The RSPB Community

Green Tourism Gold Award for Geltsdale

Jill J — Wed, 15 May 2013 09:53:00 GMT

The Geltsdale Visitor Centre at Stagsike Cottages has successfully maintained its Green Tourism Gold Award status.

So how green is Geltsdale?

Geltsdale's managed semi-natural habitats are richer in embedded carbon than more intensively managed farmland, saving an estimated 3.3 mega-tonnes of carbon dioxide a year – the equivalent of 12% of English agricultural emissions.
Our volunteers commit around 1500 hours to the reserve per annum, repairing footpaths, planting hedgerows and planting 110,000 native trees in Bruthwaite Wood in the process
Most of the reserve is organic and grazed by sheep and cattle at low densities, preserving water quality and carbon storage.
We use local suppliers whenever possible to limit travel miles and support the local economy.
Our water supply is provided by a natural spring.
Our waste water is filtered by a reed bed to remove impurities.
We reuse old fence posts and waste wood as a fuel supply.

Fairly impressive, but we are still want to improve our performance by taking part in the RSPB's waste monitoring pilot scheme and implementing further improvements to our insulation.

Early March

ian ryding — Tue, 05 Mar 2013 14:57:43 GMT

Great weather over the last week has brought with it displaying lapwing, lekking black grouse, calling curlew, chipping snipe and singing skylarks. A young peregrine falcon this morning swooped past the visitor centre, sending all the waders skyward in a frenzy of alarm calling and mobbing. Along the trails, common lizard, dipper, roe deer and stoat have been seen and an otter was spotted on Tindale Tarn.

A Hint of Spring

pete howard — Fri, 08 Feb 2013 15:25:15 GMT

Despite some brief spells of snow over the past week or so, and some incredibly blustery and biting winds, it’s actually beginning to feel much more spring-like in any sunshine that filters through to Geltsdale. Some of the birds seem to agree too, with a reed bunting singing with abandon today, and the odd meadow pipit and skylark starting to venture up onto the hills. Flocks of over 50 lapwing have been very visible and audible around the meadows, and some golden plover are starting to investigate the higher fells. Ravens are busy nest-building.

Black grouse continue to be highly prominent around the trails, and are often to be seen sat high up in trees feeding on new buds. This must certainly be one of the best times of year to see one of our star species. Some males have again been seen ‘lekking’ on the fellside above the Visitor Centre. Short-eared owl and barn owl can now be seen hunting from mid afternoon, and woodcock are sometimes flushed whilst feeding or roosting in rushy flushes on the open fell.

In terms of rarer avian visitors, ‘our’ drake smew has been present on-and-off on Tindale Tarn since I posted the last blog (though he does seem to commute back-and-forth between here and nearby Talkin Tarn). The recent highlight, however, has to be two snow buntings. These were seen by our residential volunteer Lenny (and his Swiss birding buddy, Gavino) on the fells above his des-res accommodation at Howgill Cottages, in the north-west of the Reserve. Not quite on the ‘garden list’ though!

Andrea MJ Toth: The Flora of Memory

Jill J — Mon, 04 Feb 2013 10:13:00 GMT

An exhibition of watercolours, cyanotype prints and herbarium pages, the current exhibition, The Flora of Memory shares Canadian born artist, Andrea MJ Toth’s personal memory stories. These are reflected by collected plant speciments, each one steeped with past moments, people, places and the ideas of being. Layers of memory entwine into the spaces we inhabit, and we carry these layers within us, reconstructing them to become our identity. The intangibility of memory is suggested with the cyanotypes’ intense blue and subtle ghosting impressions, while physical memory is given through the herbarium pages of pressed plant specimens, collected in the artist’s garden, family gardens or from nearby Coalfell.

While the work is distinctive to the artist’s memories, it resonates beyond, welcoming the viewer to recall their own memories suggested by a flower, a shape or a place.

