Last week, over half term, I went away for a few days to Keswick in the Lake district. We did loads of hill walking and enjoyed the wildlife we saw. On the way back I visited  the Ospreys at Bassenthwaite (click for link to live feeds).  We went to both viewing stations and saw both of the adult ospreys and the first chick that had just hatched in the nest. The RSPB volunteers there had named it Gale. One of the adults brought in a trout and dumped it in the nest. It then went to sit on a post a little way away. Luckily the telescopes at the viewing points were really good as I could only just make out little dots through my binoculars.

There are two viewing points in Dodd Wood the Lower and Upper (below) and in between there’s a beautiful walk with a river and coniferous woodland.

Below is a picture of the bright green soft new needles on the tips of the branches of a pine tree.

On the way back from the viewing points I saw this garden warbler and managed to take this picture. As you can see it was singing madly.

And after that I saw this ChiffChaff at the top of a tree. Unfortunately we didn’t see any red squirrels which are fairly common in Dodd Wood.