Our old Buxton tip might bear the scars of former abuse, but it’s now an entangled, self-willed wood, largely made up of willows and birch, which is surrounded by flowers in summer and has a species list of 870, composed mainly of insects. The diversity arises because these two pioneer trees are among the most invertebrate-friendly in our islands.
Where you find insect abundance, you’ll also hear birdsong, because the music is fuelled largely by invertebrate protein. Recently we organised a dawn-chorus walk and managed 20 early spring vocalists. Song and mistle thrushes, dunnocks and wrens, as well as bullfinches and greenfinches, were among the breeding birds we heard and which are red- or amber-listed by the British Trust for Ornithology.
In truth, “dawn chorus” is a tad misleading, as one of our group pointed out. He and his partner are badger monitors and they find the songs begin at 3.40am and are loudest around 4.30am, long before any light. The word “chorus”, meanwhile, might be accurate, but requires a little teasing out.
The birds are singing to proclaim territories and entice partners, and thus there is competition among the voices. Yet in his wonderful book The Great Animal Orchestra, Bernie Krause explored the extent to which the soundscape – the full auditory “environment” in any place – reflects a kind of collective harmonising. Each bird or organism occupies only part of the full sonic range of frequencies, and over millennia the members of any natural community have learned to share these airwaves. Hogshaw is thus a harmony in more than one sense.
It is depressing, therefore, that our local council, High Peak borough, has added dissonant notes to the Hogshaw orchestra. It is to be commended for declaring that there is a nature emergency in Britain. Yet almost with the same breath it professed itself unwilling to offer protection to Hogshaw, but wants to place it in a “land bank” for development. The site is largely owned by the council and no comparable town area is as rich in nature. What is the meaning of an emergency declaration if it is not backed with creative and remedial actions?