The exhibition runs at Stagsike Cottages from Saturday 9th Feburary until Friday 5th April

Snow business

pete howard — Fri, 25 Jan 2013 15:52:55 GMT

This last week has finally seen a good covering of snow here at Geltsdale, and some plummeting temperatures to boot. Our smew sadly fled the encroaching ice on the tarn on the 17^th. However, an even rarer duck, for here, has arrived, with a pair of gadwall taking up residence (the first since 2007).

The cold weather has brought some unusual visitors to the Visitor Centre garden, with regular reed buntings and even the odd snipe seeking refuge here. Although Bullfinches are expected winter arrivals, it’s still a pleasure to see parties of up to 14 feeding on dock and heather seeds in the area. Black grouse numbers are looking promising for the coming spring, with up to 12 females and 5 males seen a couple of days ago just around the Stagsike trails. Red grouse are now grouping together in large numbers, with flocks of up to 80 on the lower fells. A single waxwing was seen yesterday on the northern edge of the Reserve – about time one of these striking immigrants turned up here.

One very interesting piece of winter bird behaviour was witnessed earlier on this week. Three ravens engaged in a noisy aerial chase were seen to land on a snowy slope. They then proceeded, in turn, to ‘body board’ down through the snow with their wings open for a few metres, before running back up to repeat the exercise. With very little water remaining unfrozen, this is obviously a good way for the birds to wash and keep their plumage in good condition, and they certainly seemed to be enjoying the experience!

A thaw is forecast for the weekend (to be replaced by rain and high winds!). But even during the freeze, a dipper has been singing persistently from the beck behind the Visitor Centre – a sure sign that the days are starting to draw out, towards what we hope will be a slightly drier (and warmer) breeding season than the one we ‘enjoyed’ in 2012...

Latest sightings

pete howard — Fri, 11 Jan 2013 11:48:55 GMT

Some good birds have turned up in the last few weeks. A couple of days before Christmas a bittern was seen in flight across Tindale Tarn - actually a first for the Reserve! Unfortunately this furtive and cryptic heron has not shown itself to any observers since. Also a very handsome drake smew turned up here on Sunday, and is often to be seen very close to the viewing screen. Also this month 90 tufted ducks were counted on the tarn, which is a Reserve record tally. Small parties of whooper swans are also fairly regular visitors to the tarn, a family of 5 were present yesterday, and 2 adults today. Groups of lapwing are now increasingly seen around the Visitor Centre meadows, and golden plover have also been turing up since the New Year. A jack snipe was flushed on the north of the Reserve, and short-eared owl have also been seen (the first since the autumn) . Groups of male black grouse are often easily visible sat high up in hawthorn bushes or other trees, with the occasional female also noted.

STAFF AND VOLUNTEER CHRISTMAS BIRD RACE

pete howard — Thu, 20 Dec 2012 16:30:07 GMT

Yesterday we ran a small-scale bird race here in the morning, with two teams of 5 (mixed staff and local volunteers) competing to see the most number of species before lunch. Both teams concentrated on the north of the Reserve, one group choosing to stay on foot, the other also making use of a Landrover. The weather was somewhat chilly and dreich (Scots dialect for bleak/dreary), though luckily the rain did hold off – just! Both teams scored 30, but the combined tally was a respectable 41 (not too bad for a short, mid-winter jaunt). A number of the (usually) commoner species were strangely conspicuous by their absence – no-one saw wood pigeon, rook or house sparrow, for example! Star birds were undoubtedly 5 whooper swans on the tarn, a pair of peregrines (in co-ordinated stoops at a single lapwing, which survived!), black grouse, crossbills and stonechat.

Here is the list:

Mute swan, whooper swan, mallard, tufted duck (an impressive 68 on the tarn), teal, wigeon, goldeneye, sparrowhawk, buzzard, kestrel, peregrine, pheasant, coot, heron, lapwing, stock dove, collared dove, great spotted woodpecker, wren, dunnock, robin, stonechat, blackbird, fieldfare, long-tailed tit, coal tit, blue tit, great tit, treecreeper, magpie, jackdaw, carrion crow, raven, starling, chaffinch, goldfinch, lesser redpoll, bullfinch, crossbill.

