Читать книгу Short walks in the Peak District - Collins Maps - Страница 9

Grouse spend their hardy lives on the high moors of the Dark Peak feeding on the tender shoots of young heather. Their tough existence is rudely shattered for four months of every year beginning on the ‘Glorious Twelfth of August’. Not so common, and regrettably often shot by mistake, are their cousins the black grouse. Birds of prey have their chosen areas and many migrants, some quite rare, visit quieter sanctuaries on the moors from time to time. Mountain hares are common despite an inability to quickly shed their winter camouflage once the snows have gone. Foxes live a frugal life, mainly dependent upon voles and other small creatures. Plant life on the acid moors has to be tough to combat the extreme weather conditions. Heathers, coarse grass and berry plants such as bilberry, cloudberry and crowberry manage to survive in this harsh environment.

The limestone plateau is much more gentle. It is mainly given over to grazing and masses of colourful flowers still fill the hayfields and road verges. Scabious, meadow cranesbill and other plants, which were once scarce, have made a recent comeback in fields where far-sighted farmers have moved back to natural and cheaper methods of fertilising the land. Plant, and to a certain extent animal life, in the dales depend on the underlying strata. The Upper Derwent and its tributaries flow mostly through shale and gritstone. Forests planted around the Derwent Reservoirs are a major feature and offer homes to woodland birds and a few deer as well as the smaller carnivorous animals. In the limestone dales, trees were once cut down for fuel but they are plentiful today and, in some instances, they are crowding other plant life. In Dovedale, a courageous scheme has removed much of the invasive woodland to recreate more open vistas. Plant life on the craggy scree-covered hillsides is mostly dwarf and with an almost alpine quality. But the dales are best known for their trout streams. Not only do game fish breed in their clear waters, but crayfish, a crustacean which needs pure water, is found beneath the rocks of most of the rivers in the dales.