... and near the Blacksike Quarry a pair of Red Grouse were using a stone wall as the stage for their courtship behaviour ...
... with the male turning to approach the female ...
... as another male looked on from among the vegetation ...
Every day seems different and with the ground freezing and thawing the Lapwing flock on Stagsike Meadow come and goes in response ... they always make an attractive spectacle with several hundred present on some days ...
Recent dustings of snow and heavy hoar frost made the top hundred metres of Cold Fell into a completely different landscape ...
... unremittingly blue skies and a barely perceptible breeze made for an idyllic scene on the summit ...
... with the low winter sun adding to the sense of the arctic ...
... and Red Grouse flying all around, sometime leaving their prints ...
... the snowy wastes hosted few species ... the only other bird present was an unexpected female Kestrel ...
... then looking across the Black Burn towards Byers Pike which was low enough to escape the snow and casting a habitual glance at the Haltonlea Hut ...
... this being the place from which I had spent many a long day over more than a ten year period in search of Hen Harriers ... often early in the breeding season I would look south towards the uncomfortably close boundary fence separating the Geltsdale RSPB Reserve from the intensively managed Knarsdale Estate Grouse Moor and see the barrel of a shotgun protruding from the gamekeepers dugout ... this would always be an indicator that there were Hen Harriers about ... not a very subtle message about the intentions of the gamekeepers ... the history of this along with many other shooting estates contains a littany of acts of illegal persecution of raptors and doubtless an immeasurably larger list of atrocities committed without witness in these wild and mainly unvisited parts ...
I am sure that many readers will already have signed the latest e-petition to Ban Driven Grouse Shooting but if not then please sign ...
Driven Grouse shooting is underpinned by widespread persecution of raptors and a whole host of environmentally destructive practices.
... then heading down to lower altitudes and back in the realm of the Buzzard ... scanning around and several could be seen ... mainly perched motionless but vigilant on some high branch ...
... crossing Forest Head Quarry and scanning the man made mounds, strangely reminiscent of the hills of central China, with a sense of anticipation that rarely delivers ... and today was no different ...
... but it did look lovely ...
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