After the race staff and volunteers assembled in the Visitor Centre kitchen to compare notes, warm up by the fire, and enjoy a veritable smorgasbord of festive fayre. Happy Christmas!

Brampton Christmas Market

Jill J — Mon, 17 Dec 2012 15:46:15 GMT

The staff at Geltsdale would like to thank the members of the public who visited our stall at Brampton Christmas Market on Saturday 15th December.

Free Black Grouse whiskey tasting was on offer plus the opportunity to buy a range of reasonably price Christmas gifts.

We would like to say a special thanks to those members of the public who decided to become RSPB members at the event.

Happy Christmas from all at Geltsdale.

Bobbing Jacks and Bubbling Grouse

pete howard — Fri, 07 Dec 2012 11:28:00 GMT

We’re well into December now, and it’s been quite a while since my last blog. We’ve had a very mixed bag of weather, from long periods of squally rain to beautifully still, ice-spiked days. Today, because of deep-frozen slush, we wardens had to leave our vehicles at the top of the access track so as not to risk taking on Geltsdale’s version of the Cresta Run which winds down to the Visitor Centre.

Quite a few things of interest to report on the bird front. In mid November a party of 7 snow buntings were seen on one of the Fell tops. There are doubtless many more groups of these attractive Montane buntings that simply go unnoticed because so few people climb the North Pennine Fells at this time of year. There have also been a few jack snipe seen in the past few weeks. One of these was flushed from the track up to Cold Fell summit at an altitude of about 500m! This is highly unusual, since, if you read the books, these secretive winter visitors are not supposed to be found above about 300m. Perhaps this was a late migrant, just touching down en route to its wintering grounds further to the south. Jack snipe breed up in Northern Fenno-Scandinavia and Siberia, and winter in a wide swathe across Western and Southern Europe and even into Trans-Saharan Africa. These diminutive snipe (less than half the weight of our common snipe) are usually very inconspicuous as they skulk in densely vegetated wetlands. If you are lucky enough to spot one out in the open you will notice that they have a much shorter bill than their cousin, and also lack the central crown stripe. They also bob up and down continuously, rather as if their legs have been cunningly spring-loaded! Usually, though, the only view you get of one is when it flushes from almost under your feet, and arcs away silently to some thick cover nearby.

Black grouse have been prominent here of late, with groups of up to 5 grey hens (females) and 4 males regular around the Stagsike trails. We’ve even had a couple of solitary males displaying in the last few days. The gurgling and hissing calls of lekking birds are, of course, mainly to be heard in Spring, and, to a lesser degree, in the Autumn. Mid-winter bubbling is quite unusual, and is a most welcome sound to enliven a bleak day.

Other birds of note include a herd of 16 whooper swan and a water rail around the tarn, an unprecedentedly large winter flock of around 200 golden plover high up on the fells, a number of woodcock sightings, and two regular barn owls, often out hunting from early afternoon.

With winter now well and truly here, we await our first smew on the tarn – since this is usually one of the best places in Cumbria to see this most attractive of wildfowl. I wonder what sort of Yuletide weather we have in store...

Black Grouse Lek Exhibition at Stagsike Visitor Centre

Jill J — Wed, 28 Nov 2012 12:08:00 GMT

The Stagsike gallery is currently hosting an exciting new exhibition, which will continue until the end of January 2013 by David Williams of Calico Images.

Dublin born David has been taking photographs since the age of 12 when his father gave him his first camera. David moved to Barnard Castle in 1987 and continued with his passion of wildlife photography.

