Paul Hobson goes in search of Derbyshire’s rarest plants and animals and examines your chances of spotting them.
As summer heads our way many of us will be contemplating spending time rambling through our stunning countryside, and when we do it's always worth keeping our eyes and ears open for the unexpected.
Coming across rare wildlife, whether it's a plant, insect, bird or mammal, will undoubtedly increase the pulse rate and sense of excitement.
Remember the lammergeier which turned up in the Peak in 2020? The unexpected and highly unusual presence of this bearded vulture drew huge crowds that flocked to catch sight of the barn-door sized bird of prey as it soared majestically over the Dark Peak's uplands.
It was a truly memorable, once-in-a-lifetime experience. However, whilst every walk won't be enriched by a myriad of rarities, the idea that you just might catch a glimpse of one adds a certain frisson of excitement, and the searching can often be as thrilling as the finding.
Incredible rarities do turn up from time to time but, in many cases, you need to be an expert to know that you are staring at one and there are some notable examples.
In 2017 Dr Tim Rich, from Kew Gardens, was collecting seeds on the Monsal Trail when he discovered two healthy colonies of leek-coloured hawkweed, thought to be globally extinct at the time.
The find was truly amazing and was showcased in the British press. However, to you and me, it would look just like a dandelion and I doubt that more than one in a thousand of us would give the plant even a second glance.
What this illustrates is that in order for us to realise that we have stumbled across a rarity we need at least a modicum of knowledge.
In many cases we will never know we have spotted one unless we concentrate our attention on one group of plants or animals, which will then give us a fighting chance.
From a botanical perspective Derbyshire is home to many rare species which you might be lucky enough to come across.
Perhaps the best group of plants, and those that are probably the most well-known and popular, are the orchids.
There are many excellent books which describe British orchids and a lot of them contain site guides which can prove indispensable to those searching for these beautiful plants.
In Derbyshire we have a number of plants that are nationally scarce and the best places to seek them out are old limestone quarries and limestone grasslands in the White Peak.
Some are a bit more showy than others. Burnt orchid is quite easy to identify, with its white column of florets topped by a purple splodge, as if someone had touched the top with a hot iron and scorched it. Hence its name. This is a grassland species and is quite noticeable.
Frog orchid, on the other hand, is far harder to spot. It's diminutive and green, so you are less likely to spot it as you wander past and you really need to get down on your hands and knees to find it.
Dark-red helleborine and marsh helleborine are not difficult to identify, as is the beautiful, slender, fly orchid.
However, the queen of the British orchid world is the lady's slipper. Once relatively abundant, it was collected to virtual extinction by the 1950s and its British population consisted of a single plant.
Since then, an ambitious project, the Sainsbury's project, run by Kew, has been raising seedlings and planting them out in their old habitats. If you came across one in flower you will know it. It's an incredibly showy and beautiful plant.
However, now comes a major decision. What should you do if you do find a rare plant?
Initially you have to check that you have actually found a rarity and, because many of us now carry our phones with their inbuilt camera around with us, the first thing to do is take a photograph.
However, I suggest that you don't splash it all over social media. Too much attention and too many trampling feet are not good for small, delicate plants.
Identifying the plant is obviously important and using a guide book can help, but it's often difficult to separate the rare from the common.
Online there are many options but I suggest that the best site is iSpot, an incredibly helpful website that helps you identify all British species of wildlife, including plants, insects, birds, amphibians and mammals.
Once you know you have come across a rare plant, then simply enjoy the thrill that it brings. To help conservation in the future, it would be beneficial to report the find to the relevant people, such as the Peak Park authorities or your local museum.
Birds are much easier to spot than plants, though they can have the annoying habit of flying away and leaving you pondering on what you have just spotted.
Little brown jobs (referred to as LBJs by birders) are the most challenging but Derbyshire has a good handful of rare birds of prey that are not impossible to find, particularly if you’re in the right place at the right time.
Ospreys return north in spring - and south in autumn - through our county and quite often a few will stop to fish in our lakes and reservoirs for a few days.
Birders have been hoping for years now that the individuals that dally a short while will stop in the county for the summer and breed.
To give them an inducement, a number of artificial nests have been constructed around Carsington Water and this may be the year they will actually nest.
If you see a large bird of prey diving into a lake with a loud splash, you know you have spotted an osprey. No other bird fishes like this.
Buzzards are now very common and, soaring high up in the sky, they can be easily confused with an osprey.
The latter has long wings which show quite a lot of white, whereas buzzards are darker and the shorter wings are more rounded.
However, if the bird has a distinctive tail with a noticeable V shape in the middle, you will have spotted another of Derbyshire's rarest birds, the red kite.
These were reduced to three pairs nesting in Wales in the beginning of the 20th century but a series of reintroductions across the country has seen their numbers rise significantly.
A few pairs now breed in Derbyshire and the likelihood is that they will steadily increase over the next few decades.
