We stopped in Darley Dale, and, barely having begun our trek uphill, decided to take five in a park in the town to have our lunch. Here, a pair of bullfinches, the male a bright salmon pink, became our first of these for the day. Crows and Jackdaws were calling everywhere and the daffodils and crocuses in the park had begun to flower.
On our way up the long stretch of winding lane we paused at a noisy cluster of Scots Pine (Pinus sylvestris), a plantation tree, to see what birds we could find. There was a robin singing in it and Coal Tits (Parus ater) were numerous and my partner saw her first goldcrest. these pretty, active little charmers are not uncommon but their small size and arboreal habits tend to make them a little hard to see unless one has become tuned in. Once you meet a goldcrest, you tend to start finding them everywhere.
Other species we ran into on the way up included a lovely pale-phase buzzard, almost Osprey-like in appearance, accross the valley, active, feeding Nuthatches, smart, noisy Jays, their calls, reminiscent of cinematic dinosaurs, echoing through the trees. Most of the little birds we investigated, however, still turned out to be Blue and Great tits, which are ubiquitous. As we reached the farm where we'd been tipped off about the bramblings, we spotted a couple of chaffinches, flying between a line of trees and the ground, and scanned about for their Northern visitors. A smart, black and orange finch alighted in the high forks of one of the trees, the light catching his bright orange breast. Inevitably he flew as soon as the camera was pointed at him! We saw a few of these species before a change in the landscape ahead spurred us on.
Beeley Moor is actually moorland. Tussocks of Calluna vulgaris or Ling Heather mingle with Purple Moor Grass and other typical species. A carpet of moss lies beneath the heather canopy and different mosses and lichens of several colours cover any exposed pieces of rock. The only birds we saw here on the top of the moor were a small flock of Linnet (Carduelis cannabina), the Shrike eluded us. There is a stirring sense of beauty about the moors, I was fond of walking on them as a child when I'd visit my Grandparents in the Yorkshire pennines. On Monday, however, the wildlife highlight was definitely the botany, and the sense of space which comes with being on the moors. The emptiness. So much of this habitat has been lost to "improvement" for pasture, and the addition of fertilisers favouring grasses which outcompete the heather, but what is left retains its sense of awe and magic. Under a blue sky we reluctantly turned and headed downhill. A couple of birds made us jump as they rose from the heather beside the road, and these were the moorland specialist Red Grouse, (Lagopus lagopus scoticus)
Unfortunately our enjoyment of the spectacular sunset descending on the wild open hills of the peak district was curtailed a little as we were forced to run for the bus! The beauty of the peaks made us stop repeatedly to take photos, as the sunset haze and the mist began to obscure the big landscape, but we had to remind each other of the need to catch the train to Stoke on Trent, from which we would head out into the Staffordshire Moorlands to continue our adventure.
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