Wardens at RSPB Geltsdale are celebrating this spring as the number of lekking black grouse rises from 27 to a whopping all-time high of 50, following a successful breeding year in 2013. 

Black grouse males gather at traditional open spaces to perform their flamboyant displays, called 'leks', peaking in April to May, and mainly in the early morning or at dusk. The females, known as grey hens, select a mate, and afterwards…

RSPB Geltsdale is offering amateur and professional photographers a unique opportunity to get close to the reserve’s breeding waders.

A photographic hide will be available for hire for a total of ten two hour sessions, between 12^th and 27^th April 2014. The hide can take up to a maximum of two people per session and will be exclusively for the use of the person making the booking.

The fee is £40 per session with…

TWO new hedgehog hotels have appeared in upper Teesdale this week thanks to RSPB Geltsdale and Denton Woodcraft.

They are located at  the Forest of Teesdale Primary School and AONB’s Bowlees Visitor Centre and means families of hedgehogs will now have a better chance of getting through tough winters in cosy new winter homes.

Children at the school will add their hotel to their growing nature garden and…

A peregrin falcon called into Geltsdale this morning and relaxed for about 30 minutes washing and preening itself in one of the scrapes opposite the reserve office.  The photo above was taken by Ian Ryding, Farmland Warden, with a camera held to the eyepiece of a scope.

The Ghost Bird Exhibition opened on Saturday 18^th January, by the artist Louise Ann Wilson and Blanaid Denman, RSPB’s Skydancer Project Officer.

Blanaid opened the proceedings with a short talk about the hen harrier, covering the nature and habitat of the bird, why the hen harrier is so special and the need for public awareness of its plight.

Louise Ann Wilson followed with an introduction to the photographic…

The second Geltsdale bird race took place on Wednesday with three teams this year. This was part of the Christmas thank you to our volunteers and was followed by a 'Jacob's Feast' lunch at the reserve office. The teams of four, were made up of a mixture of staff and volunteers. They had two hours to see as many bird species as possible on the reserve, which considering the size of the site would only be covering…

RSPB Geltsdale has kindly received four beautifully handcrafted hedgehog hibernation homes from Denton Woodcraft, a day service run by Cumbria County Council for adults with a learning disability, based in Carlisle.

The fourth "Hedgehog Hotel" was presented by Denton Woodcraft and Garden Links members in person when they visited the reserve for a spot of bird watching on Tindale Tarn and enjoy their packed lunch in…

Though there are few trees on the reserve, there are a couple of mixed conifer woods near the tarn.  For one of our tasks, staff and volunteers set about splitting logs from felled larch.  It was only possible to move these logs to the current site this Summer when conditions fringing the tarn became dry enough and this was ably done by Dolly, the Dales pony.  Great consideration is taken prior to any fellling, though the reason…

A key British landscape feature visible around the Pennines and the reserve are dry stone walls. From time to time we carry out this ancient craft repairing sections that have fallen away.  The first thing involves carefully dismantling the collapsed stones to create a safer working condition and if space allows, sorting into piles of foundation stones, infills, throughs and coping stones. 

The foundations are set to create…

. . . well about 60% of the lake surface was frozen, thankfully the birds were not frozen this chilly, windless, sunny day. A count today revealed the usual groups, if slightly lower numbers of, Mallard, Tufted Duck, Teal, Pochard, male and female Goldeneye, Goosander, Mute Swan and a healthy number of Coot. Surprisingly absent were Wigeon? Lapwing were less than a handful (though a local visitor saw about 100 last…

An exhibition of watercolour paintings related to birds of the wilder parts of our islands – moorland, burn, estuary and rock. This exhibition includes paintings finished on the spot, sketchbook pages and work completed in the studio.

“Working directly from nature is exciting but challenging, particularly when painting birds as they are usually too far away to see without a telescope, move too fast, and don’t…

HORSEPOWER is being used to help RSPB Geltsdale go green!

Wardens at the reserve have been enlisting the services of Jazz, a sturdy cob, to help transport equipment and materials around the rugged moorland site.

Jazz has been kitted out with a custom-made harness, allowing her to carry fence posts and saplings across the site work previously done by Land Rover and Quad bikes.

Jazz can also carry equipment up to rare…

Hedgehogs preparing to hibernate can enjoy new homes at RSPB Geltsdale and local schools this autumn – with help from a group of talented adults.

