Wandering in the Strangest Summer: Curbar, Froggatt and White Edge via the Longshaw Estate. 20th June 2020

20th June 2020 

I parked up on the bend in the road up to Curbar Edge from Curbar, camera-less sadly following its unfortunate inundation in the storm which had caught me at Bradford Dale, and took the low path, through the trees, passing some lovely fresh Small Tortoiseshells, and blooming Foxgloves. The woods were fairly bird-quiet, so I made my way up onto the moor, with the Heather and Meadow Pipits. There were loads of people up here, making their entertainment in the outdoors, though perhaps this is typical. A smart Whinchat, a charming summer visitor, migrant relative of the Stonechat, perched atop a frond of Bracken.

Photos taken on Curbar Edge in 2018

I spent a few moments in solstice meditation at the Stone Circle, ancient marker of this rather magical place high in the Eastern moors, and also took in the vistas across the valley, as the Swifts wheeled above and below me. I strolled downhill into Hay Wood, which was beautiful and alive with birdsong, and charming wrens. I reached the Longshaw Estate, National Trust land. The National Trust in Derbyshire was sadly mired in controversy a few years ago, when a gamekeeper was seen to place a plastic decoy Hen Harrier, a fiercely persecuted, endangered and magnificent raptor, and wait by it with a gun, until walkers sent him packing and the Trust ended his employer's shooting lease. This incident did not happen here, but on land near the Snake Pass, according to Raptor Persecution UK, but unfortunately some of the Longshaw Estate remains under grouse shooting management.

There remains a rich, wild beauty to Longshaw's moorland fringes, its moorland though well walked is home to some remarkable wildlife. A Hobby, a small migrant falcon about the size of a kestrel, but faster and more agile,  hunted over a blooming moor, its underside boldly streaked, a black mustache on its white cheeks. The sound of aero engines made me look up, as a Harvard trainer flew loudly overhead in formation with a couple of smaller machines and a Nanchang. Further engine sounds a few moments later caused me to look up again, and a Hurricane, iconic fighter of the Battle of Britain, followed the same path through the sky. 

Following my pleasant aviation interlude I continued onto the parkland, where a handsome Cuckoo sat silent, my first sighting of this bird this year. I arrived at the heart of the Trust's visitor operation, a popular temporary cafe in a wooden shed, and enjoyed a local ice cream before continuing my exploration of the parkland, enjoying Nuthatches and Coal Tits busy in the branches. A pond on the estate is a great site to see Mandarin ducks.  

I left the Longshaw Estate and all its people behind, and continued onto the high, undulating expanse of White Edge, part of Big Moor. This was quieter, though a family disconcertingly allowed their dog to run off lead. Curlews bubbled their mournful calls, and small bands of deer grazed peaceably below, and Meadow Pipits sang.  A beautiful Stonechat put on a distraction display beside the path.

Stonechat photographed at South Walney in 2015

As I returned to the car, I was surprised to find many young people gathered around, dressed for a night out in alternative stylings, perhaps en route to some Solstice gathering. Were I ten years younger I might have attempted to join them. I hope they had a good night. 

Birds Seen: Mandarin Duck, Mallard, Tufted Duck, Curlew, Woodpigeon, Cuckoo, Swift, Hobby, Magpie, Carrion Crow, Coal Tit, Great Tit, Skylark, Swallow, Willow Warbler, Blackcap, Wren, Nutchatch, Blackbird, Song Thrush, Robin, Whinchat, Stonechat, Pied Wagtail, Meadow Pipit, Chaffinch, Goldfinch. 

Mammals: Grey Squirrel, Brown Hare, Red Deer. 

Butterflies: Small Tortoiseshell, Red Admiral, Meadow Brown. 

Flashback: Curbar Edge, 30th May 2020

Natty and I took a brief drive, the first one since lockdown for a birdy trip together, to Curbar Edge on he Eastern Moors. The sun was high and bright but a gentle breeze cooled the tops. There were many families out enjoying the sun, but possible disturbing the birds somewhat. Meadow Pipits were plentiful and some stonechats a welcome sight, and there was a beautiful red Cardinal Beetle on the heather.

Cardinal Beetle on Curbar Edge. 

Unfortunately we were witness to an unfolding disaster, as a thick column of smoke rose from the moors somewhere to the North of us. A call to the Eastern Moors RSPB warden to alert him, we found his number online thanks to the miracle of mobile technology, confirmed it was on Bamford Moor, near the Derwent reservoirs. Six fire engines, and a helicopter, I learned on the internet, were needed to put it out, with the support of gamekeepers and other land workers.  In these dry summers, keep your barbecues off the moors, people, and don't smoke up there. A fire at this time of year is devastating for bird life, grouse, raptors and stonechats alike nest in the heather, and the frequency of fires in recent summers far exceeds natural levels.

The Bamford Moor Fire from Curbar Edge. 

We strolled sadly back down the low path, through the leafy birch woodland, where Natty's expert ears picked out Yellowhammer and Cuckoo calling.

