I HAVE CLOSED DOWN THIS BLOG. Please click the photo above to be REDIRECTED TO MY NEW (continuation) BLOG.

Monday 23 July 2012

Pennine Watershed landscape


Snapshots of the wild moorland of the South Pennine Watershed, an endangered habitat of heathland, upland peat bog (blanket bog) and grassland that they are now trying hard to conserve.  It's important not only for the variety of birds, plants, insects and animals found here but because it acts as a natural water purification system and takes carbon out of the atmosphere.  Much of this area is designated an SSSI (Site of Special Scientific Interest) and so is protected. That hasn't stopped the onward march of electricity pylons across the moors, nor the proliferation of wind farms at these high altitudes.

The moors are breeding grounds for dunlin, snipe and curlew that overwinter in Morecambe Bay. They provide an important habitat for the now rare and critically endangered twite (Pennine finch). Only 100 breeding pairs of these birds remain, a drop of 90% in the last 14 years.

5 comments:

  1. A glorious part of the country - captured, as ever, by glorious pictures. That second photograph, in particular, stands out in my mind : that's my County, that's my kind of scenery.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Lovely composition my dear. So beautiful and serene!
    V

    ReplyDelete
  3. What a wonderful little foot bridge! And I love the idea of poems carved on stone outcroppings.

    ReplyDelete
  4. I feel so frustated and angry when I read this kind of stuff. It keeps happening everywhere around the world. I was recently aware of the future destruction of a unique habitat in southern Portugal, always in the name of progress... Money spkeaks louder and you can do nothing against that!

    I love that bridge!

    ReplyDelete
  5. I love the bridge....very nice images!

    ReplyDelete