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Langsett Reservoir

Richard Bell’s nature diary, the Peak District,  Thursday,  10th September 2009

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THE PEAK DISTRICT is our nearest National Park; Langsett Reservoir is just 30 minutes drive from home yet, apart from walking alongside it when I’ve been walking the Cal-Der-Went Walk, today is the first time I’ve ever visited it. There are new paths through the pine plantations on the northern shore and if you cross the River Porter (also known as the Little Don) you can set out across heather moors towards the Derwent Valley.

The Langsett page on the  Yorkshire Water website features printable walks, podcasts and even a short video.

This mayweed, growing on a south-facing bank where trees have been cleared, attracted a variety of flies and hoverflies.

Seen from the path tin a shaft of sunlight, this birch bracket fungus, Piptoporus betulinus, stood out like a light bulb.

12.55 p.m., one after another (not in a flock) half a dozen gulls - lesser black-backed I think - make their way to the top end of the reservoir.

A golden-green feathery moss grows on top of this gritstone wall, a dark green cushion moss in the crevices with a grey lichen spreading over the algal-green rock.

A robin, singing in a rather sad half-hearted song from the tree by the path at the entrance to the plantation.