Skirr Cottage Diary.

I love walking my local patch which, is basically the Old Road leading onto the moor. It is an isolated area with great views back over the town of Buxton and perhaps not the most productive area when it comes to birds and wildlife compared to more sheltered and wooded areas but sometimes it can surprise you; perhaps a short-eared owl or raven, nearly always curlew in spring and early summer. Today I decided to sit on a steep bank overlooking a small stream and was rewarded with the sound of a dipper. It did not take me too long to locate a pair of busy dippers taking food under an old concrete waterfall where they obviously had a domed nest full of hungry young. The stream is virtually on the moor so this find came as a pleasant surprise.