Harrier Rally, Goyt Valley near Buxton.

 A visit to Goyt Valley near Buxton to the Harrier Rally with speakers such as Chris Packham and Mark Cocker, proved very worth while and its great that such high profile people are willing take part in such an important enterprise. Well done them! There was a good turnout and the weather was good to us. We must now keep up the momentum on the powers at be – local government, police, the Government – and stress that it is not just bird lovers up in arms, but this persecution is totally illegal and must be stamped out and the perpetrators arrested as law-breakers and criminals. There is nothing mysterious about the mainly male hen harriers disappearing from nest sites – they have either been shot, poisoned or trapped.

On a brighter note a friend and I took the opportunity to walk down the valley after the successful rally and did some flower, bird and butterfly spotting. The bird population is rather quiet at this time of year but even so we spotted a buzzard, a sparrowhawk and several kestrels as well as a family of stonechats, a calling willow warbler and meadow pipits; I was hoping for short-eared owl but it still eludes me. We spotted up to three tall orchids, and with the help of some other ‘flower people’ decided they could be either northern or southern marsh orchids. We also found some wonderful patches of bog asphodel by the road and drifts of blue harebells. The many thistles well in flower attracted many types of butterfly including dark green fritillary, small tortoiseshell, painted lady and meadow brown. An unidentified dragonfly was also spotted possibly a common darter.