Shrikey! It’s Mikey!

 After an evening in Chesterfield, a bright dry and warm morning sent me 10 miles west of the city to an area I have visited before, Beeley Moor above Chatsworth House. The first target species was the magnificent Red Grouse but I only had an hour to spend as I was hoping to get to Bempton Cliffs in East Yorkshire by midday. A few steps onto the open more after climbing over the dry stone stile, a Wheatear appeared. The moor looked flattened and less alive when I last visited in Autumn. The heather was not in bloom and the bracken and sturdy grasses had no new growth after the winter and I wondered what else had suffered.  I  didn’t have to wait long for an answer, as less than 50 paces further a Meadow pipit emerged from the heather and surveyed the landscape before flitting off to another tuft, to be replaced by Skylarks. Another 50 paces and the alarming call of a Red grouse sounded and a squabble emerged from the moor ahead of me. A Raven led,  followed by the fu...

 As we set off, it was very noticeable how the change in seasons had coincided with this planned road trip. Summer migrant birds had arrived and were establishing themselves, earlier dormant trees were now sporting their summer canopy and our Hawthorn hedgerows were adorned by May, whilst the verges were sprouting flowering Cow parsley, Red campion whilst the early Oilseed rape fields were getting to the peak of their flowering season. The scene was set! First venue was Dovedale and a damp start to the three mile hike up the river path to Milldale, finding Spotted flycatchers in the trees just above the Stepping Stones.    As we followed the track, scouring the river for expected Dippers, we came across Grey wagtails and surprisingly,  a pair of   Mandarin ducks. A more unlikely setting for this exotic species of waterfowl I couldn’t imagine but this rapidly spreading species is firmly established now in the U.K.  I last visited the area in October last yea...