Don’t step on the …….

A really fab afternoon at Foulney Island, which is managed by the Cumbria Wildlife Trust.

It is located on the Furness peninsula, at the north-west corner of the vast expanse of Morecambe Bay. . Nearby are Roa Island, Piel Island, and Walney Island, and the ship- building town of Barrow. But there are great views south as far as Blackpool and it’s Tower and Big Dipper, east to Heysham’s nuclear power station and beyond the distinctive outline of Pen y Gent in the Yorkshire Dales, and north to the Lake District fells. It was all pretty quiet (apart from the birds, and the weird moans of the grey seals hauled up on Walney). The Cumbrian coast is missed by most visiting the Lakes, one of its joys.

We walked the causeway to the “no access” sign, the path fringed by sea radish and sea kale ( and sea thrift, sea campion etc). At this time of the year little terns, arctic terns, eider ducks, oystercatchers and ringed plovers are all nesting, so access is tightly controlled. Last year, because of Covid, there was no warden, so people and dogs wandered everywhere and all bird breeding efforts failed. This year it is wardened, so hopefully it will be a happier result. We had good chats with the warden, and a young lady from the Morecambe Bay Partnership who was in support (extra).

The signs are good. Yesterday the eider duck chicks under the warden’s caravan hatched (and were promptly led off by their mother), another close by is sitting tight still (extra). We watched little terns on their nests, and returning passed a couple of plovers nests on the footpath, protected by a thin metal frame, and which we had somehow missed. They are superbly camouflaged.

There were lots of the attractive day-flying six spot burnet moths and their cocoons (extra). Their food plant is birds foot trefoil, which is abundant this year, so they are doing very well.