Lammergeier, (Bearded Vulture), Back Tor, South Yorkshire

Lammergeier pics taken by Ian Smith.

BOOM !! 

What a cracking bird and well worth the trip and the 15,000 steps !  

Up at the crack of dawn and through Sheffield in the blink of an eye and up to Strines. Not knowing where to park or where to walk it soon became obvious when we saw the many cars in the pub car park and at 6am they weren't in there having a pint ! There was just a couple of spaces left so we were lucky. Although, reading Twitter later that night, the landlady certainly wasn't happy with the parking on her land at all. A walk down the road revealed the gate and the start of the path that wound it's way up to the Tor. The walk was without doubt, horrendous, but very scenic. Up hill all the way and quite steep at the start, it soon got us puffing and panting. But on we went, slowly and surely, plenty of birders infront of us and plenty behind, all heading up. It took us a good hour, probably more, to reach the summit. But the pressure was off as we had seen the bird lift up over the top ridge and soar along, up and down, very distant but without doubt, the lammergeier. The crowds infront shouted 'flying', the birders behind whooped and danced. We had seen it ! Lovely to have lunch at the obelisk, the views were breathtaking, but we didn't get another fly by. Infact the bird wasn't reported again until the afternoon. 

If you are planning a trip to see this bird, be prepared for the walk, its very strenuous and we know some birders didn't make it up there. If you are aiming to see the bird at it's roosting rocks, then it is as far again to walk and this time part of the walk is through a peat bog with knee high water. We didn't need to walk to it's roost as it was already airborn, thank goodness. 

Birders coming up and down, a steady stream of folk all day 

The views were stunning, top of the world ! 

This was as far as we went, the top at the obelisk. You can just see birders walking on the distant path that takes you to the crag the lammergeier roosts in, flipping miles away ! 

Dark Green Fritillary Butterfly, male and female.  

Mountain Hares