Another year has whizzed by, so grab a brew or a cheeky pint and that slice of Christmas cake that has been eyeing you up all day, and check out some of the highlights from Wild Haweswater in 2025…
January
The year began with a flurry of white. Not with snow, but with a Great White Egret returning to Swindale. It came here a couple of winters ago spending time in an area of river restoration below our farm in Swindale, where there is tons of fish and frogs to feed on, so we were pleased to see it back. Fingers crossed for a 2026 return.
We then did get a flurry of snow, which makes the site look proper Narnian. It makes feeding the livestock a challenge but our own Swindale Meadows hay keeps them well fed.
Our answer to Ant and Dec – Assistant Wardens Richard and Rhys (they’re way more entertaining than actual Ant and Dec and far better at building tree cages), ably supported by volunteers and contractors, continued on with their project to get 16,500 tree cages built on the fells here, helping to expand and restore temperate rainforest into its former range.
The Fix the Fells team kindly came to help us build wooden tree enclosures in Riggindale Valley at the top of Haweswater reservoir.
The Woodland Hide, in the heart of Naddle Forest here, run by our amazing partners Wild Intrigue, continued to deliver stunning photography opportunities.
February
With Celebration Wood Officer Bea at the helm, we celebrated the third anniversary of our Celebration Wood – every tree has a story.
Our excellent, local partner At Nature’s Pace ran a Dark Skies hike to Small Water.
Our cattle were on the move again, taking them from Swindale Valley, round to Naddle Valley.
Warden Pete joined the Cumbria Wildlife Trust team as their new Skiddaw Forest Project Manager
March
Our wonderful Administrator Lucinda attended the Haweswater Half Marathon (well, not the running bit, we had a stand at the starting/finishing point, to cheer on the runners and share our landscape restoration work here), who kindly donate to support us.
The Cumbria Badger Vaccination Project, who are an incredible bunch of volunteers, held a volunteer taster day ahead of the next vaccination season beginning in May. They’re always on the look out for enthusiastic new volunteers, so get in touch with them if you’re interested – [email protected].
Awesome partner Reveal Nature set our world aglow with more Biofluorescence events. If you’d like to take part in our 2026 events, check out details here.
Our partners Wild Intrigue welcomed their new Wild Hides Ranger Flynn to the team, who is doing a sterling job running their wonderful hides here.
We planted the 300th tree in Celebration Wood with a familiar face – Site Manager Glen’s dad!
April
We started the month, not with an April Fool, but a celebration. Our Warden Spike has worked here for 25 years, making 1 April 2025 his silver anniversary here at Wild Haweswater.
We waved a fond farewell to our previous livestock team David and Faith who went onto a new opportunity in Scotland.
The Badger Hide re-opened for the 2025 season. Get your bookings in for next season here!
Thanks to a private donor, we installed a new watering system in our tree nursery, which turned out to be even more of a God send with the dry summer we turned out to have.
Spring sees the return of many of our migrant birds like Pied Flycatchers and Redstarts, so our warden team are kept busy with early starts when bird survey season begins.
We made some changes to our farming operation, find out more here.
Shap Outdoor Festival returned for its third year, so we enjoyed taking part again.
May
Up with the ouzel! Our warden team had to get up very early (3am) to carry out Ring Ouzel surveys in the fells here.
We ran more successful Dawn Chorus Day events to celebrate the magic of nature’s music festival in Naddle Forest. If you’d like to join us on either of our walks in 2026, visit our events page for details.
The unique Wild Intrigue Pied Flycatcher hide re-opened for another season, delighting nature photographers.
We welcomed back the brilliant team from Cumbria Dry Stone Walling Association, who restored some complicated walls for us in Swindale.
June
Twiggy, the little Red Squirrel with the big message (voiced by our own People and Partnerships Manager Annabel) was featured in Annecy – the largest animated film festival in the world! Find out more in our blog.
We took part in World Rainforest Day, organised by our pals from PlantLife at nearby Rheged, alongside lots of local partners, celebrating all things temperate rainforest. It featured another great performance of Saturama, filmed in our very own Naddle Forest.
