Pennines birding

I've been away for a few days, doing some Breeding Birds Surveys at various sites in the Pennines. Really tough going at times, but some tremendous birding. It's just wonderful to see birds like Golden Plover, Curlew and Snipe calling and displaying at close range, and also good numbers of Ring Ouzels and Short-eared Owls. Lots of Red Grouse of course, but the highlight was two male Black Grouse.

Wood Anenome, here growing at about 450m with not a tree in sight. It always seems slightly strange to see an ancient woodland indicator species growing in a place like this, but it seemed to be thriving.