| 17.05.2025 |
Car Service / maintenance Thursday and Friday and managed to get back out again Saturday. Some ponds are drying up but that is a normal part of nature and has been for as long as I can remember. All these environments dynamic. Need to start visiting remote ponds to catch up with Odonata species. Some outside the scope of this website and area. |
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| 14.05.2025 |
I have content and images to add but too busy at the moment when I am not out shooting. This will happen weekend. Images include a very co-operative Ring Ouzel from Route 19 and a male Broad-bodied Chaser Dragonfly from Lightwood. |
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| 10.05.2025 |
Surprise, surprise. I started the day with two passes on the Flycatcher route and there is a pair at the second box, which as it happens is the box I installed. They were both busy in the tree and that particular tree is full of leaf and bushy. The box is hard to see but it was optimised for birds, not photographers. No images of those today. I decided to move on to a quieter venue. A 'Thereabouts' nature reserve and snapped a few Dragonflies. |
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| 09.05.2025 |
Unfortunately there is no sign of the Pied Flycatchers at their usual sites. That may be it for this year. I did see my first Dragonfly of the year on the Route 6 trail (East of the Goyt) which seems extraordinarily early at that elevation. The female Broad Bodied Chaser which is one of the first, along with the Four-spotted Chaser. I may check in at the Old Steam Pond but given the drastic water level fluctuations in recent years, marginal vegetation now seems largely absent and I have rarely seen any dragonflies there anyway at the height of the season, since 2018. |
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| 07.05.2025 |
The good news is that there are a pair of Pied at my own bird box, which suggests to me they have returned. I.E. the same pair as pre-helicopter (which is now back in Oxford). The solo male Pied (below) is still loitering but no others sighted. |
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| 06.05.2025 |
For those interested, the three pairs of Pied Flycatchers have still not returned. Will check again tomorrow. There was a lone male Pied Flycatcher at another box where I have never seen residents before. The box concerned is on the same stretch of road and is inset below. The wee bird kept leaving and returning at regular intervals. It may be what they do to attract a mate, I do not know enough about birds. This bird may of course be a new arrival post-helicopter. Still time for more. NB: Plenty of Green Hairstreaks about waiting to be photographed. See the images page. |
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| 03.05.2025 |
I returned to the Goyt 28.05.2025, the day after my previous visit and was delighted to note a pair of Flycatchers resident in the first of my own bird boxes. In addition another pair of Flycatchers definitely resident at a second existing bird box on the same stretch of the unnamed road leading from Errwood Hall car park to Goyts Clough Quarry. In short three pairs.
Unfortunately as we all will probably now know, there have since been moorland fires and a massive resulting emergency service presence is installed at the Errwood Hall car park. That must remain over the bank holiday weekend.
I was out of the area inspecting ponds on the 29th. and was working on the 30th. During this time the fires started and the helicopter was introduced, collecting water to dump on the moors. I believe this work started on the 30th. I returned again on both the 1st. and 2nd. of May and noted the helicopter still working. The flight path necessary has spooked all the flycatchers from the area. I spent hours there on the 1st. and 2nd. but noted no activity whatsoever. The Flycatchers may or may not return.
The emergency services must remain for days yet as they have to eliminate all moorland hot spots to prevent the fires from restarting. As always I keep well away from the Goyt on Bank Holiday weekends. I will be spending time on kit maintenance.
Video now available here > |
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| 27.04.2025 |
As far as I am concerned the season has started and woe betide anyone who gets in my way with interruptions. After two poor seasons (contrary to the warming nonsense) it is starting to look good this year but we need more rain to fill the ponds and reservoirs. I will be checking more ponds this week to see what their condition is for wildlife. The Pied Flycatchers are back but I want to try and find the Spotted Flycatcher, having been tipped off about those last year. |
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| 24.04.2025 |
Nature is picking up speed with many birds about. The bracken is only just sprouting through so we have a way to go yet. For the record I keep well away from the Goyt at Easter and any other bank holidays, hence no updates then or new images. I am starting to visit to check on my favourite ponds in the 'thereabouts' areas, prior to the Dragonfly season starting towards the end of next month. |
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| 27.03.2025 |
Nature is picking up at last with a lot of activity taking place. Toads are now being seen everywhere, as are the usual frogs. Will be newt hunting next week in some of the ephemeral pools where I usually see them each year. Lizards very busy and was seeing stoats sprinting across pathways. |
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| 19.01.2025 |
Back to normal. A very heavy frost en-route to the Goyt at Pym Chair and most of the way down The Street. Limited ice on the road. Not enough to cause problems. Below 350 metres elevation it was bitterly cold but no frost or road ice at all. Certainly colder than it was there yesterday which delivered the same temperature. Slight wind chill today. Overcast but we have not had any rain therefore roads clear of ice. Bits of cars scattered everywhere, now revealed by the snow melt. Mainly plastic and glass. No doubt arising from the most recent unusual snow event. I bagged a lot of bits yesterday and volunteer rangers were also out bagging yesterday. |
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| 17.01.2025 |
I returned to the Goyt yesterday after an unusually long (for me) absence of more than a week. For the first time in many years I skipped the most recent snowfall visiting the area, because I considered the risks too serious. I did not want to risk becoming part of the problem of vehicles stranded in the area. Some recent weather events were most unusual in my experience.
The snow was immediately preceded by very heavy rain, which was followed immediately by sub-zero temperatures. The consequence was that the lowest quarter of The Street iced over and the higher three quarters were not. Usually the other way around with the bottom quarter clear. That caught cars driving down off guard. The snow quickly followed and made that ice invisible, creating a major hazard. Much of the reservoir was frozen on the surface, a rare sight.
Speaking to people who live close enough not to have to drive into the Goyt I gather the situation was horrendous. There are always some issues with snow but driving a 4WD that is never a problem for me. However I considered it prudent to avoid the most recent fall.
Curiously yesterday, although The Street is freee of ice (and Hooleyhey Lane), the Errwood car park and the road from there to Derbyshire Bridge were heavily iced over. Although 8 degrees on arrival, there was a heavy frost still visible on grassy areas. All the latter where shielded by trees blocking out the sun. Hence the reason there are no new images of the most recent snow: I was on route 6 anti-clockwise. |
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