Friday, May 07, 2010

Upland Birds under threat

I have been watching Crow Hill (Sowerby) this spring. It has curlew, lapwing, snipe, golden plover. Just this week, the farmer has started trenching a big area to drain it.
It is the same one whose cattle have grazed out the top of Crow Hill till the heather and bilberry are all but gone. This is supposed to be in the South Pennines SPA (special protection area)!

I have once had a pair of twite in the area (not this year), but linnets, skylark, meadow pipit, wheatear and stock dove are regular.

I have had a couple of partridge (species not determined) and today a greylag goose flew over low, calling, though that would be just passing through.

I have informed the Local Countryside Service today (again), but what other action to take?
Approaching the farmer personally occurs to me, but I thought I'd consult first.

5 comments:

AndyC said...

Send an e-mail to natural England,The walshaw estate were finded £20,000recently for draining the moor,

Jeff Cox said...

Hi Steve. Is this common land? I can find Little Crow Hill in the Common Land Register but not Crow Hill. Grid ref of Little Crow Hill is given as SE02 401500 422400. I've downloaded an Excel spreadsheet which has some info.

Email me at jeffcox@hotmail.co.uk for details if you want.

ChrisJB said...

Good on you for flagging up the state of Crow Hill. I remember walking up there to watch the eclipse in August 1999 and it was a glorious sea of purple heather full of red admirals and peacocks. These days it's a folorn grassy mess strewn with cow pats.

Chris

Green Business Network (GBN) said...

Steve.

Sadly, it's not in the SSSI/SPA according to Natural England's mapping service www.natureonthemap.org.uk/

In fact its not in any agri/enviro/farming scheme according to www.magic.gov.uk

You can zoom right in on both websites

heavy birder said...

Had a phone call from a farmer in this area the other night. He seemed concerned about the local bird life but wanted to put up two wind turbines ?.I have his telephone number if that will help.