Lake District. An ecological desert?

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sh1kar

sh1kar

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Spending a few days up here. Walked several miles around Hellvelyn, Fairfield, Grizedale Tarn area yesterday. Total fauna seen. Sheep. Skein pinks in far distance and a Ked. Flora mainly bracken and grass. Even in Grasmere later didn’t even see any sparrows despite crumbs on tables outside Tea room. Where has everything gone? I am sure it wasn’t like this in 70s when I used to yomp round here
S
 
If you get the chance, read James Rebank's book "English Pastoral", a stunning read and identifies what has gone wrong and what can be done to improve the diversity..... much better than the twaddle written by George Monbiot et al. Mind you, the last time I was down in the lakes there was plenty of bird life, but maybe they were all having a quiet day! Or as Waz77 said - too many people!
 
I think the main issues (Carl's predilections aside) are highlighted above, most of the main tourist areas of the Lakes feature amazing landscape vistas but are basically huge grazing grounds for sheep coupled with sometimes alarming levels of people often queuing to gain access to some of the more popular walking routes. I live on the fringes of the National Park and believe me there is plenty of wildlife to see in the many less frequented areas and pockets of varied habitat including woodlands, marshes, coastal and many harder to reach lakeside areas.
 
Yes that was my conclusion too. All the Herdies. But I would at least thought would have seen the odd BoP or even corvids. Nothing. Last time I was at Grizedale Tarn I saw a Norther Diver!
S
 
sh1kar said:
Yes that was my conclusion too. All the Herdies. But I would at least thought would have seen the odd BoP or even corvids. Nothing. Last time I was at Grizedale Tarn I saw a Norther Diver!
S
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No birds of prey, if nothing to eat. Just shows as bop increase and other birds decrease in the end there will be sod all for the RSPB to talk about.
 
I live in the Lakes and we have an abundance of bird life, from song birds to corvids and birds of pray. I hear Owls most nights. Wildlife includes Reds and Roe, fox, badger, rabbits, Hares. The biggest problem is not sheep but Bracken Ferns. Looking out of my window it covers most of the Fell above the "Fell Wall". In the summer is grows up to 2m high out growing anything else and when it dies back it leaves a brown/red blanket over everything.
Then there is the National Trust who's ideas are turning good land into unusable wetlands and scrub.
 
sh1kar said:
Actually I did see two Ospreys flying over Grasmere. But they had propellers!!
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They flew over me at work too! I cant agree that it is an ecological desert as on this mornings walk I saw roe and red deer, hare a fox, jays, buzzard and a real osprey (no propellers!). I agree the high fells are less crowded with wildlife than scottish hills but there are plenty of deer around in the Lakes
 
If you want to see even less birds go to the RSPB reserve at Sandy where their headquarters are. Last summer my partner and I went over for a walk round 2 Crows a Pigeon and then a guy in a state of excitement with his binos up said “If you look over their you can see a greenfinch!” I didn’t have the heart to say I could see more birds in my back garden or a lot more in one walk up the edge of our game shoots cover crop
 
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