Guide · Wildlife Brontë
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Emily Brontë's poems are full of moor birds. The curlew, the lapwing, the golden plover — these are not decorative details but organisms she observed directly, repeatedly, in the landscape she walked throughout her life. To understand Wuthering Heights as a novel of the moor is partly to understand the specific ecology of the South Pennine moorland above Haworth.
This guide covers the most significant wildlife of that landscape — what you might see on a visit, what makes the species remarkable and what their presence tells you about the moorland ecology that produced them.
The curlew (Numenius arquata) is the defining bird of the Pennine moors. Its call — a long, bubbling, melancholic cry that rises and falls across the moorland — is one of the most distinctive sounds in the British upland and is the sound most closely associated with the Brontë landscape in literary accounts of the moors.
Curlews are Britain's largest wading bird, with an extraordinary down-curved bill used to probe for invertebrates in soft ground. They breed on upland moorland from March to July and winter on estuaries and coastal mudflats. The breeding population has declined by approximately 48% since 1995 — one of the sharpest declines of any British breeding bird — making each spring encounter on the moor more significant than it was in the Brontës' time.
The curlew's call, heard on the moor above Haworth in April or May, is the sound that Emily Brontë was hearing outside the parsonage window. If you are on the moor in spring, stop and listen for it.
The lapwing (Vanellus vanellus) is a conspicuous and theatrical bird of upland meadows and moors. Its call — a tumbling, wheezy "pee-wit" — gives it one of its common names, and its display flight — rising steeply, rolling and tumbling in the air above its nest territory — is one of the most spectacular of any British bird.
Lapwings breed on the open upland above Haworth from March to June and are most easily seen in the breeding season when they are actively displaying and defending territories. Like the curlew, the lapwing has declined significantly in recent decades due to agricultural intensification; the Pennine uplands hold some of the last significant breeding populations in northern England.
The golden plover (Pluvialis apricaria) is a bird of the high moorland and is, by most accounts, the most beautiful British wader. In breeding plumage — black face and underparts, brilliant gold-spotted upper parts — it is unmistakable and extraordinary. In winter it adopts a plainer buff-brown plumage and gathers in large flocks on lowland fields and estuaries.
Golden plovers breed on the highest parts of the South Pennine moorland — typically above 400 metres, on the blanket peat bogs — and their piping calls are one of the sounds of the high moor. In autumn and winter, flocks of hundreds of birds gather on the ridge above Haworth before moving south.
The short-eared owl (Asio flammeus) is unusual among British owls in hunting by day — it quarrels low over the moor in a buoyant, leisurely flight, hunting small mammals (particularly field voles) that it locates by sound and sight. It is most active in the hour before dusk but can be seen hunting at any time of day in good conditions.
The short-eared owl is present on the South Pennine moors throughout the year, though numbers vary with the vole population cycle. In years of peak vole numbers (typically every three to five years), short-eared owls gather on productive moorland in numbers; in years of vole scarcity they disperse widely.
The mountain hare (Lepus timidus) has a population on the South Pennine moorland that represents the southernmost extent of the species' British range. In winter, the mountain hares of the Pennine moors turn white — a camouflage adaptation to snow cover that is most effective when there is actual snow, which on the Pennines is not guaranteed. In years of poor snow cover, a white hare on a brown moor is conspicuous.
Mountain hares are elusive and not commonly seen on casual visits to the moor. They are most easily observed in winter, particularly after snowfall when they are visible against the white ground.
The merlin (Falco columbarius) is Britain's smallest falcon and breeds on the Pennine moorland in small numbers. It is a fast, low-flying hunter of small birds, particularly meadow pipits, which it pursues in fast, direct flight close to the ground. The male is blue-grey above and rich orange below; the female is brown.
Merlins are not commonly seen on casual visits to the moor but are present during the breeding season (April–August) and occasionally visible at other times of year as passage migrants. A merlin in fast pursuit of a meadow pipit across the moor is one of the finest brief wildlife encounters available on the Pennines.
The Brontë Country Day Trip passes through the South Pennine moorland above Haworth. Your expert storyteller will point out the moorland birds and explain the ecology of this landscape.
Planning a Brontë Country day? These go well together:
The curlew, whose long, bubbling call is one of the sounds most closely associated with the Brontë landscape.
Spring, when breeding waders return and display.
Yes — the curlew, lapwing and golden plover in her poems reflect species she observed directly and repeatedly on the moors she walked.