Geltsdale

Blog post: 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.

Photo: Drake Smew

johnniew — Sun, 17 Feb 2013 11:04:00 GMT

Good views of the Smew through scopes but still a bit far off for the 500mm lens on my DSLR!

Blog post: 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

Blog post: Brampton Christmas Market

Jill J — Mon, 17 Dec 2012 15:46:00 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.

Blog post: 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)

Blog post: Visit from St Bede's RC Primary School Carlisle

Jill J — Mon, 19 Nov 2012 15:46:00 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.

Photo: Autumn Evening Sunshine over Geltsdale

Jill J — Wed, 14 Nov 2012 15:42:00 GMT

Photo: Woodland Trail View

johnniew — Sun, 04 Nov 2012 11:41:00 GMT

The extra height of the Woodland Trail gives spectacular views to the north and, as here, to the west towards Howgill and Talkin Fell.

Photo: Tindale Tarn Viewpoint

johnniew — Sun, 04 Nov 2012 11:38:00 GMT

This is the view from the seat at the tarn screen. The water was unusually high although that has been the case a lot of time this year!

Photo: Clesketts View

johnniew — Sun, 04 Nov 2012 11:35:00 GMT

Beautiful late evening sun over Clesketts Beck. The low angle of the sun brings out the contours of the scene.

Forum post: Winter Ducks

johnniew — Mon, 15 Oct 2012 14:20:00 GMT

1st Goldeneye of the season on the tarn yesterday. Could n't tell if it was immature or female as, like most birds, it was favouring the far side of the tarn!

Blog post: A flock of paintings

ian ryding — Tue, 14 Aug 2012 10:49:00 GMT

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

Blog post: Woolgathering

ian ryding — Fri, 22 Jun 2012 16:57:00 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.

Blog post: The Ruffled Edge

ian ryding — Thu, 10 May 2012 14:12:00 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

Blog post: Cuckoo

ian ryding — Wed, 02 May 2012 11:27:00 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.

Photo: Wheatear

jonny — Mon, 30 Apr 2012 16:25:00 GMT

Taken on my first visit 2011

Photo: Black Swan

johnniew — Mon, 30 Apr 2012 14:08:00 GMT

The Infamous Black swan of Tindale tarn!

Forum post: recent post

jonny — Wed, 11 Apr 2012 16:46:00 GMT

Apologies to all for missing the T out of GELTSDALE!

Forum post: Re: Taken on my first visit to gelsdale last year.

doggie — Wed, 11 Apr 2012 13:41:00 GMT

Wow Jonny just had to say that is a cracking photo.

Forum post: Another pic taken last year,hope to visit again soon:)

jonny — Wed, 11 Apr 2012 13:35:00 GMT