Before being asked by Dave to go, I had absolutely no idea a population of Mountain Hares existed outside of Scotland. It turns out they were originally released into the Peak District during the 1870s for shooting. A now large and sustainable population has since sprung up from there.
So, we headed up early on Saturday 04/02. Eventually, we wove our way through the pleasant surroundings of Glossop on the edge of the Peak District and SE of Manchester. This was also to be our base for the Saturday night.
From Glossop, we took the route known as Snake Pass which climbs steeply up into the moors and beyond. It was a really beautiful day with clear skies and bright sunshine. But to really cap it off, the moors and peaks alongside snake pass were covered in a stunning blanket of snow...wow, how lucky were we!
As beautiful as it was out there, it hasn't half cold! Having wrapped up super warm, we began our walk up into the moors, soon seeing the first of many Red Grouse close to the road. Their calls are just fantastic and never fail to put a smile on my face. The classic sound of upland moorlands too.
Our main quarrel though were the Mountain Hares and we soon found plenty of tracks meandering through the snow. Surely it wouldn't be long before we found one.
Sure enough, out of nowhere one appeared from a short way in front of us and zoomed off at lightening speed, vanishing a little way ahead of us. What a beautiful animal it was. I had seen one years ago up in the Highlands, however the memory is a vague one. This one was a lot bigger than I seem to remember and in fact seemed pretty chunky. If this was the type of view we were going to get, photos were going to be tricky, however we were all really pleased to have connected with one fairly quickly.
We had number of other, similar hare sightings before reaching a high point called Higher Shelf Stones. Here rests the eerie sight of a plane crash site, explained in the image below.
The scenery was utterly fantastic and we sat up here for a while sunning ourselves and admiring the view.
We had another further wander around in some new areas for Mountain Hare and again gained a number of fleeting sighting though always brief and never stationary! We also came across a number of Golden Plover, the odd Raven and again, plenty of Red Grouse.
We slowly made our way back to the car, with the snow melting rapidly under the lovely, hot sun. It was a relatively uneventful walk other than all of us, at some point slipping over on the porridge-like peat at various points. Both Dave and Jon also nearly losing a leg a sizable peaty crater!
Before we travelled back down to Glossop, we spent a bit more time enjoying some of the local Red Grouse, one in particular proved to be very obliging!
After that, it off back down to Glossop to our hotel, some food and a few beers!
The next day, (Sunday 05/02) was pretty chilled. We headed off mid-morning after a big old fry up and took a route through the heart of the Peak district towards the SE corner of the national park. Here was the now famous village of Beeley, home to the overwintering Dusky Thrush which myself Dan & Gareth enjoyed back in early December.
The others were yet to see it so we went for a look. The sun was out went we left Glossop, however in Beeley it was far more grey & dank unfortunately! We spent a good couple of hours looking, however sadly only connected with Redwings and a frustratingly brief view of what may have been the Dusky. The highlight here were a skein of 126 Pink Footed Geese heading high to the NW, presumably on their long journey back towards Iceland.
By way of consolation we gave the adjacent River Derwent a go for Dipper and after a little while, we connected with an obliging bird, sat singing away from a riverside rock, more than making up for missing the Dusky.
It was then time to gradually make our way back south. A fab weekend, with some great company. Thanks again for Jon, Kirsty & Dave for getting me along, and to Kirsty for driving us everywhere!
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