Grouse Links

Some links to pieces about grouse shooting.

From The Independent by Mark Avery:

http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/not-such-a-glorious-twelfth-should-driven-grouseshooting-be-banned-10419942.html

Opinion piece in the Scottish Herald

http://www.heraldscotland.com/opinion/13584425.Agenda__Nothing_glorious_about_this_day_of_bloody_murder_on_the_moors/

Cowberry Preserve

 

Mountain Cranberry, Cowberry or Lingonberry, all names for the same red berries; whatever you call it there's lots around and it's reputed to be very healthy. But unlike bilberry it's not suitable for eating raw. Some sugar is needed.

A good preserve can be made and kept refrigerated or frozen and used as an accompaniment with savory dishes.

1 lb cowberries

2½ oz sugar

Some orange zest
3 tbsps water

Mix together in a saucepan and heat gently for 10/15 mins until berries start to burst.
Allow to cool.

Store in a suitable plastic container in freezer.

On The Road - the A625

There was a time, some 20 years ago perhaps, and many times before that, when we regularly would hear voices raised saying “something must be done about it” or, it went on, the national park will be destroyed, its appeal lost for good. 

What was being talked about was the roads and the traffic and the loss of tranquillity. Nothing was ever done about it, nothing the tiniest bit effective anyway. And that call for action rarely gets heard now. A new generation has grown up for whom the situation when they were children is the norm, the baseline: to them roads with constant fast moving cars and huge HGVs is what they expect to see – and hear. There is a level of experience which will always be denied them but will they miss what they’ve never seen? Without imagination perhaps not. As for us oldies we have to repress our longings for quieter, more relaxing and more natural surroundings or spend our time festering in regrets and resentment. An alternative, at least for some middle aged who can afford it, is to embrace the new craze for restless speed, buy a fast car and race round the Peak District roads possibly endangering your own life and that of others.

That seems to have been the choice made by the male middle aged driver of a newish white BMW car which hurtled around the bend at Piper House the other day. He just about held the curve. I was in car sedately travelling in the opposite direction and remained shaken up for some time afterwards, while walking on the moor. That bend has been the scene of tragic deaths in the past and may well be so again if nothing “is done about it”.

The wall bounding Blacka has been regularly punctured by vehicles over the years.

And the bus stop for the Piper House entrance has at least three times been thrust into the ground below, sometimes accompanied by car and driver.

I’ve spent some time trying to delve into road safety issues over the years and come to the conclusion that there is no political will to address serious concerns. After many years of complaining, and numerous incidents, an illuminated sign was erected on the side of this road lower down before the S bend on the junction of Sheephill Road. It was quite effective, suddenly lighting up and telling people to ‘Slow Down’. Some months ago it ceased to work. Nothing has been done to repair it. Consequently those of us who know of the dangers ahead are tailgated when we slow down. Does anybody accept responsibility?

More Flowering

The flowers of Cow Parsley, a feature of spring, have been gone from our pathsides for more than a month. Yet here beside the main bridleway leading down to Strawberry Lee Lane we can find it still in flower. But wait. This is not Cow Parsley but its near identical successor, Hedge Parsley.

It's not nearly as pervasive as Cow Parsley and I've only found it in this one spot. And that's the surprise because we see very few flowering plants along this bridleway and it's competing with bracken.

There may be some favourable condition here. A solitary Elder grows over the top and may have some influence.  Another factor is the practice years ago of surfacing and repairing bridleways with limestone. There is a good presence of Climbing Corydalis nearby too, also co-existing with the bracken.

While the delicate Hedge Parsley is not**(see below) to be found in the calcareous northern borders, and not forgetting Hogweed, another large umbellifer is now flowering. This is Angelica, common in the White Peak but not expected here.

An even more common plant looking somewhat like an umbellifer has now come into flower. This is Yarrow, often seen as a very small flower on cut and mown edges but when it gets the chance has a special beauty.

 _______________________________

** This is wrong. I've now found a small area of Hedge Parsley below the wall.

Sick as .... an Icon?

