Commuter Traffic

At 7.00am most of the road traffic is eastwards towards the city along the A625 Hathersage Road. Up above it's a different story. The aerial route is all westwards, most travellers being jackdaws, hundreds of them. They travel in convoys of various sizes, from 2 or 3 to 50 or more. They are sometimes joined by other members of the crow family and also wood pigeons.






This is one of the great wildlife sights, all the more enjoyable because of its easy accessibility. Much of the pleasure comes from the personality of the jackdaw, always likely to surprise the onlooker with a sudden swoop and twist apparently just for the fun of it.

To see this at its most excitingly dramatic you need to be here in January at dawn with a strong westerly wind blowing. The jackdaws look on the wind as a challenge and dive down close to the ground flying low sometimes on a level with the cars. Then the confrontation between road and air traffic at Stony Ridge produces scenes that would rival a gladiatorial contest. I'm sure many of the passengers on the 272 bus are unaware of what's happening outside.