Hiking in Edale, part 1 (Kinder Scout route)

Last Thursday, 17/5, we met some of my wifes workmates from Stockholm at Edales hostel for a four day hike. They come with taxi from Manchester while we were to take the train from Sheffield. On our way from the Edale rail station we met a happy and hungry bunch on their way towards the pubs :))
That day there was not plan on hiking as we arrived around 11, and everybody was hungry and longed for their first ale/beer of this weekend. However, we ate some lunch at The Ramblers Inn then took the train back to Hathersage for some outdoor shopping. One other big thing to visit in Hathersage, not to be missed, is the Little Johns grave. After some walking, shopping and sightseeing it was time for the dinner and more ales/beers. We were back to the hostel around 21, did some planning around the next day hike, food and pubs of course. We decided that we would take the long walk, around the Kinder Scout Moors, although the weather did not seem to be the best.
On Friday morning we were wake by 8 eager to start. We had the English version of breakfast at the hostel, made the lunch (pasta sallad) and then at 10 we were on our way.
The first part was a bit steep, probably about 200m ascent in a relatively short distance, but after that it was almost flat for the remaining 22km.
It was quite windy on the plateau, around 9-10m / s, but we had planned the route so that we would have the tailwind most of the time. The couple of km that we had headwind was not fun at all!! Plan your routes!! 
The views were amazing, as well the rock and stone formations, but probably we would have enjoyed it even more if the wind was not pushing us on.
More to come on the remaining days..

On the train to Hathersage

On the way up to Kinder Plateau

Lunch time

The moorland

Kinder plateau

Weird rocks

Some scrambling

Nice wood bridge

Kinder Downfall without water

Beech forest in Rivelin Valley

Today, just after lunch,  I biked down to the Rivelin Valley to take pictures of the beautiful beech forest. For it is now they're at their finest with their bright leaves.
There seem to be only the upper part, which has beech a few hundred meters.
Some of the trees are huge do not know how old they are, but thickest are about 1m in diameter. So maybe a couple of hundreds years old.
Since the river is down in a valley, so it is pretty nice when the sun shines down through all the leaves. Walked around there for a few hours and also looked for the dipper, who was busy feeding their small ones.
From thursday-monday I`am going to hiking in the Peak District, so there will be no blogging during that time.
So see u on tuesday. :) :)

Early morning at Redmires

Early this morning at 5:20  I took my bike up to redmires Reservoirs, the weather seemed promising.
It was pretty cold this morning (8 C), but the sun was supposed to turn out today, according to the weather forecast.
Once up I listened for the cuckoo, but it was quiet today, little bit disappointed because that was the one I would take pictures of today.
It was just to start walking around the area to find photo opportunities, saw a snipe, but it was far away. Shortly afterwards, I see a Wheatear and i get some pictures.
After that I decided to go to the other side of the reservoir, just to try get some pictures of the Linnet. During the walk there, I saw a bull finch was odd to see one of those in the green out there, because Iam used to see them in Sweden in the winter.
 The linnet`s was in place, but now it had to start blowing a lot and it was very cold in the wind,  and now it started to rain and hail at times.
I felt no fun being on that side, so I went back to the other side where there was less wind. There, I managed to see a new bird species for me, it was a Golden plower.
I held out for a while, and cycled home at 9:00

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I found a white rabbit

Water-forgot-me-not

wheatear

Lesser Black-backed Gull.

Common Sandpiper

Linnet/Hämpling

Golden Plower

Wood Pigeon/Ringduva

Lapwing/Tofsvipa

 

 

Two early mornings

Been away to two different places the past few mornings, once to Redmires Reservoirs and the other Rivelin Valley.
To Redmires I went to try finding the cuckoo again, but this time I had the camoflauge with me. Unfortunately no cuckoo turned up :/ , heard it only once in the forrest. Anyhow, the time was not wasted, I took some other pics of Lapwings and water vole etc.
The second morning, I went to the Rivelin Valley and it was dipper I wanted to find, a picture of it in flight low over the water. But once in place, it was just to give up the idea, the sun did not reach down in to Valley as expected. No good,  as the shutter speeds is then very low, even if I had the camera's ISO to 8000, the shutter speed was only down to 1 / 400 sec. Which is not enough if wanting sharp pics of dippers in flying, which is only valid if they are flying towards you as you can get them sharp if they fly from the side. A shutter speed of 1/2000 might be enough, acutally not sure as I have not tried it before.
But it was all the more enjoyable to follow them lying under camoflauget, it seems to work good! I was maybe 3m away from them. :) :) Enjoy the "ordinary" pictures

