Logde moor to Hathersage

As it was such a lovely morning, off we went for a walk through the Peak District NP. This time we took a path from Logde moor past the Redmires Reservoirs, Stanage Edge and ended up in Hathersage. Took the opportunity to look for water voles and any new coming birds, but only black headed gulls and ducks were there.
The walk along the Stanage Edge is always awesome and today full of rock climbers. Amazing how they can climb on some seemingly impossible walls. After that it was straight down to Hathersage for coffee and bus home.
Until today I thought that the distance was 6km but according to Mr Google Maps it's 9, which didnt matter as it was perfectly easy and short as my periosteum hurts.

Stanage  edge, rock formations

Rock climbers, Stanage edge

I liked the colours on these rock walls

Weasel/Vessla

On Monday, when I still had the rental car, so I took the opportunity to visit two different reservoirs across Sheffield. The two reservoirs are known by bird watchers, and as I had read on a bird-watching site that they had seen the pallid harrier in a week's time. It is a rare bird here in england.So I was hoping that it would be there, but of course it was not there. It was me and 5 other bird watchers who were hoping to see it, we were there from 7-10 then we gave up ;)But after that, I went to Redmires reservoars to check out what's up there, it was empty of birds here too.But on the way home I saw a dead rabbit on the road, and I saw that something jumped off from there. I stayed a distance away and waited to see if it would come back. It came back and it was a weasel, so I picked up the camera and I lay down on the roadside about 3-4m away from it and photographed and followed it with the camera when it ate, and tore away pieces of rabbit. It really made my day and week. I finally got it in the picture, but now I just hope to see it in the forest as well.

FACTS:Weasels are mammals forming the genus Mustela of the Mustelidae family. They are small, active predators, long and slender with short legs.
Weasels vary in length from 173 to 217 mm (6.8 to 8.5 in), females being smaller than the males, and USUALLY have red or brown upper coat and white bellies, some populations of some species moult to a Wholly white coat in winter. They have long, slender bodies, Which enable Them to follow Their prey into burrows. Their tails may be from 34 to 52 mm (1.3 to 2.0 in) long. Weasels have a reputation for cleverness, quickness and guile.
Weasels feed on small mammals, and have from time to time been Considered vermin, since some species took poultry from farms, or rabbits from commercial warrens. They occur all across the world except for Antarctica, Australia, and neighboring islands.
Camera i used: nikon 3Ds and nikon 200-400mm lens F4 vr2

Click on a picture to enlarge it!

Ångra ändringarna

Mixed pictures from the week

This time it will be some mixed pictures from the week that soon will be over. Have, been to redmires in the evening to try and take pictures of owl, but no owls were found. But it was nice to watch the sunset in the heat. Since I have been two trips down to the Rivelin Valley, which now is very dark because of the dense leaf forest. But it is quite nice, when the sun tries to break down to the valley, nicely with the dark and light. Down in the Rivelin has the Mayflies started to hatch, but unfortunately it was only a few days. Did not get the pictures I wanted, I thought a picture of a hatching Mayfly would be nice. But it may well be next year: ( Otherwise, I have taken some macro photos of insects, flowers and stuff. Today Sunday as the rain pours down, so it is well to sit at home and wait for better weather. Hopefully, I'm off tomorrow and then maybe Redmires at evening and hunt for owl continues. See U

Redmire

Rivelin Valley

Caddis

Mayfly, the biggest one (body 20-40mm)

Heavy rain

Reflections

Nice little flower

Hmm whats this hairy thing

Long-tailed tit

Nice golden colours

Mayfly

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

Ångra ändringarna

Redmire reservoir (birds)

Today I went with a friend Aravind to The Redmires Reservoirs to looking for some birds and water voles to shoot (pictures of course).
The trip to there was somewhat of luxary as I took the bus to last stop, and then we walked last bit (approx 2km). As you probably know, I usually take the bike :)
Unfortunately the weather was not the best, it was blowing quite a lot and it also rained at times.
The wind was enough that we did not see as many birds as I like, but I managed to take pictures of the lovely little bird called Stonechat.
Aravind also managed to get a pic of a water vole, first time for him but to me they are becoming every day things :)
Thanks Aravind for the nice company!!

Stonechat

Meadow pipit

Lapwing

Common Sandpiper

Common Sandpiper

Stonechat

Oystercather

Tufted Duck

Blue colored pheasant ;)