Shy

As before when I've not seen deer for some time I took a detour in the hope of a sighting. Three duly appeared but heard the dry twig snap under my boot and were gone into these trees leaving no time to get the camera out.

Returning over Blacka Hill more were seen making for the birch haven where the shade was just right to give them sanctuary.

From the view they did allow us to get of them it's clear the winter layer of grey and scruffy insulation has been replaced with a handsome chestnut coat. One of the larger stags turned its back on us and lay down in the leggy heather obviously deciding we were of no consequence. There was at least one hind in the group of five.

Full Greenery

At its best the morning following a grey, wet day, Blacka is now well greened over with bilberry shrubs swelling into mounds and banks promising a fruity harvest.

Cotton grass appears to have fluffed out with sun-drying after yesterday's shampoo.

I can't think of a good reason for needing to bring heavy machinery onto the land above unless it's connected with the gas pipeline.

No Cattle

By this morning SWT's cattle had still not arrived on the Blacka. Obviously something has gone awry with their plans. Originally April was to be the start of their grazing season. Last year they couldn't start until May after the walls and fence were complete. Nor have I seen deer recently although they are around during the night, fresh hoofprints being seen in more than one place.

Friends of Blacka Moor

A story of gathering frustration, growing indignation and, ultimately, sheer disbelief.

A group of us got together as ‘The Friends’ in 2005 and set about organising a petition about the management of Blacka Moor. In the aftermath Sheffield Wildlife Trust ran a ‘consultation’, the Icarus Process, and some of the Friends attended this - a series of 7 three hour meetings. A lack of openness and some devious behind the scenes attempts to control the progress of the consultation beforehand had made us very suspicious but we stayed in the process and made good headway with our view of a Blacka Moor that should be free from intrusive management - but with a traditional site worker to deal with maintenance. By the last meeting we seemed to have a good chance of carrying the day and gaining a consensus for our view. At that late stage – the last hour of the final session, SWT and the English Nature representative dug their heels in and refused to countenance a site worker. The independent report of the facilitators of the process made recommendations about future consultation. SWT ignored these recommendations and went back to their original plans while trying to suggest that their strategy had evolved from the Icarus meetings!

Please click HERE to read the remainder of this post.

Free From..............

Most supermarkets have a range of “Free From” food products. Mrs Blacka Blogger having various allergy problems usually lingers in the aisle where they are to be found. In the food case it’s often gluten free or dairy free that’s the key.

“Free From” in relation to Blacka came up at the 2006 Icarus Process at which we were invited to produce a ‘vision’ for the site. At the beginning the facilitators asked us to say what we most valued about Blacka. People mentioned various things like the quietness, the bilberries, the views, even the wildness etc.

At Blacka Blogger’s turn, feeling a bit stuck, I had to say that there were too many individual things to mention but there was one thing that encompassed what to me was special about Blacka making it different to every other comparable access space. That was the fact that it was or had been largely free from many things that sometimes compromised the value of other places. I then elaborated…..

Free from farming, from farm animals, from farm fences and gates, from intrusive farm practices and management, from farm vehicles, from the feeling that you are always walking in a space where someone is earning a living, in short feeling genuinely free. That’s not the same as expecting to have a licence to do just what I want. Valuing a place for being itself brings respect unlike that value that comes from seeing it as a convenient location to pursue one chosen activity.

Needless to say my vision statement was chucked out by the fundamentalist conservationists who perceived it as being a threat to their hegemony. But this vision lived on through the remainder of the Icarus sessions and it’s a measure of how powerful it is that the conservation people at English Nature and PDNPA were badly rattled by it having to resort to bad temper and underhand tactics to defeat it.

Singing in the Rain

I try to put up at least one picture a day but it’s tricky in the rain without an underwater camera. And today when we arrived it was coming down with a vengeance.

It held up just enough to take some bedraggled cow parsley against a wet wall. About typical of the morning.


Birds carry on singing irrespective. Today’s Gene Kelly prize goes to the cuckoo who was constantly calling and frequently visible. Over the last few years cuckoos' appearance here has been irregular. About five years ago there was a very poor year and I hardly heard any. This year cuckoos have been around every morning, suggesting two or more pairs. This is probably a sign that other birds the cuckoo needs are doing well. I’m disappointed not to have heard the female call this spring but live in hope. I assume the birds are promiscuous. Fidelity would probably harm its image!

Singing in the Woods

The birdsong in the shade of the woods has not the same sunny disposition as that further up. The more resonant acoustic adds a darker hue to the sound. Here you can hear some of the same birds but also the more elusive wood warbler with his high plaintive notes.

On the edge of the wood is this fine Scots Pine. Originally it must have had lots of space around it enabling it to develop side boughs early on; being in a sheltered position it's also managed to keep them.

Landfill and Blacka

Landfill is a pretty grubby business. Buying up land and digging holes in it which you then fill up with rubbish. Being environmentally abhorrent it's disapproved of. But government is stuck for what to do about it because the population and its industry friends are hooked on consumption of goods which create more and more waste. Instead of stopping landfill it decides that those who gain from it should not make outrageous profits. So it devised the landfill tax and landfill tax credits. The rules say that landfill companies have to contribute to environmental schemes. The working out of it all can be complex. But the results are that approved groups (like wildlife trusts) benefit from grants from landmark companies like Veolia and Biffa who then are able to claim that they are wonderfully environmentally responsible. SWT gets funds from Veolia and Sita.

Hmmmn.

Is it that different to the packaging industry giving large sums to the Keep Britain Tidy organisation to ensure that what you do about litter is to educate the public rather than stopping the production of the stuff at source? Or the quarry industry who also claim great environmental credit through the Hanson Trust while taking away a half of the Peak District in huge polluting lorries?