Terns and Weeds

Two things today. What do they say about conservation?

A delightful story about the Leek-coloured Hawkweed, a flower thought to be globally extinct, but recently found to be growing in small colonies in Monsal Dale  and Chee Dale in the Peak.

Only the most enthusiastic of nature-lovers will claim to be confident in identifying the range of hawkweeds and near relatives. Most of us may love to see them but are shy of committing ourselves; we may even be happy with "a bit like a dandelion", there are so many broadly similar yellow flowers; in this case hundreds of species and 'microspecies'. And this one was only identified as a separate species 60 or so years ago.

So the news that there are people who dedicate at least part of their lives to spotting the differences is genuinely heartwarming.
http://bsbipublicity.blogspot.co.uk/2017/09/many-thanks-to-alison-riley-comms.html

BBC radio's Open Country programme featured the National Trust's recently purchased property on the Northumberland coast (£1.5 million). Here the Little Tern is protected from every known threat and watched over 24 hours a day by NT's volunteers because it can't look after itself. There are plans for rising tides, predators etc.

How far do we go? The hawkweed was simply 'found'.

The Call ....

Food for thought in these short films showing that elements of wildness can be found in parts of the UK.

https://www.adventure-journal.com/2017/09/watch-thoughtful-look-uks-unlikely-wilderness/

If we are simply looking for bits of magic in less controlled land then even on Blacka you don't have to walk very far to get a brief taste of what wildness has to offer.

Unfortunately we can't guarantee this will continue.

Even now SWT's managers may be planning the next round of chain saw operations.

What for some of us is the call of the wild is for others the compulsion to control.

Wild Angelica

Watching and Being Watched

The "overgrown" places are where some people want nature to be controlled. But they're often the richest in wildlife. It pays to keep looking, slowly move forward, then look again. We may not see it but there's always something watching us.

In this case the camera confirms what we only thought we saw. It certainly saw us.

How Wild?

Our friend with the orphean lyre headgear was watching this morning. He was on his own. This little scene says something about the quality and value of wildness on Blacka and elsewhere. Much of what's growing here is "overgrown", that is going its own way rather than being forced into a pattern prescribed by those who've never been here. The deep shrub layer and the spreading young trees look to be just the surroundings for a young deer, much more appropriate than short heather moorland. The natural beauty that we find here can never escape the influence of exploitation in the past but managed witha suitable light touch we could get a balance that satisfied all but the least flexible. That would mean a more open mind from the managers and one more engaged and  with more sensibility, so is sadly very unlikely.

But meanwhile there are still isolated views which show what can be achievedwith a wilding and partial wilding approach. Here that's likely to be unintentional on the part of the conservation charities whose failure to prioritise natural beauty over a dead handed biodiversity agenda diminishes our landscape experience.

Just Perfect

Those people who love to see our native deer can't wish for a better place to see them in natural surroundings than at Blacka Moor.

There's no shortage of managed deer parks often attached to stately homes where deer are semi domesticated. It's quite possible to see stags lying at the side of a road in such places as Hampton Court in London. They are of course fed in winter. To hear people talk of these animals as 'wild' is a travesty. Far away to the north of the comfortable surroundings of the home counties are the Scottish highlands. Many people see the deer on those mountains as being in natural surroundings. In fact they are just as managed, being kept in an artificially high numbers to serve the shooting industry. this results in an overgrazed landscape almost devoid of trees. It's possible to see deer in absurdly large herds; at that level numbers destroy the natural ecology and lacks visual appeal.

Our good fortune at Blacka has led to us seeing deer just occasionally perhaps and in small numbers. Any talk of 'damage' is nonsense when put alongside the impact of farm animals. And we just need to see them to know that this is how we should experience wildlife. The beauty can stop you short.

The spots on the back of the young deer have faded and are now barely visible even to those who can get close up. But the intense affection of the hind remains, the calf sometimes backing away from the nuzzling. This scene needs the trees and scrubby surroundings yet it's comparatively rare to see photos like this. Like the deer themselves the vegetation has not been managed. This is as close to  real experience of wild nature as we are lucky enough to get.

Our young Orphean lyre stag is not far from the hind and calf.

Scuttlings

The floor level of this woodland is densely crowded with bramble and various ferns and others. This makes great shelter for wildlife, rarely seen but sometimes heard.

During and after rain it becomes even more private and impenetrable. Just the ticket for animals seeking refuge.

This morning the sound was a desperate scuttling as something was trying to escape. My guess was a roe deer or two, unseen in the very deep bottom layer leading into the rhododendron. It was confirmed shortly afterwards by a group of prints, one of which was tiny.