Date should be 5th May 2018.
Wood nuthatch - probably a juvenile.
The first Bluebells seen today. (on the way to Lane Head)
Looking South west towards Downham.
Pendle Hll from the Hecklin Farm access track.
The Beacon (Big End) and Pendle Hill.
Much easier to see the Kestrel this time.
Heading towards Longlands Wood and Downham
Walk stats: Distance: 8.1 miles. Climb: 1487'.
time: 5 hours 31 minutes. On the move walk average: 1.9 m.p.h. (2.4 m.p.h. on my newest GPS). Overall walk average: 1.5 m.p.h.
Group: Martyn and Mike.
What a glorious day weather-ise this turned out to be. Bright and sunny all day, with hardly any wind, even we we would have been grateful towards the end of the walk and the temperature was above 20 Celsius. Although we were hopeful for Dotterels, the only thing beginning with "D" that we saw were dogs - lots of them - with owners. This was a day thy everyone from miles around seemed to have decided to go up Pendle Hill. It was god to see lots of families, some with very young children enjoying climbing up this Lancashire hill.
Thankfully the route we chose to climb was slightly less popular than other more direct routes. We had lunch nearly at the top of the path on South west from Pendle House, so that by the time we reached the trig point, most of the crowds had left.
The joyful sound of Skylarks singing could be heard as we had our lunch and then accompanied us for most of the walk across the Beacon and Pendle Hill and down to Moorside.
Birds seen or heard today included: Common chaffinch, Common blackbird, Common buzzard, Common pheasant, Carrion crow, Rook, Jackdaw, wood nuthatch, Meadow pipit, Skylark, Common kestrel, Great tit, Dunnock, Willow warbler, Raven and Barn swallow,
The best sighting of the day was probably a Brown hare, although a couple of young boys would probably say it was the tadpoles they spotted in a puddle next to the Pendle Side track.
The only disappointment, other than the lack of Dotterels, was the fact that distant views were rather hazy.
We arrived back at Downham to find that it was heaving with people, many enjoying the local ice-cream. The walk had been a really good one, probably one of the best of our many trips up Pendle Hill as far as the weather was concerned and now we were looking forward to a good pint of Lees bitter on the way home.
We called in at the Netherton Hall in Frodsham, but alas the Lees bitter had run out and had to make do with a pint of MPA and Founder's.
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