N Spiers Photography » cumbria http://www.nspiersphotography.com Wildlife, Landscapes, Night Photography and more Thu, 02 Sep 2010 06:55:56 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0.1 Red Squirrel @ Dodd Wood http://www.nspiersphotography.com/2009/10/red-squirrel-dodd-wood/ http://www.nspiersphotography.com/2009/10/red-squirrel-dodd-wood/#comments Sun, 25 Oct 2009 18:18:06 +0000 Neil http://www.nspiersphotography.com/?p=136 http://www.nspiersphotography.com/2009/10/red-squirrel-dodd-wood/feed/ 0 On the trail of Red Squirrels http://www.nspiersphotography.com/2009/10/on-the-trail-of-red-squirrels/ http://www.nspiersphotography.com/2009/10/on-the-trail-of-red-squirrels/#comments Sun, 25 Oct 2009 18:13:25 +0000 Neil http://www.nspiersphotography.com/?p=133 Decided on Thursday of last week that myself and Liz would go on a trail for Red Squirrels. After 2 days research and some very helpful information from a Cumbrian bird watcher, we decided that Whinlatter Park in Keswick and Dodd Wood at the foot of Skiddaw would be the 2 best places to try get a few shots of these quickly declining gorgeous animals.

Liz being the star that she is packed up the biggest lunch I have seen, infact this also included breakfast. Breakfast!!! I hear you shout, yep that was because at 8:30am we were on the road to the Lake District, therefore breakfast on the move. At 10:30am we arrived at the Whinlatter Park Visitors Centre, quick look around at the books and Christmas decorations… YES CHRISTMAS DECORATIONS, plus watched the live camera link of squirrels on feeders for a few minutes. We then purchased the Squirrel Scurry Trail map from the visitors centre and off we hiked. I did not get my hopes up for seeing one single Red Squirrel here and I was right, nothing. Back to the visitors centre it was then, so Liz could buy… wait for it…. some christmas decorations, then into the car, hot brew, pork pie and off we headed to Dodd Wood.

Once at Dodd Wood I was really starting to get concerned, I thought because the weather was so bad that we had no chance of seeing any Red Squirrels but got my boots back on and headed to the Osprey Viewpoint where there is a feeding station. 15 minutes later and sitting on a seriously wet bed of moss I got what we had come for RED SQUIRRELS!!!! Every 10 minutes they would vanish, only to reappear once again so that they could grab more acorns. Was chuffed to pieces as this is what we had both come for and got some lovely shots, below.

Larger images can be found here

Red Squirrel @ Dodd Wood

Red Squirrel @ Dodd Wood

Red Squirrel @ Dodd Wood

All in all a wonderful day and think I will now set myself more challenges of finding certain animals that are difficult to find!!!

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