The exhibition at Geltsdale is a collection of David's stunning Black Grouse Lek photographs. All of the images on display are signed, high quality Giclée prints on heavyweight archival fine art paper, and many of those on show are also limited editions. Running alongside the exhibition there is also a selection of cards, calendars and gifts, with 15% of all proceeds going to the reserve.

If you are passing Geltsdale's Visitor Centre pop in and take a look. The video below gives you a taste of David's exhibition.

(Please visit the site to view this video)

Visit from St Bede's RC Primary School Carlisle

Jill J — Mon, 19 Nov 2012 15:46:04 GMT

On Thursday 15th November 26 primary school children and their teacher Care Wilson, ventured out to RSPB Geltsdale to study wildlife habitats and food chains.

The children really enjoyed their day, dissecting owl pellets and and identifying the small mammal bones within and also learning new bird identification and watching skills at Tindale Tarn.

" Thank you for such a great day. The children thoroughly enjoyed the activities and came away full of enthusiasm. Both sessions reinforced our learning in the classroom and gave it extra depth"

Clare Wilson Teacher St Bede's

" I enjoyed pulling the pellets open and looking at the bones. I found out that there are five types of owl - long eared owl, short eared owl, barn owl, little owl and the tawny owl "

Connor Pupil St Bede's School

The reserve would like to thank our volunteers, Ron & Lisa who's support was vital to the success of the day and enabled the visit to take place.

We look forward to St Bede's visiting us next year as part of their wildlife studies.

whoopers and natterer's

pete howard — Thu, 01 Nov 2012 15:12:39 GMT

Well, it’s November already! Since my last post we’ve endured a lot more of the wet stuff and one very brief flurry of snow – though who knows what this winter holds in store for us? Birdwise, we’ve had a number of parties of whooper swans (up to 11) around the Tarn, and the duck numbers continue to increase. A few nice flocks of lapwing (50-110) have been on the move, some pausing here for a brief respite. Blackgrouse(both cocks and hens) continue to show well around the visitor trails, with 6 females regularly sitting in hawthorns above the Visitor Centre. In the Gelt valley, there was a group of 3 late ring ouzels on 23^rd October. Fieldfares and redwings have now arrived en masse, feeding on invertebrates in the pastures and on the few remaining berries. And good news on the owl front – the barn owl is now roosting in the attic of the Visitor Centre and can be watched via a live camera feed. This is the first time since the arctic winter of 2009-10 that a bird has actually occupied the roof box. Also, a long-eared owl was seen last week roosting in hawthorns in an area of the Reserve where they bred successfully in 2011.

There has been a quite lot of bat activity logged here recently. Recording equipment was set up overnight at two different old lime kilns, and we were astounded by the number bat sounds recorded. One of the sites produced a total of 4,900 files of bat noise! These turned out to be mostly Pipistrelles and Soprano pips, but also quite a bit of Myotis species calls (which, on further analysis, proved to be Natterer’s). Not bad for the end of October!

Anyone planning a visit to the area might be interested to know that Geltsdale Visitor Centre at Stagsike Cottages is currently hosting an exhibition of paintings by north Cumbrian Artist, Colin Henderson. Colin has exhibited with the National Exhibition of Wildlife Artists, and is showing paintings of British birdlife, together with a few African scenes. The exhibition is free, and runs until the end of November.

Waxcaps and Jackdaws

pete howard — Thu, 18 Oct 2012 10:40:00 GMT

After our first few sharp frosts, it’s definitely looking much more autumnal here now. On the bird front, we’ve now had the first flush of fieldfares and redwings passing through the Reserve, and the first few goldeneye have recently appeared on the Tarn. Last week there was a notable westward passage of jackdaws passing over Geltsdale through what’s known as the ‘Tyne Gap’. Movement seemed to be strongest in the mornings, with up to 900 an hour noted. The birds were mainly using the rising air columns of thermals as stepping stones to the west. Quite a spectacle! Some passage passerines are still turning up, with ring ouzels, chiff chaffs, goldcrests and a wheatear all seen in the past week. Blackgrouse are still prominent around the trails, and other good recent sightings include a male hen harrier, merlin and short-eared owl.