Here come shooters, photographers and the heather beetle onto the 'iconic' heather

The day that overpaid financial services employers and employees arrive to slaughter the grouse on heather moorland is also the time when those other shooters on the hills get out. This time they have their cameras to shoot pictures of the 'iconic' moorland  to insert in publicity designed to show how important their management is. We've seen this so often in PR literature from Eastern Moors and Sheffield Moors. It's essential that all pictures of this landscape are taken in August promoting the myth that this is what it's like most of the time. They will also tell us it is wild.

Any pretence that heather moorland is a wild or even semi-wild habitat does not survive examination however much hype we get from vested interests.  It's worth remembering this when it's getting the attention it is at the moment, with Peak Park publicists extolling the attractions of the purple heather and lots of publicity about the so-called 'glorious' twelfth on Wednesday. Purple heather is widely regarded as grand and wholly natural. The reverse is the case. It is so artificial it really needs men in white coats to look after it.

The fact is heather is a crop and its flowering in August should be seen in the same way as the yellow fields of oil-seed rape that we see in May. The intensive growing of heather as with other intensive crops lays it open to disease and attack by organisms that would not thrive so well in a genuinely natural setting. If you're an insect and you feed on apples you feel all your birthdays have come at once when you stumble on an apple orchard; you invite all your pals along you set up home and you all enjoy the feast. Hence the reliance on massive doses of pesticides. It's much the same with heather.

Heather is a crop grown for the benefit of grouse which are reared for the benefit of moor landowners who manage to persuade wealthy people from London and abroad to enjoy the fiction that they are hunters for a day.

But in many places this largely monoculture crop is sick. On Blacka and elsewhere it is dying from old age and also from the attentions of the heather beetle.  A close look will reveal that much of the heather which should now be purple is actually a rusty colour.

Not healthy at all. this emphasises the problems of relying on a mass covering of one crop. Grouse moor owners may try to rid themselves of the beetle by burning - success not guaranteed and of course what else will you kill? Here heather grows senescent and keels over; when scrub and trees are cut as well there is a resultant fire hazard from the dry dead heather. SRWT's solution? fire breaks scarring the landscape.

Moving On

The appearance of different plants marks the moving on of the season; the same with other organisms. Once Tawny Grisette comes along I always feel that the next step will take us closer to autumn. Yet sunrise remains about 5.30.

Tawny Grisette is now all over the birch woodland coming up before the Brown RollRim which shares its habitat.

The newly emerged grisette has a resplendent glossy cap which dulls as it enlarges and changes shape, often splitting. Lots of them around and difficult to miss just now;  a member of the notorious amanita family of fungi although arguably harmless unlike its close relatives and some lookalikes. So we don't sample it.

Another characteristic plant of the mid August period is Mugwort.

This is one of those plants that has been tried for various medicinal purposes over many centuries and many cultures. One that may be worth trying is its use at one time for repelling insects. Could be an alternative to waving away midges with a fern?

Wanderings and Encounters

"Lost yer way, 'ave yer?" said to me many times as a response to my habitual puzzled look.

There are occasional reports of encounters with deer in the oddest of places including around the inner city. Some of these sightings are late at night after the pubs have closed, but even so a proportion of them must be reliable. The surprise may mirror my experience of having lived most of my life before coming across a wild deer and then it was not truly wild being in a park attached to a stately home, not free wandering like the one on the moor this morning.

There are 'green corridors' around Sheffield and they tend to follow the lines of streams and rivers flowing in the direction of the city; they are wildlife friendly especially at night time. Deer do wander and sometimes it seems to be aimlessly. Individuals may get restless despite being, in the case of the reds, herd animals. It's quite common to see a solitary animal looking unsure of which way to go as I find myself in the supermarket having lost my list.

Most recently I've heard that deer have been seen in the city's General Cemetery quite close to the inner ring road. The report mentioned roe deer but also that a muntjac had been attacked by a dog within the grounds.

I've seen no muntjac as yet on Blacka but they may be around. They are not herd animals and their spread across the country testifies to their wanderings.

This local red went first one way then another as if plucking up courage to ask directions from the locals.