Wild Haweswater

28/08/2026

Trees have so many benefits for people and wildlife:

🌳 They’re a natural filter for drinking water
🌳 They slow down the flow of water through the landscape to help reduce flood and drought risk
🌳 They absorb carbon
🌳 They’re a home for an incredible number of animals such as Red Squirrels and Pied Flycatchers

🐂 And when the heavens open, or the temperatures soar, they are very much appreciated by our herd of cattle for shelter and shade.

🐂 We use hairy, native breeds in our RSPB herd, who are hardy to the weather and rough terrain here, but they really do value having trees during extremes of weather too.


📸 Images of some of our herd sheltering under trees during a recent downpour, taken by our RSPB Celebration Wood Officer Bea.

27/08/2026

Today we officially celebrated the completion of our bat-friendly Spinning Barn renovations.

This new hub gives us a warm, dry indoor space for our dedicated volunteers, and to host the groups we have visiting as well as public events and the local community.

Huge thanks go to FCC Communities Foundation and private donors for making it possible.

Find out more in our latest news story here: https://bit.ly/SpinningBarnOpening

United Utilities

26/08/2026

Can you spot the baby rainforest in the second image?

Our team of hardy RSPB staff and volunteers have been out recently Bracken bashing around young trees that were planted last winter, as part of a rainforest restoration project here, in partnership with Connect for Nature and

Bracken is a native woodland plant that can highlight where woodland used to be. So it’s useful for guiding where to plant trees back into the landscape.

However, when the trees are young, they need a helping hand when the Bracken is really tall at the end of the bird breeding season, but before it dies off over winter. So our team spend time knocking it back to give the small trees space.

Once the trees are big enough to outcompete it and grow above the Bracken height (takes usually around 10-15 years in this landscape), then they don’t need this assistance anymore. And eventually, once the trees grow and their canopy spreads, they start to shade out the Bracken, reducing its dominance.



📸 Images of the team in a tree cage, Bracken bashing, and young Rowan, Downy Birch, Aspen and Sessile Oak trees that have had the Bracken bashed around them to give them room to grow. Both taken by our RSPB Warden Spike.

23/08/2026

🥾 Just one place left on our upcoming Introduction to Wild Haweswater guided walk in sunny Swindale, part of Kendal Walking Festival.

🗓️ Friday 28 August (10am-1pm), option for minibus transport from Kendal.
Grab it here:
https://www.trybooking.com/uk/events/100896/sessions/831755/sections/171676/tickets?type=expressEmbed

21/08/2026

Our herd of hardy, native cattle have an important role conservation grazing here. One of their many jobs is to trample Bracken.

These heavy-footed animals are ideal to help knock back its dominance, which allows more delicate, less competitive wildflowers and trees to grow through.

Cattle like to sleep on Bracken as it’s in the driest spots. Our Conservation Grazing Manager Jenny also feeds them our wildflower-rich hay from our own Swindale hay meadows which encourages them to trample further and also spreads the seeds from the hay, adding to the plant diversity.



📸 Image of our RSPB herd of Luing and Belted Galloway cattle, trampling Bracken, taken by our RSPB Conservation Grazing Manager Jenny

20/08/2026

🐛 Today, some of our RSPB team of staff and volunteers, supported by our pals from Butterfly Conservation in Cumbria, carried out our annual survey of Marsh Fritillary butterfly caterpillar webs.

🌺 We’re absolutely delighted to have found 225 webs with dozens and sometimes hundreds of caterpillars in each, madly munching on Devil’s-bit Scabious - their favoured food plant (seen in the video with the gorgeous purple pom-pom head)

🕸️ The webs are spun by the caterpillars themselves with silk, to help protect them from predators and a wasp that parasitises them. It is also thought their webs help them to regulate the temperature around them too.

🦋 Marsh Fritillaries were almost extinct in Cumbria 20 years ago but dedicated efforts by Butterfly Conservation Cumbria, Natural England and Cumbria Wildlife Trust helped them bounce back in the county.

🌸 They colonised our Swindale Valley in 2023, thanks to the changes we’ve made to grazing there, from intensive sheep to native Fell Ponies. This grazing enabled Devil’s-bit Scabious to come back in abundance which is the plant the caterpillars need to feed on.

💜 Devil’s-bit Scabious is now spreading further up and down the valley and we’re finding more Marsh Fritillary locations as a result, with another of our fields holding 33 webs today, and 2 new small locations holding 2 webs each. There’s still a whole other area to survey next week too!

🎥 Video showing Devil’s-bit Scabious and two patches of Marsh Fritillary caterpillars, taken by our RSPB People and Partnerships Manager Annabel

18/08/2026

Our former RSPB Site Manager, author of Wild Fell and valued volunteer Badger Hide Guide, Lee Schofield, is in the final of the National Park Protector Awards!

Voting is open until 30 August, please vote for him here: https://www.cnp.org.uk/national-parks-movement/national-park-protector-awards/


Campaign for National Parks Lake District National Park

13/08/2026

First sighting of Orpine, flowering in Naddle Forest.

Our RSPB Tree Nursery Officer Jo was recently out seed collecting in our temperate rainforest when she spotted this incredible splash of colour.

The British Botanical Society of Britain and Ireland says Orpine “occurs as an uncommon ancient woodland plant, but sometimes fails to flower in this habitat.”

It has likely come into flower in this location due to reduced grazing pressure from wild deer and sheep.

12/08/2026