On Monday Geltsdale staff teamed up with the North Pennines AONB (under the expert guidance of Andy McLay) to search for waxcap on the Reserve. These distinctive and often colourful fungi are good indicators of unimproved ancient grassland. During the course of the morning we found 14 species, including the Pink (a Cumbria BAP species - see photo), the Parrot, the Crimson and the Honey waxcaps. Seventeen species is apparently the benchmark to mark the site as being of National Importance, so another visit or two could well bring Geltsdale to fungal prominence!

Early October update

pete howard — Fri, 05 Oct 2012 14:53:41 GMT

It’s been another very wet and soggy couple of weeks here at Geltsdale, but at least it’s still fairly mild (with only one sharp frost). And we must be grateful that we did avoid the extreme flooding that they had to endure further East. Sightings of summer visitors continue around the Reserve, with stonechats, chiff chaffs and ring ouzels all seen in recent days. Finches and tits are now gathering into large foraging flocks, often many scores together. We’re still waiting for redwings and fieldfares to appear, though mistle thrushes are often to be seen in double figure parties.

We’ve had our first couple of early Jack snipe (seen on the Eastern side of the Reserve), and there are still plenty of flocks of Lapwing moving around. Pink-footed geese skeins are occasionally spotted, and the first flock of Barnacle geese were seen passing over towards the Solway last week.

Black grouse are becoming more visible now, with groups of both males and females seen around the visitor trails recently. On the Tarn there have been a few more ducks around, with Pochard and Teal prominent. Last week a Water rail was heard squealing from next to the Tarn screen. And finally a Barn owl has started to roost in the barn near the Visitor Centre – hopefully it will over-winter successfully and find a mate in time for the spring.

Autumn crossover

pete howard — Fri, 21 Sep 2012 14:09:12 GMT

Well, there’s been a distinct chill in the air this week, plus some very wet weather. Yet there are still a decent variety of summer visitors with us here in the North Pennines. A number of chiff chaff, wheatear, ring ouzel and blackcap have all been seen around the Geltsdale Reserve in the last week. There has also been a large movement of meadow pipits through the Reserve in recent days. Today we also had our latest record of a spotted flycatcher – a juvenile seen catching a leaf (perhaps mistaking it for a butterfly/moth??).

These summer migrants have overlapped with a good assortment of winter visitors. Numerous skeins of Pink-footed geese have been observed heading west towards the Solway, and on Tindale Tarn we’ve had our first (very early) whooper swans, plus groups of pochard, pintails, teal, wigeon, tufties and goosander. The Tarn even hosted a drake common scoter on the 7^th of September – a very rare inland record for Cumbria. Today we also saw our first 4 bramblings of the winter season – in fact the earliest autumn record for the Reserve in recent times.

It’ll be very interesting to see what the next couple of weeks bring us – both in the way of weather and wildlife!

Whinchats still here

Stephen W RSPB — Wed, 05 Sep 2012 10:47:58 GMT

Sunny weather this morning, good numbers of small birds out feeding, mainly seen from the woodland trail. Best bird was a whinchat, an adult male, that had been colour-ringed nearby in early June. It bred successfully and was seen with fledged juveniles in early July. I had assumed all our breeding whinchats had moved off and we were seeing migrants moving through now. There was another whinchat in the area along with several stonechats, on female stonechat still had three young juveniles from her third brood trying to beg food from her. Other birds seen included a whitetroat (rare on the reserve), a couple of willow warblers, a chiffchaff, reed buntings, redpolls and meadow pipits.

In the past few days six black grouse have been seen, all males and a merlin flew past the visitor centre.

Moth trapping on Monday night produced only eight moths in total, but did include a new species for the reserve, garden dart. Peacock and small tortoiseshell butterflies are out, if the wind dies down, and a painted lady had been seen on the edge of the reserve.

