One disadvantage about the Lake District for many people, other than the difficulties involved in deciding whether we have chicks or not, is there is so much ‘up’. Then having painfully and breathlessly reached the pinnacle, the coming down has an equally adverse effect on the old knee joints. It is not a subject that Mrs. No-ring had to take into consideration when she changed her nest site and added another stretch onto the walk to the telescopes. It is so much easier to fly.

But if we think it hard, ponder on the strange incident told by one keen volunteer watcher this week.

It is early and the telescope is trained on the osprey nest by the upper barrier. All seems quiet when suddenly there is a movement on the roadway beyond the rails prompting a startled exclamation. Good gracious! Where? What! How many? Coming down the hard dry track is a mother mallard duck with 1,2,3,4,5 plus 3 and another 2 = 10? Yes, 10 newly hatched ducklings! Mother duck ducks under the lower bar and her offspring, like so many pieces of quicksilver swarm after her, their tiny legs battling furiously to keep up. For Heaven's sake what is she about? This is a bare mountain and there are no streams or ponds here, only the lake beckoning 300feet below and a mile off. But this must be her goal because she single-mindedly waddles on oblivious to the watcher’s feet and continues down past the van and down the track. The urge to follow her is overwhelming but eventually with the ducklings milling around her and tumbling over their floppy feet and getting lost in the grass she reaches the next bend and disappears from view, not to be seen again. On one hand it would be nice to think that eventually she reached water and food with her family intact, on the other how could she expect to succeed? Even if they had enough strength to make it and keep together, for all the hungry mouths higher up the food chain ducklings are the perfect perambulatory meal.

So, when navigating the Dodd slopes and the way seems long remember the gallant, if ill-advised duck family – there are always folk and old birds worse off than yourself.