Custodians

Farmers proclaim to the naive that they are custodians of the countryside. In similar vein we might think of SWT as custodians of the car park. It was already small and often inadequate before they dumped this here three months ago.

Space taken up has further been reduced by the lake at the side; a lot of dry weather is needed for it to dry up.

Birds versus Traffic

Whatever the reason, birds have chosen to make this part of Blacka their own. They have been bravely defending their proprietorial rights against onslaughts from the modern world in a way I've not observed before. They deserve our unqualified admiration. Close by is the car park (or what remains of it) and the main Hathersage Road, the chosen route for those who daily export the last bits of what used to be the Peak District National Park.



Today it was mainly a solo effort by the resident Song Thrush but two days back the sound was extraordinary with the Thrush joined by Blackbird, Chaffinch, Blackcap and several others hard to identify against the roar of rush hour traffic. Nowhere else on Blacka I know do they sing as loudly.

My preferred birdsong experience is not this. I wish to hear birds unchallenged in the calm resonant acoustic of tranquil woodland. But this was something else.

What symbolism do have here? The front line where nature battles the ruthless face of the modern economy?

Questions and More Questions

Now how should I respond to this?

In the run up to June 8th, ask your candidates: what will you do for wildlife? https://t.co/wXzPdu55GV #GE2017 pic.twitter.com/VGA7XyPupt

— Sheffield WT (@WildSheffield) May 17, 2017

.......... After first asking what SWT has done for wildlife - apart that is from putting barbed wire around it, devastating it with sheep and cattle grazing and setting the chainsaws onto it?

Beat Music

These woods have not hosted a woodpecker in recent years. This year his drumming has been constant. 

Not enough to drown out the sound of the illicit rave on a Friday night and Saturday morning not long ago. The ravers will not have heard him, nor any other bird, being deaf to anything not over-amplified.

On a Hill Far Away

It's a bit over 50 miles by road to Lincoln with its superb cathedral and takes an hour and a half. The distance may be ten miles less in a direct line. In perfect conditions we can see it quite clearly with the naked eye, but we rarely get that early in the morning. The main reason is that we're looking into the main source of light to the east.

This Monday morning cloud and a weather change were spreading from the west gradually darkening the skies overhead.

The hazy forerunner of this had already reached Lincoln reducing visibility but the outline of the cathedral, conveniently occupying a hilltop in otherwise flat land, was still unmistakeable. Those who want a better chance of seeing Lincoln  clearly from Blacka should try a bright breezy day in the late afternoon

Multi Sensory Experience

 

Snatch it while you still can. The elements of joyous wildness that still exist on Blacka are there to celebrate and we should do so before the philistines with their grants and power tools destroy all. Soon it will be just a memory.

In autumn like some others I flirt with the idea that these two magical seasons are somehow equal in appeal but really there's no contest. Spring is about rebirth and that should always trump graceful decline, lovely though that can be. Also autumn's appeal is largely visual while spring's also got sounds some of them exquisite like the sudden arrival of certain bird species. It's not too much to claim that it's a multi sensory season.

I wonder if it's a problem whether many people are unable to fully appreciate the wonders of spring in these more natural surroundings in that they are surrounded in their streets by more artificially induced over-dressed garden shrubs specially imported to produce an early and gaudy new season effect. Is the palate so over exposed to colourfully forced novelty that what we have here fails to register as it should?

The 9-Year-Old Test

One of the measures of value in a place for me has always been what I would have thought of it as a 9 year old.

This woodland passes the test with flying colours. It has life and mystery and secrets guaranteed to captivate a child. And these features are not static but change with the seasons. Today we didn't need the sun we had yesterday. New leaves added perspective as well as colour. Many birds sang and there was always promise of others.

And ground level is astonishing as bilberry shrubs get higher each year providing plenty of cover for birds and mammals - and children.