Thanks to the creative skills of the Coppice Co-op in south Cumbria, and funding from our friends the Icthius Trust, we were able to install some beautiful benches in Celebration Wood.
We had a dry summer for a change, which meant we were able to carry our Mountain Ringlet surveys in the fells. Led by our talented RSPB Estate Worker Will, our team of staff and volunteers counted 785 Mountain Ringlets across 14 transects (lines across an area from which particular observations are made, in this case, pre-determined routes that need to be walked to count Mountain Ringlet populations).
With our partners Cumbria Connect, we reported that two new lichens had been discovered in Naddle Forest here, by the experts from Cumbria Lichen Group.
It was with a great sense of relief and excitement that we handed in our homework! Led by excellent Project Manager Gemma with unbeatable support from project Administrator Sarah, Site Manager Glen, Conservation Officer James and Bill from Cumbria Connect, this crack team completed the six plans required by DEFRA, to apply for a Landscape Recovery Scheme. We will hopefully find out in the first quarter of 2026 if our project – Lake District Eastern Fells Landscape Recovery has been successful in securing 20 years of funding for our landscape restoration work.
July
We celebrated the magic of Swindale Meadows on our National Meadows Day guided walks led by our former Site Manager Lee Schofield. Keep an eye on our events page for 2026’s events.
The Cumbria Connect Science team – dynamic duo Mo and Callum, who work across the Lowther valley, including here at Wild Haweswater, carried out moth monitoring in the fells.
Led by Lowther Conservation, Manchester Museum and Cumbria Connect, supported by brilliant local volunteers, Glow Worm surveys were carried out locally, including in Swindale. We were very excited to find their shiny bottoms there.
In preparation for resuming our large-scale tree planting scheme this winter, we needed to get tree cage materials (wooden fence posts and wire mesh) onto inaccessible parts of the site. This involved huge amounts of logistics planning by Assistant Wardens Richard and Rhys beforehand, to create bundles of posts and wire and working out the 51 drop sites for the helicopter to be able to drop the materials onto the fell!
A second tree cage project we’re involved in, led by Cumbria Connect carried out helicopter drops too.
August
There was a minute window of good weather for hay making in Swindale ably carried out by Cumbria Connect Conservation Scientist Mo and our own RSPB Estate Worker Will.
Our team of staff and volunteers, led by our RSPB Warden Spike, carried out Marsh Fritillary caterpillar surveys in Swindale. Since they recolonised the valley in 2023, their numbers are doing so well. You monitor their caterpillars, by counting the number of larval webs they create (each web, which looks like a spider’s web, contains hundreds of caterpillars in each). In ther first year they were here in 2023, we counted 23 webs. In 2024 there was 101 webs. This year, 2025, our team counted an unbelievable 597 webs!
We enjoyed taking part in our first Kendal Walking Festival, with a guided walk in Swindale. Keep an eye on theri website for details of our participation in 2026.
Our fantastic nursery team Jo and Julia, supported by our brilliant volunteers, continued to grow a huge range of native trees and plants in our on-site nursery, the largest of its kind in the Lake District.
One of our awesome partners Fell Pony Adventures ran more exciting wild camping treks with native Cumbrian Fell Ponies!
September
Thanks to Stephen at Eden Rivers Trust, we welcomed training on how to carry out Water Vole surveys.
Our very own Celebration Wood Officer Bea was in the final of the Cumbria Life Magazine Awards for Fundraising Feat of the Year.
We’re beyond proud that the Cumbria River Restoration Partnership was one of four finalists from around the globe, in the 2025 Thiess International Riverprize. It was awarded in Brisbane, Australia. This prestigious award celebrates excellence in river management, protection and restoration. Being among the finalists puts the Cumbrian partners – including our very own Swindale Beck project – at the forefront of global environmental leadership. It’s basically the environmental Oscars. Find out more here.
October
Fabulous fungi emerged across Naddle Forest – one of our favourite spectacles of autumn.
Led by the glue who holds us all together – our Administrator Lucinda, we moved out of our office temporarily into our meeting room, for renovations to begin on our office and volunteers accommodation, due for completion in the spring.
