Young birds are prone to wandering before they settle down to breed and four years ago one ended up on Dartmoor after first being seen perched on rocks alongside the River Severn in South Wales. It was extremely elusive and very few people got to see it.
Roll forward to 2020 when a sub-adult bird was photographed over Alderney - hopes were high it would fly the short distance across to the British mainland but the trail went cold until it was seen flying over the midlands heading north. The assumption was that it would end up in the Peak District. That proved to be correct with several sightings since early July. The foul weather hadn't helped and it was only in the last few days since the weather cleared up that people returned to the Peaks to start looking again!
I was planning on going myself Saturday (today) but didn't hold out much hope as it was being very elusive and being seen very irregularly. All that changed Friday afternoon when Dan Pointon saw it seemingly land in a remote clough on the Howden Moors. Dan drove round and walked the area and found it roosting on a cliff and stayed with it until almost dark
That put a completely different perspective on the plans. We now knew where it was rather than looking for a needle in a haystack so plans were made to get there as early as possible and wathc it on the roost as dawn came and then, hopefully, watch it fly.
Not bothering going to bed I eventually met up with Fred, Malc & Mark for the relatively short journey down the M56 towards Tintwhistle and Glossop and on to Strines where we arrived around 3.30. An hours walk we were told........
Setting off before the sun had risen we expected to be on the site by 04.30. A steep climb and a beautiful sunrise was enhanced even more by sightings of Nightjar and roding Woodcock whilst higher up towards Back To we had our first and only Red Grouse.
The bird was roosting on the nearside of a clough with a footpath running along the top. However, the fear was that anyone getting close to the edge would flush the bird so the plan was to carry on further and then leave the path and head across the moors to a viewing point on the opposite side of the clough. By this time the sun was well and truly ip and we'd been yomping for an hour and forty five minutes laden with camera's, telescopes, tripods , food and drink!
We were still several hundred metres away when the bird took to the air! Luckily for us it had a fly round and even fed on a sheep carcass before settling off towards Back Tor. It only settled for a few minutes before it headed back towards us and dropped into its roost site again where it proceeded, over the next 2-3 hours, to put on a show - preening, crapping and even regurgitating its last meal and re-eating it again.
What a bird! I can honestly say seeing a wild bred Lammergeier in the UK is up there with the best experiences birding I've ever had.
The Lammergeier eventually took off again after a fell runner followed the footpath directly above its roost site and flew around before settling on another ridge about 1 km from where we stood and then flying out of sight.
More than satisfied with our views we set off for the long slog back to the car, but not before I managed to lose my footing and slip into a bog up to my knees and fill my wellington boot with smelly brown peaty water. It was a soggy, squelchy walk back the way we'd come. In total we'd walked 16 km with an elevation gain of 412 m. A great day.
No comments :
Post a Comment