Bite-Size Blog Post #78 - Birch Tor

17 Aug

In Search of Heather

Late July, through August and into September are some of my favourite times for photography on Dartmoor. It’s heather season, and as summer progresses, the landscape gradually starts to turn purple. I find it gives me a whole new level of motivation to get out early in the morning.

But this summer is different.

Why? Well, unusually for the South West of the UK, it hasn’t rained. For weeks. In fact, I can’t remember the last time we had any proper rain. Of course, we can have long periods of good weather here and I’m more than happy to enjoy all the benefits that brings. But those periods are almost always interrupted by a few days of rubbish weather and a bit of rain.

This year has been very different.

It’s so dry on Dartmoor at the moment that the government has even issued emergency warnings, including restrictions on things such as portable BBQs. The ground is parched, the grass has turned yellow and the landscape is starting to look very different from the Dartmoor I’m used to seeing at this time of year.

So, will the dry weather affect the heather?

It isn’t a simple question to answer. Dry weather doesn’t necessarily mean there will be no heather, and there are plenty of other factors that influence how it develops and when it flowers.

I was thinking about all of this when I visited Birch Tor recently. I had been hoping to find the first real signs of the purple landscape I associate with this time of year, but I was disappointed to find very little heather in flower.

There could be several reasons for this. Perhaps I was simply too early and the heather on this particular part of the moor hadn’t reached its peak. Perhaps the exceptionally dry conditions have affected its growth. Or perhaps Birch Tor simply doesn’t produce the same spectacular display as its nearby neighbour, Grimspound.

Whatever the reason, I’m not going to write Birch Tor off just yet.

This is only the beginning of the heather season for me, and while I wasn’t able to capture the photographs I had hoped for on this visit, I’ll be returning. One of the things I love about photographing Dartmoor is how dramatically a familiar location can change over the course of just a few weeks.

And, even without the heather, the photographs I captured on this visit have given me plenty of motivation to return again very soon.

So stay tuned. There’s still plenty of heather season to come.