A flock of paintings

ian ryding — Tue, 14 Aug 2012 10:49:37 GMT

A great new exhibition by Northumberland painter Christina Mingard is currently on show at the visitor centre.

End of July

ian ryding — Tue, 24 Jul 2012 09:02:05 GMT

With the extremely wet weather recently it seems that a number of whinchats have decided enough is enough and have started to head south. Birds that were on eggs during the worst of the weather managed to see it through and are busy feeding young. Kestrels have managed to fledge 32 young from 14 nests and can be seen hunting around all of the trails. A few small broods of black grouse have been flushed around the Howgill area. Some ring ouzels appear to be nesting for the third time! A young osprey visited Tindale Tarn for an afternoon last week.

Mid June

ian ryding — Tue, 26 Jun 2012 14:52:12 GMT

This week we have ringed chicks from two merlin nests, each nest occupying three chicks. 82 whinchat chicks have also been ringed!

Torrential rain over the weekend came just as nests were full of hungry chicks and it appears many adult birds have struggled to find food. Stonechats, whinchats, spotted flycatchers and common gull nests have all failed. Out of 25 whinchat nests only 10 still have young, a huge 60% failure.

Notable sightings include water rail at Tindale Tarn, Red Kite on the Gairs Trail and a Hobby on the eastern edge of the reserve by the Northumberland border.

Woolgathering

ian ryding — Fri, 22 Jun 2012 16:57:51 GMT

We have a fantastic new installation in the visitor centre by artist Jenny Purrett.

In this exhibition, the artist has sheared several fleeces. These have been carefully separated and felted back together into a thin, veil-like fabric. Alongside these huge sheets, she presents a series of meticulous pastel drawings in which she examines the subtleties of the colour and the rhythm of the curl in small fragments of wool.

A great exhibition to coincide with sheep shearing time across Cumbria.

The Ruffled Edge

ian ryding — Thu, 10 May 2012 14:12:29 GMT

The Ruffled Edge: Notes from a Nature Warden is the first book written by Geltsdale warden Pete Howard. The book is a selection of lively and vivid memoirs that take the reader on an eye opening journey though some of the most interesting and diverse habitats of Britain. Inspired in part by his work at RSPB Geltsdale, his new book recounts exhilarating and intimate encounters with its wildlife, especially birds.

The book is available at the Geltsdale Visitor Centre, local bookshops and the usual internet bookshops.

http://www.bramblebybooks.co.uk/ruffled_edge.asp

Cuckoo

ian ryding — Wed, 02 May 2012 11:27:53 GMT

First cuckoo and whinchats arrived on 1st May!

A pair of ring ouzels flew by the visitor centre yesterday.

Martin and Amanda, our two volunteers found an abandoned stonechat nest yesterday, a casualty of the cold weather suffered at the weekend when the windchill took the daytime temperature to around -5.

late April

ian ryding — Mon, 23 Apr 2012 14:43:09 GMT

First grasshopper warblers have been heard today (23rd)! Lapwing, stonechat, grey wagtail and snipe nests have all been found over the last few days.

March / early April

ian ryding — Tue, 03 Apr 2012 09:56:13 GMT

Rain at last!

Recent sightings include short eared owls displaying, ring ouzels (first on 23rd) and wheatears(first 19th). Ravens with young, peregrines and merlins both on territory. Dippers and grey wagtails both on eggs. Stonechats singing around the visitor centre and lapwings beginning to sit on the meadow. Adder and common lizzards both seen basking in the spring sunshine.

Sheepfolds of Bruthwaite

ian ryding — Thu, 08 Mar 2012 14:41:00 GMT

We have a great new exhibition starting this week focusing on the sheepfolds around the reserve. Janet Lambert, a resident of Hallbankgate, has spent several years researching the history and documenting these fascinating drystone structures which scatter the Geltsdale landscape.