by A gray man is slowly driving over Moorland. No, not me, but a big, beautiful Henner -Harrier who is looking for love or breakfast. I’m only here for 10 minutes and am in a mild state of shock. Are these precious, endangered birds of prey so disappointing that it is extremely unlikely?
I go with Sonja Ludwig, RSPB species and habitats for the forest of Bowland, and she knows these Harriers. “You are” traditional “birds,” she says. “They tend to reach the same place more or less. We always see them here. Newcomers always notice the men first. They plumage, their white fuselage and the black tips on the wings are unmistakable.”
Hen Harriers are sometimes called “Gray Ghosts” or “Ghosts of the Moor”. When I discover a second man above the bog top, I am pleased. “Now you have to try to find the woman,” says Ludwig.
We scan even more and remarkably after a few minutes it is brown and white, all stripes and strips – and a chic face when you are seen from the front.
“I trained her well, right?” says Ludwig.
I will not share a network reference. Hen Harriers – the most persecuted prey on these islands – need peace and security, especially in spring when they come together, nest and rear chick. The crucial point is, if you want to see you, you are right here. As Ludwig puts it: “Bowland tries a bit. Hillwalker likes it, but it is not really the place where you roll up in a car and light a portable grill on the roadside.”
The forest of Bowland fascinates me. I look it out of the kitchen every morning after I moved to an area outside the national landscape (formerly as the area of excellent natural beauty) four years ago. I drive through to get to Lancaster when the M6 has come, and sometimes a motor motor on the edges on the way to the Yorkshire Dales or the Lake District, the two national parks on both sides of Bowland. But I don’t go there often and I’m not alone – it is probably the most overlooked, rural landscape in northern England. The lakes receive 18 million visitors a year, the Dales more than 6.5 million; Bowland does not record any visitor numbers, but historically it was in tens of thousands – although it was north of densely populated East Lancashire and near Preston and Blackpool.
What Bowland offers is not a beauty, photogenic peaks or well -driven footpaths, but moments of wildness in a landscape caused by humans
This landscape has something mysterious. The Bowland Fells are shaped by old seas, icing and erosion and shaped by wet and windy weather. They are covered with Heather and ceiling moor, not particularly formable, and the highest point, Ward’s Stone, is only 561 meters above sea level. Pendle Hill, a outlier of the national landscape, is prettier than everyone of the furs.
Walking on the higher ways is a bit like on an elevated steppe that is facing barren looking and exposed to the elements. When the artist Rob St. John, who develops a number of installations for the national landscape under the title, are they lost? Asked the locals who did not routinely visited the area, as they presented themselves, their answers were often in the areas of “bleak”, “Scary” and “Cold”.
Access is a challenge. The north-south bentham-after chatburn road takes over a high line through agricultural areas. More dramatic – and human trafficking – is the winding, diagonal street through the trough of Bowland, the geological characteristic of the region that many know. Other streets rock Bowland or suddenly in Motorbike/Walking Tracks, as happened on the Roman road between Slaidburn and Hornby. Parking is limited and the bus connections are only a few – although the bus number 11 introduced a year ago was a great success and some of the most scenic scenic with Clithheroe and Settle connects with stations.
In September 2004, a large part of Bowland was opened for the first time for hikers when the country and the rights of Way Act 2000 gave the general right to the public to access “land” for the purposes of open-air recovery on foot. But people can only run, run and – wherever they – drive bicycles where there are ways. Many of the highland areas of Bowland are swampy and only the robust or daring would want to negotiate steep cloughs (valleys) and slopes that are wrapped in knee -deep Heather, which are shaped by deep gorges.
But limited access and small number of visitors bring advantages for nature. A large central section of the 775 km² (300 m²) of the national landscape is shown as a place with special scientific interest due to the habitats and their internationally important bird populations, especially the Hen Harrier and Merlin. The latter is the smallest prey bird of Great Britain, about the size of a throttle. I probably wouldn’t have discovered anyone during my visit if Ludwig didn’t know where to look. With binoculars we were only able to identify a gray point sitting on an old Auer tap piston.
Keen-Eyed bird observers will see during the spring roll
As I concentrated, another bird flashed across the valley where we were sitting. It was a male hiking falcon that apparently returned to a nesting area in which a female either incubated eggs or prepared the area to lay it. I had never seen a hiker before, even though I had seen her food waste in urban areas. It was something special to watch the fastest bird in the world – during a hunting dive at 240 km / h, it was able to slow down to greet his buddy.
While I was looking for the birds of prey, I saw many other species: meadow pipe, Skylarks, Curlews, a stone chat, a goose grown. The star curve was a few ring-Ozuels-a member of the red listed (“from high nature conservation”) member of the Thrush family who lives on the highlands. During the spring roll, Keen-Eyed bird observers will see in the reed beds and on the Heide, Pied Flycatcher, Redstart, Wood Warbler, Lure and Rare Black Grouse Plus ordinary sandpipers and divers on the river. Bowland also supports a large colony of less black-back gulls, for which the UK is an international territory.
Parts of Bowland are used between August and December for shooting machine chickens. As a split pastime, it arouses passions among conservationists. Every year, Raptors are illegally killed in areas where the shoots are common, and at the end of 2024 one of the female Harriers disappeared “under suspicious circumstances”, even though they were equipped with a satellite day. While Bowland has a long history as a hunting area, the old word “forest” refers to a royal hunting area rather than tree covering-began business with the Grouse Hunting in the middle of the 19th century. It is the management of the Fells for the rearing of the rifle destinations – Little Red Grouse, whose bubbling calls that I often heard when I walk – that the Bowland we see today shaped.
But JMW Turner’s sketches of the trough and other areas from 1816-before the time of modern Moorland Management-configured naked fur and only a few native trees on the Becks and the lowest hanging. In fact, most highland trees were likely to be felled when agriculture arrived thousands of years ago, and the Normans did not need tree covering when they created the hunting areas for deer for the first time.
What Bowland offers is not a beauty, photogenic summit or well -moving footpaths, but moments of wildness in a manner caused by man (gender is not accidental) landscape. It is a way to attend the region’s most endangered residents – the raptors – a simple joy.
The “summit” of my mini-safari with Ludwig was when the male Henner Harrier began to play a so-called sky dance. Against a large, clear backdrop and over a piece of chocolate-colored heather, in which a woman was lurking, shot up and then started pirouette and then turned and turned and showed and showed how Billyo show-to impress her to warn younger men, to stay away, and maybe, maybe to fly, as if it has to be flying.
Download walks and bicycle routes here. The Eco Escapes Guide contains suggestions for car -free visitswhile The latest official Bowland Guide discover has a feature on all-terrain wheelchair walks
