The end of the year is nearly upon us and the weather can’t decide what it's doing, but we hope you’re still managing to see loads of our winter wildlife.

We’ll start with another sighting of an otter this time in the High Peak. They require clean rivers with lots of vegetation to hide their underground burrows known as holts, as well as plenty of food. Also seen in the last fortnight was a black grouse, an upland bird which is famed for its displaying behaviour; where the males fan out their feathers and strut to show their dominance.

We hope you all have a wonderful time at your end of year celebrations and if you’d like to celebrate the 12 days of Christmas with a wild twist you can sign up to the Wildlife Trusts’ midwinter nature challenge. For more details can be found at www.wildlifetrusts.org/12dayswild.

We’ve loved reading your Derbyshire wildlife sightings this year and are looking forward to reading more in the new year. To submit your own sighting and be featured in a future blog go to www.derbyshirewildlifetrust.org.uk/wildlife/record-sighting.

Thank you to Tanya Spilsbury, Keith Richardson and Mo Moulton for submitting their wildlife sightings.