Last Night On The Moors

Summer on the Moors of the Peak District has a distinctive purple flavour to it...
In the next few weeks the landscape in some areas will be transformed into a sea of Purple Heather, but there is at the moment a taster of this colouration with the first Thistles coming into bloom...
Last night wasn't a good night for spotting Red Grouse, but there were plenty of other Moorland birds around.
Evenings like early mornings are a great time for watching wildlife and the birds were very active and in very good voice.

One of the most numerous birds on display was the Meadow Pipit, although as usual you had to look carefully into long grass for them...

Highlight for me last night and always a pleasure to see was the Golden Plover...

Up With The Larks

First visit in almost a month to the Derbyshire Peaks this morning and a very early start.
In fact you could say I was up with the Larks.
Well to be precise, I was up with the Skylarks and they were showing pretty well today...

The Peaks are a very special place at this time of year, full of birdlife and song. A close relative to the Lark family are Pipits and this Meadow Pipit was doing his best to provide the song...

He was posing very nicely in between bursts as well...

The Moors look very different at this time of year with plantlife recovering from the very harsh winters that are a feature of this high country.
The heather is starting to thicken and it will only be a few weeks before it's in bloom with it's beautiful purple flowers.

While we wait for the heather to bloom, I think we can be more than content with the lovely Hare's-Tailed Cottongrass that covers large areas of the landscape at the moment...



This singing Golden Plover seemed to be enjoying the change of scenery too...

Red Grouse Study (5)

Back up the moors this morning for another trip to see how the Grouse were getting on...

Unusually for me, I overslept this morning and didn't leave the house until 7.30.

Actually, I've had a stinking cold for the last couple of days and I really didn't feel like going anywhere, but I had been looking forward to seeing the Grouse for the first time in a couple of weeks and decided to make the effort.

I was really hoping that there might of been some youngsters to be seen today, but sadly I didn't manage to spot any.

In fact it was an unusually quiet day for Red Grouse and I only saw 4 males and just the one female.

I must admit, that feeling so lousy restricted the amount of searching I was prepared to do and although it was a nice bright morning, the usual cold wind wasn't making me feel any better and my energy levels were very low.

You always have to be careful when approaching birds, especially at this time of year when they are tending to their young and I was very conscious this morning of not getting too close to the Grouse in case there were any juveniles around.

I've become very familiar with the Grouse in this area and I knew that if I set my camera on the tripod and waited, then the birds would come to me.

Sure enough after a short time, a curious male bird came within a few feet...

By this time, I was losing the battle with my cold and after foolishly forgetting to bring any water with me, I decided to call it a day and head back to the car.

The long walk back to the car seemed to take forever and I really was beginning to regret getting out of bed.

The only thing keeping me going was the occasional wildlife sighting, which included a very distant Mountain Hare and a few beautiful Golden Plover...

I was the only human being in this lonely part of the Peak District this morning and although I normally revel in the isolation, it became slightly worrying at times as my tiredness started to get the better of me and my thirst became more and more of a problem.

The sights and sounds of the moorland birds lifted my spirits and helped to keep my focus away from self-pitying state of mind.

There are always good numbers of Skylark about at this time of year, but spotting them isn't easy in the thick heather landscape.

Now and again, you do get lucky and one will make it's self known to you...

Finally, the views are always stunning in this part of the world and it's always nice to stop for a while and take them in...

Red Grouse Study (2)

It was one of those typical mornings on Bleaklow with the bright spring sunshine I left behind at the bottom of the Snake Pass replaced by a thin mist and cold chill on my arrival...

I was greeted almost as soon as I arrived by a pair of Grouse who seemed to take as much interest in me as I had in them, allowing some very close shots without too much effort on my part.

A good start then...Well yes and no!

Yes it was great to start the morning off with such lovely close views, but it did come at a price after deciding to wear my soft trainer-like (and not very waterproof) walking boots and finding myself ankle deep in a watery peak bog!

So with cold feet and ringing wet socks I continued on the crude rocky path through the moorland in search of more Grouse and it wasn't long before I encountered several other pairs.

I noticed that the male and female Grouse were staying very close to each other in all the pairs I saw, which is a sure sign that courtship is well and truly underway.

Hopefully in the coming weeks, we might have some young to photograph!

There was certainly a noticeable change in atmosphere on the moors today and the familiar sound of the Red Grouse was matched by spring arrivals including Curlew, Skylark and the very beautiful Golden Plover.

There were also some dramatic changes to the environment as well with the sight of dozens of bulk bags that were scattered across the moors due to some essential conservation work on the delicate peat landscape.

Because most of this project will take place in this area of the Peak District, I thought I should explain a little more about this harsh environment...

Bleaklow is a high area of peat covered gritstone moorland accessible from the A57 Snake Pass and a few miles from the nearest town of Glossop.

The area is the most easterly point in the British Isles over 2000 ft.

Much of the main plateau is boggy moorland seamed by water-eroded channels in the peat known as 'Groughs' and it's traverse is regarded to be the most navigationaly challenging in the Peak District.