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This typifies Campfield Marsh on a late April afternoon - sun coming in at a low angle under storm clouds. A wonderful colour combination: dark grey April skies and blazing gorse. Male Great Spotted Woodpecker seems to be hording a small delicacy in hole in the tree trunk. He is already in pristine...

Campfield Marsh is quite a spectacle in May with its covering of Sea Pinks - not to mention the Gorse and May blossom along the fringes. Back to farm and estuary - we continue along the coastal road round the Cardurnock Peninsula. Within a few hundred yards of North Plain farm we arrive at the lay...

Campfield Marsh. Now we come to the 3rd part of the Blog, having dealt with accommodation issues. We can start to describe the main features of the area which is after all what you will be coming to enjoy, be it Spring, Summer or Winter. In the case of birders, winter in the Solway area is of particular...

Black-tailed Godwit. After lunch, Judith said to me,”I'll have to get into the garden. These last two days of sunshine and rain have brought everything on. “OK,” I said, “I need a walk. I'll go down the Lonning and see what's there.” Unusually there was very...

Pinkfeet against distant snow-clad Skiddaw. Wall to wall sunshine from dawn, with fluffy Constable-style clouds – completely windless. What a day! We had to go to Kirkbride so set off along the saltmarsh and within a couple of minutes ran into two Little Egrets near Biglands lay-by. They...

Newly arrived male Siskin - 30 3 13 We have to admit that over the past several weeks we have been near to hibernating. Those awful Siberian winds have been battering across the Pennines, sweeping the snowfields of the western slopes and withering the benign Solway Basin. Even the two tides per day...

Badger routings in the orchard - 24 3 13 Our house, garden and orchard lie slap in the middle of the Campfield Marsh Reserve and we take great joy in all the birds and animals that flow across us in their various pursuits. We gaze out across the meadows and moss at the back, and the saltmarsh and...

Across the Meadow Pools towards the snow clad Lakeland Fells - 20 3 13 10th March. Small flocks of Curlew are regularly appearing on the tideline. Watched this Kestrel hunting along the wetlands in front of the hide. It kept dropping down amongst the rushes but rapidly re-emerged...

Barnacles beating against the blizzard early morning, here at Campfield. Unusually, we are getting our fair share of winter. Snow has been blizzarding since early this morning and has continued unabated as we write at 3.45 pm. Wind chill factor feels like the Arctic. Even Sellafield, just round...

Keeping and eye on the Great White Egret which was fishing out on the wetland.

They seemed also to be enjoying the warmth of the sun on the metal roof of the old grain silo.

A group of Cormorants have been regularly successfully fishing here on the estuary.

One of a pair frequenting the Meadow Pools.

It had been hunting for invertebrates amongst the rushes near the hide. Unfortunately it was silhouetted against afternoon sun for viewing, but its hunting success could be clearly seen. Two young Heron joined in the affair later on, and seemed to benefitting from its trampling technique to disturb prey...

25 11 12 - Flock fly in low over the saltmarsh as they round Scargavel Point.

25th November - high tides, coupled with gale force winds, brought what seemed like the whole of the Barnacle flock from their inner estuary pastures to the outer estuary pastures of the Cardurnock Peninsula. Here they can be seen off Scargavel Point on Campfield Marsh.

Mixed flock consisting of 1050 Pink and 1250 Barnacles (including 4 leucistics) were grazing the wetland pastures which had been specially managed for them by the RSPB.

Art sketch showing the Solway as it is today. Get yourselves up here. Its quiet, the air is clean, its a haven for tired overworked people. You know you have always wanted to start birdwatching. Its really easy. Stacks of good books on the subject. You can either dabble or you can give meaning to the...