Moor Monitoring

After last night's rain, I was relieved to see blue skies this morning. We arrived at the brickworks at 9am, but initially we couldn't find anyone to report in to. Eventually we managed  to sign in, and after a bit of a wait a pick-up truck came to take us up to the quarry. We saw some wonderful mist in the valley as we climbed up onto the moor, but no chance to stop for a photograph and sadly it wasn't visible from the quarry where we were working.

The remaining daylight hours were spent recording quadrats - not the warmest thing to be doing on the top of a moor in November. I was very glad of the thick orange jacket I'd purchased earlier in the week! There wasn't time to stop for lunch or to photograph the peregrine falcon that quartered the area several times, occasionally coming into conflict with a pair of ravens. 

By half past three the light was fading fast and it was becoming difficult to identify the smaller plants, so we made our way back to the pick-up, where a couple of very friendly quarry workers took us back down to the brickworks. 

Hot showers and a good meal were very welcome.