The Returning.....

First, warmer air albeit carried by a pretty stark west wind. Always after snow the thaw seems inhospitable. The most unforgiving place is near the woods at the Stony Ridge end of Blacka where wind penetrates as if there's something to prove. Cyclists on the Hathersage Road out for their Sunday pleasure (?) jaunt grimaced and birds bound for Derbyshire ducked and wheeled.


The next return was the deer prints in the snow, quite large ones found all over the moor.

I've seen no prints at all while the snow was around so assumed they had moved to lower ground. But the deer this morning were found in the woods sheltered from the wind.

They were eating bramble leaves, and there are plenty of them growing clear of the lying snow.


Next returner is our robin.

He actually turned up yesterday but is now properly back in the routine. Where he's been getting his meals is a mystery. Now the blackbird and chaffinch who had moved in during his absence will have to be made to understand who is the real proprietor