Spring mud and lambing: adjusting the route
Spring paths are soft, and lambing fields need a lead and a quiet line. Adjust the route before you meet either surprise.
Spring is the season walkers crave and the ground is not ready for. Thaw and rain leave paths soft, hedges are still bare, and the fields are full of animals that have just given birth or are about to. A route that was a pleasure in September can be a trudge and a disturbance in April. Adjust it before you are in the middle of both.
Mud as a planning fact
Clay holds water. A green lane that is a delight in June can be ankle-deep in March, and a field path can be a slick of soil where the plough met the rain. Believe a recent local note, and believe your own memory if it includes wet socks. Gaiters help. They do not shorten the distance. If the party includes children or anyone who hates mud more than they love the view, choose the lane, the firm towpath or the hill path that drains.
River meadows stay wet longer than the ridge. In spring that is not a moral failing of the valley. It is a reason to put the valley later in the season and take the higher, stonier line if it is safe and open.
Lambing and the lead
Lambing time is a working season, not a backdrop. Ewes with lambs are easily stressed, and a dog is read as a predator even when the dog is a fool rather than a hunter. Keep the lead on around stock, give the animals a wide, steady pass, and do not stop to improve a photograph of a lamb. If a sign asks you to use another path, use it. The detour is the walk.
Walking with a dog sets the general standard. Spring tightens it. A recall you trust in a park is not the same as a recall when a lamb runs. The lead removes the argument.
Ground-nesting birds in the same weeks
The soft ground and the lambs coincide with birds on eggs. Signs for ground-nesting birds belong in the same pocket as the lambing notice. A path across a rushy field may be legally open and still a poor choice if you cannot keep the party in single file and the dog in hand. Pick a route where the manners are easy to keep, not one where you will be negotiating them at every stile.
If a lapwing or a curlew starts to mob you, you are already too exciting. Walk on calmly by the path, or turn back if the path itself is the problem. Do not search the grass.
What to wear and when to start
Spring weather changes inside a single walk. A warm bank, a cold wind, a shower, then sun. Layers matter more than a hopeful jacket. Start later if the morning is icy on a shaded lane, and finish with daylight to spare. The days are lengthening and they are not yet long.
Boots that have been dry all winter may have stiffened. A short walk in them before the weekend is kinder than discovering the rub at the first lambing field, where you do not want to sit down and rearrange your feet in the gateway.
A route that fits the month
Choose shorter, firmer, quieter. Leave the famous boggy circuit for a drier week. Tell the party why the plan has changed, so they do not hear it as a loss of nerve. Spring walking is some of the best of the year when it is the right path: blossom, lambs seen from a distance, a wood edge with the first flowers, and a pub that has opened its garden even if you are still in a coat.
The hill will dry. The lambs will grow. Your job this month is not to be the reason either has a bad afternoon.
Frequently asked questions
When does lambing happen?
It varies by farm and by the kind of sheep. Late winter into spring is the broad season. Follow the signs in the valley you are actually in, rather than a date you remember from somewhere else.
Can we walk a field with lambs if the path crosses it?
Yes, if it is the right of way, the dog is on a lead, and you pass steadily without crowding the animals. If a sign has closed or diverted the path, the sign wins.
Is spring a bad time for a first walk with a new dog?
It is a demanding time. A quiet lane with no stock is a kinder test than a lambing field. Let the dog succeed at an easy outing before you ask for a hard one.