Welcome to the world little ones

Some great news from curlew cam this week, we have three chicks, hatched over the last couple of days. The chicks are from the third nest found, the nest was one of two nests located last week, making 4 nests, 12 eggs and 3 chicks.

Three chicks in the nest

So nest monitoring is now in full swing, each nest camera recording unit is checked every three days, this is how long the battery power and memory on the SD cards will last.

The Ring Ouzel

It's early on a bright May morning, and I'm standing in a holloway beneath a gritstone edge once known as "Wildmoorstones". Around me, the bracken is beginning to push through the peat and unfurl, and purple lanterns of bilberry flowers are blooming. The scent of peat is in the air, as is the distinctive sound of a ring ouzel in full song.It is a song that is at home here, in this landscape of rugged crags, blanket bog, windswept heather and running water. A wild sound that compliments the acoustic qualities of quarries past. A sound that ricochets off boulders and forgotten millstones, and is echoed down in the gurgle of Burbage Brook. It is a sound that flows from high places and floods to pool in the natural ampitheatre of the valley.

The gritstone edges of Derbyshire support a localised population of this rare and beautiful bird. Known to many as the “mountain blackbird”, the ring ouzel can be easily mistaken for it’s more common relative of the thrush family. But look closer, and you will see a telltale white crescent, or “gorget” adorning it’s breast. Silvery wingstreaks and a piping song as clear as mountain springwater distinguish it as the blackbird's secretive, upland cousin; a ring ouzel.

A male ring ouzel 

Bill

Just over a year ago, I met Bill Gordon, North Lees and Stanage ranger with the Peak District National Park.

Our curlew monitoring season has begun once again. This year we are supporting the RSPB national curlew management project that aims to understand the recent declines in population and aims to redress this.

Eurasian curlew, Numenius arquata   

The UK has an estimated 66,000 pairs of curlew, which are Amber listed in the UK due to recent decline. Globally the species is classified as near threatened by the IUCN red list due to the declining population trend.

Volunteering gets a helping hand on the Eastern Moors

Over the last couple of years the Eastern Moors Partnership has relied heavily on their dedicated but limited number of volunteers. With the help of a three year grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF), volunteering on the Eastern Moors is about to get big! 

Existing volunteers for the Eastern Moors Partnership, a joint venture between the National Trust and the RSPB, have dedicated their time, sweat and skill delivering high level conservation, visitor experience, access, ecological and archaeological monitoring projects, but with limited resources.  Katherine Clarke, Visitor Experience Manager for the Eastern Moors Partnership said, ‘The HLF grant means we can now build our capacity to deliver projects by expanding the number of volunteers helping to look after this special part of the Peak District National Park. We can also provide volunteers with the kit and equipment they both need and deserve, when carrying out vital project work.”

Red deer after sunset

When most animals are getting their heads down for the night, there are some that just keep going.  The red deer rarely sleep for long stretches at a time and as dusk falls they come down off the high moors in search of the more nutritious grasses at lower levels.
We often see red deer on the skyline from the road but....

...after 6.00 this evening I watched at least 50 wild red deer without leaving the car. Some were close to Sheffield Road but most of them were within 100 meters of the road between Owler Bar and Longshaw.