Eskrigg

It’s not very often that I wake up with the desire to go somewhere totally unplanned. It usually requires a day or two of thought, before I look up the train times and make my plans. But on this particular day, I woke up and just felt that I desperately needed to go somewhere else. I felt trapped in the city, and in the house, and my brain was just craving to see something completely new.

A place popped into my head immediately – Eskrigg. I’ve been meaning to pay the reserve a visit since my first year, but never found the time. No time like the present!

I put a notice up on Facebook in case anyone fancied tagging along. Once I’d finished at church I packed my bags and headed down to catch my train. Notifications gradually came through on my phone that people would have loved to have come if they’d known earlier. Evidently spontaneity requires advance planning.

In typical British fashion it started raining almost as soon as I arrived at Eskrigg. I decided to take shelter and eat my lunch, listening to the percussive patter of the water on the roof. The dry didn’t last and I hurriedly evacuated the shelter as water starting coming through the roof. Decided it was best to head into the reserve itself and find somewhere dry there, so made my way along a well-wooded path with oak trees on the left, and almost endless spruce on the right.

I headed into the main centre, which was a surprisingly cosy hut with an excellent view of the pond, surrounded by a number of feeders and with delightful access to a selection of ID guides. There was plenty to photograph here, including my first siskin, but the 250mm lens that I brought wasn’t really long enough for my needs. I really ought to bite the bullet and get a longer lens – sooner rather than later.

Next stop; the red squirrel hide. I’ve been eager to see one of these elusive mammals for a long time. I’ve had notoriously bad luck looking for reds, and I don’t want to go down as the only Wildlife Media student to go to Eskrigg and not see one. My family and I went to Formby some years ago to see them, and yet I managed not to see a single one. Admittedly this may because I was in desperate need of new glasses, but heigh ho!

Anyway.

After waiting a good 30 minutes in the hide without a sighting I decided to go and enjoy the rest of the site. Perhaps they’d make an appearance now. I meandered around the various paths at the reserve and found some very interesting fungi, which kept me entertained for a while. I decided to head out towards the edge of the reserve and accidentally startled a muntjac deer on my way.

One mammal I can include my species list for today.

I wandered up the hill to admire the view over Eskrigg and Lockerbie, which was lovely but the only animals were sheep. Still eager to see a squirrel I descended back into the reserve and took the scenic route through the woods. I ended up where the reserve meets a field, on the boundary with a brook. As I was walking I heard some buzzards crying overhead. I really like buzzards. I don’t what it is about buzzards but just hearing them and seeing them fly really chills me out. It was really lovely to just watch them fly together until they disappeared out of sight over the treetops.

By this point there wasn’t much time before I needed to head back to the train. I decided that I would pin my hopes on the red squirrel hide – if I don’t see a squirrel there, then I will have done very badly.

But fortune smiled favourably on me and I didn’t even have to get to the hide! There was a squirrel, gorging itself on peanuts from one of the feeders! I could barely believe it. I grabbed a couple of pictures there and then before moving on – hoping that perhaps some more would turn up.

Just outside the squirrel hide I found a great fungus, which I decided I’d like to get a picture of. I was so absorbed in the mycology that I didn’t notice that there was a squirrel in the tree behind me until it scampered off through the leaf litter. I managed to get a couple of pictures as it retreated before quietly letting myself into the hide and observing further from there.

I was delighted that I’d finally seen a red squirrel, and to get the pictures to prove it! Needless to say that I made my way back to the station with a massive smile on my face.