heather moorland in August

 The moorlands of Weardale are a sea of purple heather at the moment, often stretching all the way to the horizon. Billions of tiny, nectar-rich flowers are in bloom, feeding vast numbers of insects, from minute thrips to butterflies.

The flowering of the heather coincides with the breeding season of these heather Colletes bees (Colletes succinctus), below. They lay their eggs in tunnels excavated in the sandy moorland soil, usually on a south facing patch of bare ground, then provision the egg with heather pollen before sealing the chamber. They're solitary bees, unlike the highly organised, social nests of honeybees and bumblebees, but do aggregate their nests in huge colonies. Yesterday we must have walked past many thousands of them, congregating at the entrance to their tunnels and shuttling backwards and forwards to the heather flowers.

The vast expanse of flowers also attracts butterflies. Yesterday we saw red admirals, small coppers, small tortoiseshells and small heaths. The small coppers breed on dense, transient patches of sorrel that grows quickly on the bare soil after a heather burn.

This 'woolly bear' caterpillar (below) is the larva of the northern race of the oak eggar moth Lasiocampa quercus. It spends two years in the larval stage, overwintering as a larva before emerging to feed again, then pupating over a second winter before it finally emerges as a spectacular moth.

And finally, a rove beetle Platydracus stercorarius, with wings tightly folded under those red wing cases

Red Grouse chicks

The heather moorland on Pikestone fell near Wolsingham in Weardale today was full of recently-hatched red grouse chicks.

When they are this small they have difficulty in running through the rough grass and forests of heather, so sometimes running across the top of the heather bushes is the easiest rout to safety.

The chicks are well camouflaged but when they know they have been spotted they make a run for it ....

.... and there is only one place they want to be ....

.... and that's with their mother.

This very protective hen bird has six chicks sheltering under her body and wings.

Defending the Family

There are newly-hatched chicks everywhere out on the moors at the moment and different birds have their own particular strategies for deflecting attention from their offspring.

This pair of grouse, which we encountered on the moors above Blanchland in Northumberland yesterday, just stood on the wall a few feet away from us, hoping that we'd look at them rather than search for their chicks, but...

....the curlews went for the hysterical approach, filling the valley with their alarm calls that at times sounded almost like dogs yelping. It's a stressful time for these avian parents at present.

"Go back! Go back!"

People up here in the North East are famed for their warm welcome for visitors but red grouse could do with a bit of hospitality training - the parting shot in their alarm call when anyone encroaches on their territory sounds very much like 'go-back, go-back'


Mind you, since they're going to be shot at in a few months time I guess it's understandable....

There's another fine sound recording made in Allenheads, not far from where this rather more friendly female was photographed, here


This recording was made by Richard Dunn whose work is here on the wonderful Xeno-Canto web site. 

Muir Burning

In late winter this is a common sight in the northern Pennine dales: muir burning -burning away patches of old, woody heather. This encourages the growth of fresh, palatable new heather shoots, that are essential for the survival of red grouse at these high elevations. Muir burning is a highly skilled process, ensuring that the fire moves fast enough to burn away dead wood without killing the roots or setting fire to the peat if the ground is too dry. If you double click on this image to enlarge it you should be able to see the geometric outline of a black recently-burned patch and the browner outline of one of last year's burns.

The end result is a patchwork grouse moor landscape like this one between Edmundbyers and Stanhope in Weardale. When flowering time comes around in July you see a similar patchwork, but now in shades of purple heather flowers. 

Double-click for a clearer image of this picture and the next.

The grey areas here were probably burned during winter and have yet to regrow - the umber areas are older heather with new shoots, in peak flowering condition, that will hum with bees when it blooms.

For a year of two afterwards there's often a flush of growth of sorrel plants in the fertile ash released by burning, which in turn are colonised by small copper butterflies. Some of the best small copper populations that I've found in the uplands have been in landscapes like this.


These upland areas are also breeding grounds for curlew and golden plover and hunting grounds for merlin.