Carrying out bird surveys is a highlight of my Ingleborough calendar. Starting in late April  through to the end of June I carry out two surveys at each location, leaving a month between visits. I’m always watching the weather forecast keenly during this period, waiting for calm and sunny mornings when birds are most likely to be singing their hearts out. 

They are early starts, aiming to be in position to start surveying at 6:30am. Following the BTO’s (British Trust for Ornithology) Breeding Bird Survey methodology I walk two transects, each 1km long and subdivided into 200m sections. Along the way I pause, watch and listen, recording all bird species I see and hear. It’s a wonderful chance to slow down and observe. 

There are two long running BTO Breeding Bird Surveys on Ingleborough National Nature Reserve which are carried out by Natural England staff. The results from these are part of BTO’s national volunteer project to monitor changes in breeding bird populations in the UK. We set up two additional surveys at the start of Wild Ingleborough, and although these aren’t part of BTO’s project, we used the same methodology so the results are comparable. 

The speck of a hovering skylark belting out its continuous song and the descending notes of a meadow pipit as it parachutes to the ground are the mainstay of these surveys. We are still blessed with the bubbling call of a curlew or two alongside occasional appearances from other upland waders - oystercatcher, snipe and lapwing.   The instantly recognisable cuckoo is always a joy to hear, and as I pass by isolated patches of woodland there are goldfinches, willow warbler and redstart. Then there’s the wren - you can always rely on one to be boldly defending its section of a drystone wall. As I climb higher on the fell, if I’m lucky, I will hear a red grouse telling me to ‘Go back, go back’. Pushing on, I reach the steep scree slopes and am in wheatear territory, taking a while to hone in on their call and to spot them perched on a rock. My highlight from 2025 was watching a pair of ring ouzel feeding in grassy patches among heather and bilberry.  

I can’t help but imagine what species and abundance we might see in the future as our planted trees grow and naturally regenerate, dwarf shrub continues to recover and our peatlands rewet, all through our various efforts to restore this incredible part of the Yorkshire Dales.