Easter at Home

With having an extended weekend I decided to pay my family a visit in my home town of Sheffield. I miss being in Sheffield; it is aesthetically a nice city with its hills, valleys, rivers, parkland and of course being next door to the Peak District National Park. According to Wikipedia, Sheffield has the largest ratio of trees to people of any city in Europe!

The weather stayed nice and warm so I went on some of my favourite walks with the family too. On Easter Sunday we went to Rother Valley Country Park which is on the border of Sheffield and Rotherham. The park is known for its water sports such as sailing, rowing and water-skiing but it is also a nature reserve, attracting a large number of birds. It was relaxing walking around the lakes and seeing Great crested grebes (Podiceps cristatus) diving to catch fish.

On Easter Monday we started our walk from Redmires reservoir in Sheffield up to Stanage Edge on the border of the Peak District and into the village of Hathersage then back again. We had a picnic on top of the rocks at Stanage Edge near to where people were rock climbing which over looked a large area of the Peak District.

The view we had whilst eating our picnic.

Nature wise there were a few grouse in the heather moors which had quite dark colouration for Red grouse (Lagopus lagopus) but they definitely weren’t Black. There were a couple of Rooks flying close to the rock edges and some small birds which I think could’ve been Meadow pipits. Down in the woodland there were a few pheasants (Phasianus colchicus) roaming around and I spotted the odd Chaffinch and Chiffchaff singing away.