Plants grown in our nursery and seed collected from our meadows were part of a Cumbria Connect project to restore wildflower meadows in the local area.
We supported Merlyn Driver, who celebrated his love of nature through his new album ‘It Was Also Sometimes Daylight‘, bringing his evocative sound to nearby Bampton Village Hall.
Twiggy was featured in the Manchester Animation Festival – the largest in the UK.
Our cattle were welcomed back after their summer holidays, along with our fantastic new Conservation Grazing Manager Jenny – more info to come in the new year!
Another welcome addition to the our team was some new Fell Ponies to help us with conservation grazing in Swindale.
November
The Cumbria Connect apprentice film landed, featuring Elli Foxton, who spent time here at Wild Haweswater on her apprenticeship.
We had a sprinkling of snow, put that didn’t stop our hardy team from cracking on with tree planting, tree cage construction and tending to the trees in the nursery.
The cattle came in for their pre-winter health check and to see who was in calf, which they all are.
The first Juniper of the tree planting season, grown in our nursery, was planted on Mardale Common, and the team built the highest tree cages yet on our planting project.
December
We launched our new Meet Cumbria’s Rainforest events for 2026. Grab your place here.
At our annual Volunteers Christmas Thank You event, we celebrated our wonderful team of volunteers, who support us in all aspects of life at Wild Haweswater, and who we couldn’t do without.
Thanks to funding from a private donor and the Icthius Trust, and the support of supplier Mount Green Cycles finding them for us, we welcomed two e-bikes to our fleet, to help us get around the valleys of Wild Haweswater in a more sustainable way. Huge thanks also go to local Arragon’s Cycles who kitted them out for us too.
Some of our team took part in hedge laying training at our office base at Naddle Farm.
We finished the year learning that our team of volunteer Badger Hide Guides have made the final of the prestigious VisitEngland Tourism Superstar Awards 2026! It will all come down to the public vote in February so watch this space to vote for us.
That’s a wrap! Thank you to all our colleagues, volunteers, partners, members, supporters and followers for all your support in 2025. Here’s to more adventures in 2026.
Don’t forget to follow us on Facebook and Instagram for regular updates.
Image credits: 1) Red Squirrel in the snow of Naddle Forest, by Wild Intrigue (2) RSPB Site Manager Glen feeds our cattle in the snow, by Cumbria Connect apprentice Joe (3) Full Moon by Guy Shorrock (rspb-images.com) (4) Billy Swainson plants the 300th tree in Celebration Wood, by RSPB People and Partnerships Manager Annabel (5) A young RSPB Warden Spike Webb at the Golden Eagle Hut in the 90s (6) Pied Flycatcher in Naddle Forest by Wild Intrigue (7) RSPB Estate Worker Will, RSPB Senior Administrator Lucinda, RSPB Volunteer Judith, Cumbria Connect Conservation Manager Bill, RSPB Student Placement Rob and Wild Intrigue Wild Hides Ranger Flynn carry out the Mountain Ringlet surveys, by Will (8) RSPB Assistant Wardens Rhys and Richard handle the complicated logistics of this summer’s helicopter drops, by RSPB Estate Worker Will (9) Cumbria Connect Conservation Scientist Mo does some hay cutting, by RSPB Estate Worker Will, (10) RSPB Celebration Wood Officer Bea and RSPB People and Partnerships Manager Annabel at the Cumbria Life Magazine Awards, by Annabel (11) RSPB Conservation Grazing Manager Jenny, RSPB Tree Nursery Office Jo and RSPB Warden Spike walk the cattle up the Naddle Valley, by RSPB People and Partnerships Manager Annabel (12) RSPB Contractor Brodie and RSPB Assistant Warden Rhys carry fenceposts in the snow at Small Water to construct tree protection cages, by RSPB Assistant Warden Richard (13) RSPB Volunteer Christmas Thank You event, by RSPB Assistant Warden Rhys.
– Blog by Annabel Rushton, RSPB People and Partnerships Manager for Wild Haweswater. Posted 23 December 2025.
