we next did a bit of invading by going up to Scotland to look for Hen Harriers. For the purposes of this article (being about Cumbria) we will refer to Langholm Moor and Tarras Water, where we went in search of the Hen Harriers, as ‘Far North Cumbria’ or FNC. We did a lot of scanning of the moors and managed to see seven other species including a Stonechat, a Whinchat and a Buzzard - the latter with three juveniles still calling to be fed - but no Hen Harriers. I was probably looking in the wrong direction again.

We were about to give up and leave FNC when we were rewarded with a male Hen Harrier hunting over the top of the valley. He vanished over the horizon but soon re-appeared with prey to vanish over the horizon on the other side. He wasn’t away long because he was soon back minus prey to search for more for an obviously hungry brood.

I had a great day, and we saw 57 species. I would like to thank Roy and Jeremy for driving me around some great spots in Cumbria and FNC and for putting up with a ‘Birdo’ who was unable to look in the right direction for a Woodpecker.

Barry Lancaster

An account of the first physical contact between CBC and CBOC - in the form of visiting birder Barry Lancaster. This account appeared in CBOC Newsletter, Vol. 22, no. 22 (Sept/Oct 2000). It has been slightly modified for publication here.)

As you all know, the Cumberland Bird Observers Club, NSW, has twinned up with the Cumbria Bird Club. I happened to be visiting to Cumbria in July so Tony Dymond asked me to present our CBOC credentials to Roy Atkins, Chairman of the Cumbria Bird Club. One of the reasons why I joined CBOC was because I was born in Cumbria (or Cumberland as it then was). Cumbria is a special place, as is the Shire of Cumberland or Sydney where I now live.

Cumbria for those not sure of their geography is at the top left hand side of England against the Scottish border. It is also the English Lake District, a place of astounding natural beauty. It is one of the best places in England for birding and has the only pair of Golden Eagles in England.

I went to the remote valley behind Haweswater which the Golden Eagles call home and got great views of the Eagles. From February through October the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds mount a 24-hour watch over the Eagles. When I visited they had three people on duty and another up on a high ridge. They were set up with telescopes for members of the public to view the Eagles. I met Dave Shackleton at the RSPB viewing point; Dave is also a committee member of CBC.

On Wednesday 26th July I went to meet Roy Atkins and another committee member Jeremy Roberts. Roy lives in a magic little cottage at the edge of a large wood in the countryside just outside Carlisle. Carlisle is the county town of Cumbria and has a long history - mostly of turning back Scots invaders. Hadrian started his wall at Carlisle and on one of the few occasions that the Scots didn’t get turned back the city was occupied by Bonnie Prince Charlie and his Jacobites.

The brief time we spent in Roy’s garden yielded ten birds, with a first for me - a Goldcrest. There was also a Great Spotted Woodpecker. But every time the woodpecker appeared I was looking the other way. We quickly dispatched the business of handing over credentials - Roy on the left above. Then Roy and Jeremy kindly took me for a day of birding.

Cumbria has a large coastline with the Irish Sea, and Carlisle is right at the start of the Solway Firth. The area including the southern coastline of Cumbria on Morecambe Bay is a great place for shore birds and waders. However the tides were not right so we left the sea for another day. For Aussie readers: just a little anecdote about English, and particularly Cumbrian, weather. Where I was born we were about 14 kilometres (in those days it was and still is in Cumbria miles) from the coast but we were high enough to be able to see the Solway and the Irish Sea. A fair way out in the Irish Sea is the Isle of Man. The Isle of Man was used to predict the weather. The rule went like this: If you can see the Isle of Man it’s going to rain ; if you can’t it is raining . . .

On that day we could have seen the Isle of Man so we quickly headed off for the River Esk in the northern part of Cumbria. On the way we stopped by some ponds near Longtown and saw 10 species. There were lots of Coot but among the 10 we also saw Mute Swans, Great Crested Grebe, a Buzzard and a Sedge Warbler. In England the birds are much more wary of people than they seem to be in Australia or other countries. Roy reckons that the birds of today are the descendants of survivors from the time when the local squire and landed gentry shot at anything that moved. That probably also included some of my ancestors.

We then moved on to the River Esk which at this stage in its journey is winding its way through some of Cumbria’s best farming country. The river attracts waders and shorebirds because it is not far from the sea. Let’s face it - in England, nowhere is really far from anywhere. On and around the river we saw 30 species which ranged from a Kingfisher to a Linnet, also included was a Goosander, Snipe, Common Sandpiper, Redshank, Willow Warbler and, for that season, a not-so-common Common Gull. We also saw some Stoats foraging and playing along the river bank. Stoats are small mammals, I think, of the polecat family. It was good to see those beautiful little creatures again.

The Esk starts its journey in Scotland and we next did a bit of invading by going up to Scotland to look for Hen Harriers. For the purposes of this article (being about Cumbria) we will refer to Langholm Moor and Tarras Water, where we went in search of the Hen Harriers, as ‘Far North Cumbria’ or FNC. We did a lot of scanning of the moors and managed to see seven other species including a Stonechat, a Whinchat and a Buzzard - the latter with three juveniles still calling to be fed - but no Hen Harriers. I was probably looking in the wrong direction again.

We were about to give up and leave FNC when we were rewarded with a male Hen Harrier hunting over the top of the valley. He vanished over the horizon but soon re-appeared with prey to vanish over the horizon on the other side. He wasn’t away long because he was soon back minus prey to search for more for an obviously hungry brood.

I had a great day, and we saw 57 species. I would like to thank Roy and Jeremy for driving me around some great spots in Cumbria and FNC and for putting up with a ‘Birdo’ who was unable to look in the right direction for a Woodpecker.

Barry Lancaster