Birds Seen: Mallard (flew over) Cuckoo (Heard only) Jackdaw, Carrion Crow, Skylark, Willow Warbler, Chiffchaff, Song Thrush (heard only) Robin, Stonechat, Pied Wagtail, Meadow Pipit, Chaffinch, Goldfinch, Yellowhammer (heard only) 

Not Birds Seen: Cardinal Beetle, Small Tortoiseshell, Small Heath, Green Veined White. 

Wanderings in the Strangest Summer- A retrospective.

 2nd June 2020

I parked the car in Elton, a small village just off the road to Bakewell, and took a wander along the still quiet country roads to Gratton Dale, a dry, narrow dale, host to a lot of scrub as well as wildflower rich, limestone grassy banks. There was a huge abundance of butterflies, Common Blues chasing off anything in sight. The Common Blues combined with the activity brought on by warm conditions made photographing butterflies very challenging. Among the butterflies chased off by the territorial blues was a scruffy Green Hairstreak, a species coming to the end of its season. There were plenty of very fresh Brown Argus on the wing too, possibly the univoltine (single brooded) race which occurs round here. A Tawny Owl hooted in the daytime, which seemed unusual. The blackbirds were going crazy, mobbing something unseen. A pair of Redstarts were provisioning their young.

Brown Argus

Common Blue

A couple of years ago Gratton Dale had hosted hundreds of Dark Green Fritillaries, I had visited them in late June, an abundance of big orange butterflies, but this time I only encountered a single individual. Perhaps their numbers will swell towards the summer Solstice. There were still a few early season species about, in Brimstone and Orange Tip as well as Green Hairstreak. The beetle Oedemira nobilis was seen in good numbers in all their green jewel brilliance, both sexes, thick-thighed male and female, feasting on the large daisies. Abundant Large Skipper butterflies were my first of the year of this common species. 

Dark Green Fritillary

Oedemira nobilis (male)

Oedemira nobilis (female)

Long Dale was quieter, and lacked the wild kaleidoscope of butterflies, though a Skylark sang overhead. A small copper was pretty but camera shy, and there were plenty of Small Heaths. Long Dale is a National Nature Reserve and kept close grazed, genrally regarded as very well managed, buit I felt it perhaps a little overgrazed, and it lacked the diversity of habitat and the lush verdance of Gratton Dale.  Day flying moths were about, including a Wood Tiger, an arctid with beautiful cream and brown forewings and yellow dappled hindwings, and Forester moths, I'd not like to guess a species, fat and metallic green, were abundant.

Small Heath

Wood Tiger

I climbed the footpath North out of Long Dale over the farmland, and a pair of Linnet watched me attentively as I passed, from a perch atop the Gorse. I avoided a field full of cattle and took in the views. A narrow path among the white Cow Parsley led me down to a road, which I crossed, entering a treecreeper infested patch of woodland. This led me along a stone path to the infant River Bradford. I elected not to try to walk Bradford Dale too, on grounds of time, and took the footpath back toward Gratton village and Elton. Near Gratton I saw a stunning Brown Hare in the grass, and in the grounds of a dairy, numerous Small Tortoiseshells defended a patch of nettles.

Large Skipper

Gratton Village was gloriously wildlife rich, surprisingly so, with an attractive pair of reed buntings, apparently breeding beside a small stream. Chirping House Sparrows were around the houses, and House Martins nested under the eaves. A beautiful Wall butterfly was an unexpected pleasure to see in this pretty stream side hamlet.

Wall

I made my way across more fields back into Elton, to head home, having enjoyed a beautiful, butterfly rich stroll in the glorious June weather. 

Gratton Dale Birds Seen: Buzzard, Tawny Owl, Jay, Magpie, Jackdaw, Rook, Carrion Crow, Great Tit, Willow Warbler, Chiffchaff, Whitethroat, Blackbird, Redstart, Goldfinch. 

Butterflies: Large Skipper (10) Green Veined White (6) Dark Green Fritillary (2) Common Blue (25) Dingy Skipper (6) Brimstone (4) Brown Argus (5) Orange Tip (1) Green Hairstreak (3) Speckled Wood (2) Small Heath (3) 

Other invertebrates of note: Oedemira nobilis, Aeshna juncea

Mammals: Grey Squirrel

Green Hairstreak

Long Dale Birds: Woodpigeon, Magpie, Carrion Crow, Great Tit, Skylark, Pied Wagtail, Linnet. 

Butterflies Green Hairstreak (1) Dingy Skipper (1) Small Heath (19) Small Copper (1) Large Skipper (1) Large White (2)

Others: Forester Moth, Wood Tiger. 

Elton and Gratton Environs Birds: Pheasant, Stock Dove, Woodpigeon, Collared Dove, Kestrel, Magpie (+fl) Jackdaw, Carrion Crow, Blue Tit, Great Tit, Swallow (+Fl) House Martin, Chiffchaff, Whitethroat, Wren, Treecreeper, Mistle Thrush, Robin, Redstart, House Sparrow, Pied Wagtail, Goldfinch, Reed Bunting. 

