YEW TREE TARN
In between Coniston and Skelwith bridge, there are 2 tarns, the spectacular Tarn Hows (gifted to the nation by Beatrix Potter) and the small roadside pond that is Yew Tree Tarn, it’s not very big and was formed by blocking the guard’s beck that runs down this valley.
Although nowhere near as dramatic as Tarn Hows, it is still a marvellous place to sit and contemplate the world, recently I’ve seen herons, buzzards, and all manner of duck breeds, coots, and moorhens and although I haven’t seen them, I can hear woodpeckers. Often at the north end of the lake, you can glimpse various types of deer quietly grazing amid the belted Galloway cattle on the lush grass, wild and very timid these deer don’t hang around for photos they are usually just a flash and then they merge into the undergrowth and away, but if you are lucky enough to catch a glimpse of them it fair gladdens the heart.
April was an unusually dry month for us in Coniston with virtually no rain and it was interesting to watch how quickly a tarn that is used to a continual torrent of fell water dry up, it shrank to about a quarter of its normal size, the herons though thought this was marvellous and gorged themselves on the small fish and amphibians trapped in the shallow waters, easy pickings.
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