March 16th, 2010
We’ve seen them occasionally, but rabbits generally are not frequent visitors in Seldom Seen. But this last week we’ve had several sightings round the cottage. We’re not sure if it is one or two of them – and it’s an important point. Maybe they have been driven to higher ground following the winter floods.
We soon found the reason though. A pile of earth and slate chips had been heaped up into the small herb garden – dug out from a hole, which dived deep under the newly created south lawn. It didn’t take long to find who was responsible as our Peter Rabbit was on the afternoon shift collecting moss for a new comfortable burrow.
The pictures below tell the story and now we are left with a problem. Rabbits and vegetable growing don’t go well together and planting is due to start this week in the new raised bed.
POSTSCRIPT – 17th March: The hole and the rabbit mystery deepens
Less than 24 hours after taking the photos above we returned today to the rabbit hole to discover that it had been completely filled in with a layer of moss placed on top covering the earth. Does anyone know what has happened here? It was not the work of any humans we are sure. We assume that yesterday was the work of a female rabbit – Petra not Peter! – creating a nest for her expected litter. Did she cover the hole in because the site was too busy or is she in the burrow, having been covered in by a mate? There is no obvious alternative exit that we can see. Let us have your answers and ideas on this.
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August 25th, 2009
It’s good to see that Prime Minister Gordon Brown has been up holidaying with his family in the Keswick area this month and touring some of our favourite haunts round Bassenthwaite and Derwentwater.
The Lake District Herald (15 August) reports that the PM took an evening launch trip on Derwentwater and was particularly interested in Derwent Isle and the house there (See photo above).
He may not have realised that he’s in good company. Another well known holiday maker in the Keswick area was similarly fascinated by the scene. Beatrix Potter, author of The Tale of Squirrel Nutkin, spent several holidays at Lingholm (bottom left of photo opposite) in the early 1900s and had her red squirrels in the book sailing out on wooden rafts across Derwentwater to St Herbert’s Island, 500 yards to the south.
Full details are in Margaret Lane’s excellent book, The Magic Years of Beatrix Potter (pages 108-111). A copy of this is in The Larches’ library.
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August 20th, 2009
We’ve been in Jackson Hole, Wyoming‘s lakeland this last week checking out the differences between Lake District Parks in the US and the UK. (See blog post – Lakeland holiday cottage).
One similarity we’d been expecting was breeding ospreys, but we didn’t get a sight at all – until the day we left. We had noted the strange bundle of sticks on the top of the electricity pole (see photo opposite) the day before but assumed this was an old nest.
Passing the pole on the way out, we could see a head and beak jutting out from the nest and as we stopped there were cries from the young birds. Over the next 30 minutes we were treated to a great display (see below) as parents and young moved around the nest and flew over the ponds.
The difference? Well here in the Grand Teton National Park the birds just get on with their lives oblivious to traffic, noise and humans; and attract little interest from passers by. In Cumbria as one of the prime visitor attractions for the whole of the Park, the ospreys are viewed annually by over 50,000 people from the watch point in Dodd Wood above Bassenthwaite; and for five months they receive 24 hour protection from an army of volunteers.
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August 17th, 2009
We’re in Wyoming this last week for our son’s wedding in Jackson Hole. It’s given us a chance to check out lakeland holiday accommodation US style in the Teton National Park and compare it with Cumbria’s Lake District. Of course The Larches is hard to beat, but our pine built cabin here with decking and a hot tub gives it a close run! At an altitude of 6000 feet and surrounded by aspen trees, we look out across the 8 mile wide Jackson Hole valley.
There are similarities with the Lake District National Park, though here it’s on a grander scale. Grand Teton rises steeply to 12,700 feet just 10 miles to our north and I set off a herd of elk on my run one morning. Yesterday we found the bison. The two parks were founded in their present forms in the years 1950-51 and are roughly the same size. Both focus on conservation and are hugely popular, but the real difference comes with the maps!
Where the Cumbrian fells have often old Viking names, the US maps are littered with a modern vocabulary like Surprise, Solitude and Amphitheatre Lakes, Disappointment Peak, Battleship Mountain, Death and Paintbrush Canyons, Symmetry Spire; or have names of settlers, soldiers or surveyors – Mt Owen and Bradley Lake.
The French trappers scored some hits too with the Gros Ventre (stomach) plain, Rendezvous Mountain [see photo above] and Teton (breast) the tallest peaks in the Park. Teewinot Mountain and Lake Taminah are just two of a few native American names which have survived the settlers’ onslaught!
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June 28th, 2009
Had two squirrel sightings last week, but the long grass on the back bank had limited our viewing til cut. Would be good to get more photos of the squirrels, but it’s tricky – you have to have the camera ready all the time! The one here was taken last year with a telescopic lens.
Two tips if you want to see the squirrels – make sure there are hazel nuts in the feeding box and get up early in the morning. The kitchen’s a good look-out point. Photos from some earlier sightings are in the Wildlife section
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