Bob Berzins is a campaigner and activist. His previous guests blogs here all focus on the management, or mismanagement, of upland areas such as the Peak District, Walshaw Moor and the North York Moors. See also his novels Snared and The Last Crow. Of all the environmental damage found on grouse shooting moors, road building…
Tag: Peak District
Guest blog – The Midhope track by Bob Berzins
Bob Berzins is a campaigner and activist. His previous guests blogs here all focus on the management, or mismanagement, of upland areas such as the Peak District, Walshaw Moor and the North York Moors. See also his novel Snared. In 2014 and 2015 two surfaced tracks were constructed on the grouse moors of the north…
Sunday book review – The Peak by Rod Dunn
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An attractive book of relatively few words but a great many excellent images. The photographs are wonderful and portray the landscapes, wildlife and built environment of our oldest National Park. There are many good portraits of birds here, and I enjoyed them. The butterflies were even better and the plants better still. But the landscapes…
Guest blog – Enforcement of the Burning Ban by Bob Berzins
Enforcement of the Burning Ban – a long road to justice My life has changed a lot over the last couple of years and it now seems normal to chat to a police officer sitting at my kitchen table. He was taking a witness statement from me about harassment from gamekeepers. I explained what I…
Sunday book review – Peak District by Penny Anderson
This is a standard New Naturalist – a series of books that doesn’t feel very new, or at all ground-breaking these days. Penny Anderson gives a workpersonlike account of the wildlife and ecology of this area, mostly a National Park, and the habitats it includes. There is mention of raptor persecution. Hen Harrier appears in…
Festival of Debate – the Peak District
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Last Monday evening I was part of a chat with Natalie Bennett and Alex Lees which discussed driven grouse shooting. It felt quite fun at the time, and was streamed live, but you can catch up with it here too.
Guest blog – The impact of moorland burning on air quality in the Hope Valley, by Mike Joseph
Michael Joseph lives and works in the Peak District. He moved there in 2014 from London and enjoys cycling and running in the area. He has been involved in several projects over the years including the Bradwell Hydro Project and the Hope Valley Air Quality project, both of which were funded by the Peak District National…
Tim Melling – Red Grouse
Tim writes: I took this photo in mid-October while out on the Peak District Moors. It was standing on a drystone wall and was just catching the first rays of the early morning sun. This photo shows the feathered legs and feet which gives rise to its scientific name Lagopus, meaning hare-footed. There are a…
Tim Melling – That Lammergeier
Tim writes: I gave up chasing rare birds some years ago but when a juvenile Lammergeier (aka Bearded Vulture) appeared in the Peak District, I decided it was too good to ignore. It was just a 20 minute drive from my house, plus an hour’s walk to reach its favourite roosting crag. Apparently this is…
The Midhope track
Regular readers with good memories will remember the Midhope Track. This is what it looks like at the moment (above). The logs from the image below have been added to the plastic track but they are now sinking into the bog. Bob Berzins wrote about this track back in January 2019 and February 2017 (click…