Butterflies: Green Veined White (5) Orange Tip (3) Small Tortoiseshell (9) Wall (1) 

Mammals: Brown Hare, Rabbit, Grey Squirrel. 

Beautiful Staffordshire

I would like to apologise for the delay, I've been a little under the weather these past few days and have been slow to update. But here goes.

Staffordshire is beautiful. I might be biased because a particular lovely young lady lives there, but the woodland wildlife I met there last week was something else. It’s the beginning of summer and as such the migrants are properly starting to arrive and get on with their business. The resident wildlife is on the go too, butterflies are on the wing,  and birds are singing, proclaiming territories and gathering food for nestlings. So it was at Coombes Valley on Wednesday, when I made a return visit.  No sooner had I arrived than I had encountered my first Small Copper butterfly of the year, a very handsome little creature indeed, with deep orange on his forewings, his brown hindwings flushed with an iridescent orange sheen. He sunned himself breifly on the dandelion infested meadow.

Coombes Valley is a woodland nature reserve, a mixture of young and ancient woodland, clinging to the walls of a steep sided valley, with a flood meadow set at the bottom, lying beside a small, fast flowing river. Where the river bends, sits a bench overlooked by a pair of nest boxes, and it was here that we saw our first Pied Flycatchers. We’d been sitting a moment or  two, fretting about our forgotten lunch, when a very smart little bird landed on a twig just a couple of metres away. It was black and white, with a bright white underside. A male Pied Flycatcher! It took off and appeared to perform a little aerial dance in front of us, in pursuit of flies. It was there for a few seconds and then disappeared among the branches of a hawthorn.

We waited a little longer, and saw, to our surprise, peering out of a hole in a tree, an adult Great Spotted woodpecker. He, and he was a male by the red patch on the back of his head, slowly, cautiously left his hole, and clung to the side of the tree which he had made his home. Waiting for a few minutes, he appeared to change his mind and disappeared back into his hole. Perhaps he was incubating a clutch of eggs and waiting for his mate to return from foraging, so it could be his turn. A Grey Wagtail, all flicking tail and smart yellow, darted about over the babbling brook, and a chaffinch sang its brief, repeated song in a tree above us.  A few moments later the Pied Flycatcher returned, with the female, browner but no less smart and charming, following behind. The male let me take a couple of record photos from a distance. It was, as the RSPB is fond of saying, a “moment.”

After we waited a bit longer in the hope of getting a better photo of the pied fly, we decided to head up into the woods. In the canopy birds sang, robins, pied flycatchers, great tits and willow warblers. A bird with a reddish tail, probably a female redstart, shot up into the canopy and out of sight as we rounded a corner on the muddy woodland trail. We stood and waited for it for ages. We only caught brief glimpses of Coombes Valley’s other resident passerine attraction, unfortunately, but we seemed to encounter a pied flycatcher every couple of hundred yards. The second was in a clearing when I seemed to startle a male and saw his striking black and orange underside as he flew away at speed, again into the canopy.

Among the whole host of woodland birds we saw at Coombes Valley were Nuthatch, Blue, Great and Coal tits, and a very obliging treecreeper. A treecreeper is an odd little brown bird, both adorable and reminiscent of an ageing woodland wizard at once. It has a greyish white underside and a dark, streaked back, and clings close to trees, creeping up the bark against which it is remarkably camouflaged.  This one broke all the rules, and almost posed for a photo, his curved beak full of grubs and spiders, clinging to a tree just metres away. We watched him for several minutes, and even as we walked towards him he barely flinched, just moving up the tree and around the trunk out of view.

As we left the woods and joined the flood meadow at the valley bottom, where whitethroats and blackcaps sang, replacing the true woodland species, a dark shape flew over, and it was distinct from all the other crows. It was bigger, and it had a diamond shaped tail. I’ve not seen many of my favourite Corvid and avian Goth in England, having met most of them in Scotland and Greece, but this was a raven, and a beautiful example at that. It crossed the valley and disappeared over the trees, slowly. There is something about the shape of a raven, its long wings, its slightly back facing primary feathers, that big tail, which just places it in a league of beauty above other crows, imposing and splendid.
Natty brought my attention to what appeared to be an owl pellet on the ground, which was attended by at least four beetles. Some of these had a striking pattern of orange markings, around a shape a bit like a cross on their wing cases.  I recalled the Sexton Beetle, which buries dead animals for its larvae to feed on, and wondered if this was it, confused by the animal remains in the owl pellet. Another beetle was round, with a flattened body, matt black wing cases and an orange thorax. I have no idea. If any of my readers can help I would be interested to hear from them.  

To conclude a day of wonderful wildlife encounters, Natty and I walked back to the nearby town of Leek through the grassland and copses, the beautiful rolling Staffordshire countryside, down a barely signposted footpath, taking us through fields of cows, and pigs,over a disused railway line, into the smart pleasant town, just as the night fell, and in time to find the fish and chip shop closed! The following day, we would head out into the Staffordshire Moorlands again, to the amusingly named Tittesworth Reservoir, to meet some more unexpected wildlife.