[Brolly]

I was scrambling on the east face of Tryfan this Saturday when a wild goat popped round the corner (this one);



I then started to head back up and these stuck their heads out from the ledge above;



They are fairly amazing creatures, although they do allways remind of satan!

Ol

[Bubba]

Cool goaty pics.

[Johnny Brown]

Forgot to mention, we had a Red Kite at Millstone the other day. A first for me in The Peak.

[Stubbs]

Awesome, they must have ticked everything at Caley and the Cliff and moved south.  There was a pair out over Caley last time I was there, 10 a penny now!

[granticus]

End of March, Red Deer, on Exmoor on the way out to Bossington for a spot of bouldering.

[SpanishJuan]

A rare RDB moth comes to light at Warton Crag Reserve



http://news.bbc.co.uk/local/lancashire/hi/people_and_places/nature/newsid_8645000/8645056.stm

[fatneck]

A single Ring Ouzel at Sheep Pen yesterday. Only seen one of these before so was very pleased! Also, more Wheatears than I've ever seen before. Brilliant day out!

[Johnny Brown]

Interesting - high numbers of Wheatears in The Peak too this year. Beautiful birds.

[cofe]

i think i saw a woodcock over the back of stanage, nr redmires. would that be right? dunno what else it could be? snipe?

[underground]

Got a Lapwing flying over the back garden on Saturday, lovely to open the back door and hear the call, and look up to see it performing aerial manouevres

[Johnny Brown]

i think i saw a woodcock over the back of stanage, nr redmires. would that be right? dunno what else it could be? snipe?

Could have been either - the noise and (wait for it..) the jizz are the giveaways.

[cofe]

it made no noise. was sort of hiding at the edge of the woods next to the byway up to stanage from redmires. pretty sure it was a woodcock.

[Johnny Brown]

Hding in the woods? The jizz says woodcock.

[Mark Lloyd]

I have heard/seen woodcock above the woods there many moons ago at dusk.

Intresting to hear of red kites at millstone will keep my eyes peeled now

[k2ted]

cool birds Woodcock...  its called 'rhoding' when they fly around there territory at dusk, letting others know its their patch.

Walking near llangollen last sunday and loads of birdlife about -  a few Pied flycatchers, Redstarts and also heard Crossbill in the trees but didnt manage to see em. deffo go back one evening with binos when it (if!) finally warms up.

Got a book 'finding birds in Britain' which is well worth  a look. Gonna try to get out one still evening/ night n listen for Nightjars churring. Never found time to drive for em, but movin to Llay soon, so small population nearby.

The book mentions a few locations in the peak/ sheffield area where they can be heard 'churring'. let me know if you want me to put location up.

[BB]

I caught sight of a water vole yesterday. A proper one mind, not a swimming rat!

[SpanishJuan]

I caught sight of a water vole yesterday. A proper one mind, not a swimming rat!

nice one, your local records centre would be interested in that

[SA Chris]

I caught sight of a water vole yesterday. A proper one mind, not a swimming rat!

nice one, your local records centre would be interested in that

Who HMV?

[SpanishJuan]

I caught sight of a water vole yesterday. A proper one mind, not a swimming rat!

nice one, your local records centre would be interested in that

Who HMV?

narf, narf
Bad Chris

[JamieG]

In font recently saw this amazing line of caterpillars. (Image is from Facebook so i hope everyone can see it).



They are Pine Processionary Caterpillars apparently. The group we saw had about a hundred in a line, but they sort of got stuck in a circle for awhile. Pretty weird.

[SA Chris]

Cool. Apparently they can get stuck in a circle until they starve?

Not sure if that's the true.

[BB]

nice one, your local records centre would be interested in that

I'm pretty sure they know as there was a big hoo-harr over some house building going on nearby.

On another note, did you know that the cacoons from prosessional caterpillars are only found in pine trees and that they are quite a serious skin irritant?

[underground]

cool birds Woodcock...  its called 'rhoding' when they fly around there territory at dusk, letting others know its their patch.

Walking near llangollen last sunday and loads of birdlife about -  a few Pied flycatchers, Redstarts and also heard Crossbill in the trees but didnt manage to see em. deffo go back one evening with binos when it (if!) finally warms up.

Got a book 'finding birds in Britain' which is well worth  a look. Gonna try to get out one still evening/ night n listen for Nightjars churring. Never found time to drive for em, but movin to Llay soon, so small population nearby.

The book mentions a few locations in the peak/ sheffield area where they can be heard 'churring'. let me know if you want me to put location up.

The Nightjar site I'm aware of is supposedly 'not exactly secret just not to be mentioned' so I'd be interested to hear the ones from the book and see if they are different!

Woodcock are cool - see a lot of them just as it's getting a bit twilight while looking for the Nightjars. They make their own interesting sound and I'm sure I read that it comes from the air vibrating through the tail feathers...

They (Woodcock, not 'jar)'re about at Surprise View near Mother Cap, you just don't see them much.

[JamieG]

Snipe certainly use air flowing across their tail feathers to make display calls, but I'm not sure about Woodcock.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/science_and_environment/10088290.stm#id8640000/8640700/8640790

Also I'd love to see a Nightjar, but didn't know they lived in the Peak. Where would be a good place to see them?

[fatneck]

I saw those Caterpillars in Font as well. Interesting knowledge!

I took some scrotes I work with for a walk along the Wirral Shore yesterday and was just lecturing them on the rarity of Natterjack Toads nationally and how there was supposed to be a colony in the vicinity bu that I'd never come accross any when one of the scrotes says "What are all these black swimmy things?" I had a look in the pool he was pointing at and lo, there were thousands of Natterjack Toad tadpoles!!

Very pleased with that! Going to take my own kids back there next week see if they're developing any...