Uphill Struggle.

Hawthornthwaite Fell.

It was an uphill struggle to find the birds in more ways than one on Wednesday, but literally so on Hawthornthwaite. Apart from the fact the Stonechat isn't as easy to find as it was during it's upturn in status which peaked during the early 2000's, I'd got 3/4 of the climb to the peak before I found a distant pair of Stonechat, the only two seen on my visit, and at a higher elevation than Iv'e ever seen them here before. But ne'r mind....mission accomplished. 

Wren. Martin Jump. 

Four Wren on Hawthornthwaite seems to indicate a good colony, I had six seen here on 18 October, also 10 Red Grouse. 

Marshaw - Tower Lodge - Trough Bridge.

A Dipper was seen on the Marshaw Wyre with a juicy aquatic invertebrate in it's bill, but it was disappointing not to find any Grey Wagtail here today. Behind Tower Lodge, 2 Goldcrest and 2 Treecreeper seen, 3 Long-tailed Tit, Blue Tit and Great Tit, and by the time I got to Trough Bridge, 2 Nuthatch, a MistleThrush, and a Kestrel noted, 4 Red Grouse were seen from the track towards Winfold Fell. 

The last bird I expected to see as I arrived back at Marshaw was a Cormorant flying north over Marshaw Farm. On the way back to Lancaster, up to 220 Common Gull in a field at Quernmore, with a Kestrel seen on a roadside fence post.

Autumn Bowland. Pete Woodruff.