A bird's-eye view of Lakeland walks

Walkers in the Lake District, it has to be said, do not usually go there to birdwatch. They go to climb the 214 fells that have become known as "Wainwrights". And with their heads down to ensure that their feet land in the right places on uneven and sometimes slippery paths they rarely pay much attention to the bird life, which on the loftiest fells is usually limited to wheeling and somersaulting ravens and chirping meadow pipits.

Occasionally a peregrine might tear along the side of a ridge like one of those RAF jets on training exercise, but when he was researching his famous Pictorial Guides the writer Alfred Wainwright was too busy admiring the rock scenery to notice such bird life. His books offer no advice for birdwatchers.

Now, a guide to walking in Lakeland is available for people who optimistically pack binoculars in their rucksacks.

Written by well-known North West birders David Hindle and John Wilson, it describes 30 walks in Cumbria ranging between two and eight miles in length.

Birds are pretty much like humans in that most of them want to find something to eat. So the majority of birds are also found where the food sources are likely to be, namely in the valley bottoms or around the lakes themselves, and the best walks in this superb book are below the intake walls and beneath the high crags.

I have been familiar with some of these routes for years. The circular walk around Rydal Water to Grasmere has always been a favourite, being one of the few locations I can expect to see a pied flycatcher in summer.

Goosanders and goldeneye have always been certs in winter, and for me the most heartwarming sign of spring is to watch swallows and martins skimming the surface of Grasmere on a fine Easter weekend and hear yellowhammers uttering their signature "little-bit-of-bread-and-no-cheese" from the slopes of Loughrigg.

The walk onto High Street fell from Hawswater was, for over 30 years, the most essential of all for birdwatchers because of England's only nesting golden eagles.

Sadly they haven't bred there since 2001, but according to the book there is still the chance of seeing a resident male eagle around the Riggindale valley. It is also worth looking out for another bird that favours remote uplands, the ring ouzel.

A three-mile walk at Bassenthwaite Lake in West Cumbria takes a suggested four hours to complete, perhaps an excessive amount of time until you realise that this is where the amazing fish-catching hawk, the osprey, has been nesting since 2000.

Other walks, like the delectable Whitbarrow and Witherslack Wood, bring into focus wildlife such as the Duke of Burgundy fritillary and rare dark red helleborine, a member of the orchid family. Green and great spotted woodpeckers are likely ticks here, as they are on other woodland routes.

The longest walk is over Black Combe, a fell which Wainwright relegated to an afterthought in his Outlying Fells of Lakeland book while admitting that it "was made to be climbed". It is here that hardened fellwalkers can admire the view of old friends like Pillar, Great Gable and Scafell Pike while keeping their binoculars poised for peregrines and merlins.

Birdwatching Walks in the Lake District by David Hindle and John Wilson is published by Palatine Books, price 8.95. To order a copy from the Yorkshire Post Bookshop, call free on 0800 0153232 or go online at www.yorkshirepost bookshop.co.uk. P&P is 2.75.

CW 4/9/10