On our heather-clad moorlands our rarest bird of prey is the hen harrier, another long-winged predator which has suffered appalling persecution.
Our moors during spring and summer are usually bereft of this stunning bird but a few pairs have attempted to breed occasionally.
The females are brown in colour but the male is a delightful blue-grey and cannot be easily confused with any other large bird.
It's entirely possible that you could spot one on a moorland hike anywhere from the Goyt Valley to the northern Dark Peak. If you do, then again, don't splash it all over social media, but report the sighting to your local RSPB group or the Peak Park authorities.
Wetland areas are always attractive to breeding birds and a number of rarities have started to show up more frequently in the past few years.
Bitterns, a brown, cryptically coloured, heron-like bird, is usually hard to spot but it has an amazing call, known as booming.
If you hear this weird call deep in the reed bed and if you're not sure if it's a bittern, Google the call on your phone and play it quietly to yourself to double check.
More conspicuous rarities, such as the black and white avocet and the spoonbill, are increasing and both birds are very distinctive.
Little egrets were considered rarities a few years ago but now are relatively common. However, their much larger cousin, the great white egret, is an incredibly rare bird which has started to breed in Somerset in the last few years and could possibly turn up in the wetlands in the south of Derbyshire.
Sightings of mammals are usually more fleeting than birds and often there is another species which they could easily be confused with.
Derbyshire lost its red squirrels a few decades ago and it's very unlikely that they will return as there are no colonies nearby to reinvade the county.
However, we are all familiar with grey squirrels and some of these can be almost black and easily confused with red squirrels.
The pine marten, a long, lithe, arboreal member of the mustlelid family, became extinct in Derbyshire around the 1980s.
Since then, a number of reintroductions have occurred and the species is naturally increasing and reclaiming old territory throughout Scotland, North England and Wales.
It's almost a certainty that it will appear again in Derbyshire in the not too distant future. They are usually nocturnal but can be spotted early in the morning or the evening.
Otters are still considered rare but are increasing at a fantastic rate. If you want to put in the time, you will almost certainly be able to find one as they frequent many of our waterways such the Derwent and Trent rivers and many wetland areas such as Willington.
If you spot a large, long animal swimming across the water you need to make sure it's not a mink, which is roughly half the size of an otter and swims showing quite a bit of its back, whereas otters tend to swim with just their head showing, creating a distinctive V shaped bow wave.
Derbyshire's butterflies fared badly last year with many species, such as the wall brown and white-letter hairstreak, declining dramatically and alarmingly.
However, some species bucked the trend and the once scarce silver-washed fritillary is now commonly seen.
Fritillaries are a beautiful family of butterflies that can be easily confused with each other. The clue is usually on the underwing - the silver-washed has a subtle wash of green and silver blending into each other.
In contrast the dark-green fritillary, easily confused with the silver-washed, has far more distinct, large spots of silver on a green ground colour.
There are many good butterfly guide books and lots of them are a convenient pocket-size so they can be easily carried on summer walks.
Derbyshire lost its grizzled skippers last century but an ambitious project centred at Calke Abbey has seen them reintroduced into southern Derbyshire.
Butterflies like the grizzled skipper are small and low-flying but, whilst they are hard to follow, they do stop frequently, so a careful, slow walk towards them will usually allow you to get a good view to check identification.
If you become bitten by the butterfly bug, then a good pair of binoculars can be a real help, and many makes now allow very close focusing.
If you decide to buy a pair, then make sure they are ones that allow you to focus down to a few feet.
Last month I wrote an article about the purple emperor, and it's hopefully only a matter of time before this stunning butterfly breeds in one of Derbyshire's woodlands. Perhaps you could be the first to spot its return.
Rarities occur in all groups of wildlife but in many groups, such as fungi, species are difficult to identify at the best of times.
One or two though are so distinctive, like the devil's fingers toadstool, that identification of this rarity is easy.
One of Derbyshire's rarest fungus is the oak polypore, a large brown bracket fungus which grows on veteran oak trees at Calke and Kedleston Hall.
One aspect of looking for, and enjoying rarities, is not to focus on the near unobtainable, but to delight in looking for, and watching, nationally declining species that are not on the verge of extinction.
Derbyshire still has relatively healthy populations of curlew, and to see and hear a calling curlew is a fantastic experience. It's not a rarity but is a red data species, which means its population in the UK is vulnerable.
Many other species, such as twite, fall into this category and, if you find one, you should be as excited as if you had spotted a true rarity.
Finding or coming across rare animals and plants here in Derbyshire is exciting but it does carry a degree of personal responsibility.
Your actions should not endanger the species, so only reporting it to the relevant authorities who can help to conserve or protect it should be enough.
You want to know that in weeks, months and years ahead it will still be thriving, and even spreading, there to be enjoyed, hopefully, for generations to come across our stunning and diverse countryside.
