Big Birds

Usually, as we walk towards the shore of Derwentwater, we are met with the sights and sounds of flocks of geese and ducks, greedily gobbling as they’re fed colossal amounts of seed & weird stuff. These bags of bird food seem to be a great hit with tourists and are available from the wooden hut at the right of the photo.

However, as has become a theme, the hut stands closed- as does the rest of the world. As many of us are enjoying becoming accustomed to though, nature remains open and actually, so do the beaks of those pesky geese...

This was realised when we began filming a little snippet for a lockdown project that my friend is working on called “pass me the cake”.

We had only been throwing a pre-packed lemon drizzle around for a few minutes when we were surrounded by hungry geese and ducks. We opened the cake & my eldest started distributing the crumbs evenly, to ensure a fair share for all but there’s always one upstart- the goose that started hissing & making strange gurgling noises from the back of its throat, really ought to have had a few more manners!

I was just about keeping my big bird aversion nerves in check (for the sake of the girls) when in came the swans- the real bad ass crew! Now, I know people say they’re elegant and exude regal prowess but I think they’re horrific! As a general rule of thumb for me, no bird should actually be bigger than my dog!

That was most definitely our cue to say goodbye to the birds & get ourselves off that shore & up into the safety of the woods to explore the dens.