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Gök/Cuckoo

I was up to redmires to check if the cuckoo had come.
This time, I had a rental car so it felt great to go up 5.30. because you knew that you did not have the killer hill up there, not so fun to bike up there early morning when the body is barely working.
I arrived up at  6:00  And just after 15 minutes  I heard the cuckoo, so it was only to locate where it was. But unfortunately it remained at a distance, or rather, inside the sheep's enclosure which meant I could not get closer to them that moment.
But after half an hour they started to move, I say them because it was probably a female and male who were together.
Then it was just to try to predict where they would fly then, to try to get a good photo opportunity on them.
Managed to get them pretty close, about 25m away from them without camoflauge this time.
I was following them for about 3 h, which was nice, because during the hours it happened things all the time, they where constantly attacked by small birds, and they ate big fat worms which was fun to see.
 
Facts about the cuckoo: A guite large, long-winged, longtailed gray bird, the cuckoo in spring is familiar to everyone by its call, but not its appearence.
Voice: Familiar loud, bright cuc-coo coo-coo and laughing wha-wha-wha.
Nesting: Lays eggs in Other bird `s nests Usually nine eggs per female, 1 per nest; May-June.
Feeding: Drops to ground to pick up large caterpillar; Also eats small insects.

Flying cuckoo

Resting on a pole

Meadow pipit attacs the cuckoo

More attacs

The Female and Male

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Road Trip (part 2)

During our second day the road took us to the far south west, or to more precise, Lands End. After this it is America ;)
To get there we took the narrow roads with beautiful scenery, and now the sun actually came out behind the clouds and we finally had 15C (until then it was cloudy, short shows and around 10C)
It was lucky that we started around 9 because we were did not arrive until 13. Once there, we had lunch, walked around and enjoyed the sun, the ice cream and the views.
Going back to my interest, the birds. In the area there is a special crow specie, a cornish chough.
At the end of the 18th century several naturalists noted the decline of the chough in Cornwall.
They were concerned that choughs were suffering at the hands of sportsmen and suppliers of natural history specimens.
However, trophy hunters were not the only problem. The steady degradation of the chough’s preferred habitat – grazed cliffs and heathland – played a major part in the demise of the chough in the county. In past centuries, sheep, cattle and ponies would have grazed the cliffs all year round, keeping vegetation short and open, providing perfect conditions for chough to find a supply of insects such as cranefly larvae, dung beetles and ants.
The removal of stock to inland pastures, where they could be managed more easily, meant the cliff slopes soon scrubbed over and choughs found it increasingly difficult to find suitable feeding areas. Nesting had all but ceased in south Cornwall and the Lizard by the mid 1800s.

By 1910, the chough had disappeared from all southern coastal counties of the UK with the exception of Cornwall, but even here there was concern that it was doomed to extinction, with reports that former haunts on the north coast remained unfrequented. The year 1947 saw the last successful nesting attempt in Cornwall.

But in 2001 choughs returned naturally to Cornwall!

Talked with a local ornithologist, she mentioned that they had seen more nests further towards the east (Lizard). Another rocky part of the coast, which was according to her very close by. You can perhaps see what I'm coming to, that close by took us almost an good hour.
(Unfortunately we did not find any of them there either ://
Few hours later when the clock was approaching 19 we gave up and went off to search for somewhere to sleep..

Land's End (The south-west point)

Land's End

Lizard (The south point of England)

Lizard

Land's End

Halo

The beatiful stone chat

A young rabbit



Rock pipit

Buzzard flying over me

Nesting carrion crow (?)