Springtime activity

A good weekend with the Mountain Rescue team annual team dinner.

Good food + dancing + sore feet for two days = a good ‘do’.

Early morning in the woods.

Next morning I took Reiver for a walk along the Derwentwater shore below Falcon Crag.  We could hear the high-pitched shriek of the peregrines that are busy preparing a nest site.  The British Mountaineering Council website lists exclusion zones that climbers are encouraged to avoid because of raptors so it’s a good reference point for information about where they can be seen.  www.thebmc.co.uk/bmccrag/  

Morning mist on Derwentwater

We continued to Ashness and back to the lake through the woods where there is a huge badger sett.   Badgers will be busy making new beds as spring is here.  Signs that badgers are in the area include well-trodden paths and little scuff holes for their droppings.  Where two territories adjoin, there will be several patches of droppings to mark the limits of each territory.  If you think you are near a badger sett and are lucky enough to find some hairs, roll a hair between your fingers and it will feel irregular rather than round – badger hairs have an angular cross-section.

Badgers lurking in the grass (Library picture)

The main job of the week was working with volunteers at Stonethwaite to strengthen the river banks.  For 20 or more years they have been protected by gabions of steel cages filled with stones.  These are now ageing and decaying so they are being replaced with willow cuttings.  A new fence will keep stock away from the banks to allow the willows to establish themselves and provide more natural protection.

Stabilising river banks with willow planting.

A sad end to the week - an 11 p.m. call out for a missing helicopter.  Tragically it was a fatality.