Members of Denton Woodcraft, a day service run by Cumbria County Council for adults with learning difficulties, have created three hedgehog homes for RSPB Geltsdale and local primary schools Castle Carrock and St. Margaret Mary.  The photograph above shows children from…

Two volunteers, Chris Hind and Pete Howard helped out with the visible migration watch from the visitor centre at Stagsike Cottages on Sunday.

For three hours from dawn, we counted birds flying over. Most numerous was jackdaw with over 500 and least expected were five coal tits flying over open ground (with a goldcrest in tow). Redwings, fieldfares and meadow pipits were passing over in small numbers throughout the morning…

Talented schoolchildren have created a wooden seat with a difference to show some of the birds which make their home at RSPB Geltsdale - thanks to help from a local artist.

The pupils, from Hallbankgate Primary School, worked with artist and wood sculptor Alister Neville to learn about birds which can be found on the reserve, such as black grouse, golden plover, lapwing, whooper swans and red kites.

After discovering…

RSPB Geltsdale is holding an exhibition of wildlife photographs by Alan Miller from 23rd September until 15th November.

Alan is a professional photographer who lives locally to the Geltsdale Reserve, moving to the area in 2005.  Living in the countryside helped to ignite Alan's lifelong but dormant interest in wildlife photography, which he observed whilst walking his dog.

Most of the photographs on display were taken within…

Forester Charlie Parker and his pony Dolly removed timber from the side of Tindale Tarn on Thursday 1 August.  The timber was cut with the help of RSPB volunteers, who teamed up with Charlie and his pony to complete the task.

The banks of Tindale Tarn are saturated and extremely soft, prohibiting the removal of the timber using heavy machinery. Only the recent dry weather has allowed the removal of timber by this traditional…

RSPB Geltsdale would like to thank Amanda Proud and Martin Ketcher for all the long hours and hard work they have put in over the summer months monitoring Whinchats across the reserve.  As a token of the reserve's appreciation Ian Ryding, Farmland Warden presents Martin & Amanda with an original artwork featuring the focus of efforts, a Whinchat.  We look forward to see Martin & Amanda in the future.

RSPB's Skydancer project, teamed up with Greehead's annual Duck Day event to promote the plight of the Hen Harrier.  The event featured Hen Harrier theme games and activities for the children,  information about the hen harrier and it's moorland habitat.  The day closed with a live performance from "The Circus Lexicon of Artists, Acts and Tricks, with a cast of moles, rabbits, grouse, hen harriers and poachers…

As part of Butterfly Conservation’s Garden Moth Scheme, RSPB Geltsdale trap and record moths once a week from beginning of March to end of August.

This is Geltsdale's third year in scheme and this week saw our largest catch of moths in a single week with a total of 495 moths.  We also saw a record number of species in one night with a total of 52 different species observed. Moths recorded included exotically name…

Dr Stephen Temperley hosted a successful event on Saturday 20th July, as members of the public joined RSPB members to discover the "Rocky Roots of Geltsdale".   Participants enjoyed a geological excursion exploring the geology of the reserve and discovering how that shaped topography on the surface. 

A brook lamprey was found by school children, from St Bedes Primary School, during their visit to RSPB Geltsdale on Wednesday 17th July, along with a host of mayfly and stonefly nymphs and fresh water shrimps.

Brook lampreys look superficially like eels, but are in fact jawless fish. They belong to a primitive group of fish that have sucker-like mouths instead of teeth and jaws. The larvae have no eyes or sucker-mouth…

A new Exhibition by Rachel Gibson is currently on show at RSPB Geltsdale, running until mid September 2013.

Rachel Gibson's work reflects an intuitive involvement with imagery and ideas that are influenced by sense of place, memory and experience.

Her drawn and painted records of intimate spaces found in the natural world suggest shelter and growth but also fragility and loss.

Rachel works with drawing, painting…

On Monday 8th July in warm sunshine and with a clear blue sky, twenty six children from St Bede's Primary School visited RSPB Geltsdale as part of the Skydancer project, funded by Heritage Lottery.

In the morning they explored and enjoyed the moorland habitat and played hide and seek in the long heather at the old Foresthead quarry.

After lunch at the visitor centre the children split into two groups.  Group one used…

On Saturday 8th June, staff from RSPB Geltsdale hosted a stall on what must be one of the the dryest and hotest Cumberland shows for a good many years.

T-shirts, sunglasses and ice cream were the order of the day, sharply contrasting with the knee deep mud and constant rain of previous years.  In fact it was so hot we struggled to give away free tots of the excellent Black Grouse whisky, usually a firm favourite at previous…