Events following the end of the World.(an exaggeration)

  Monday evening looked like the world was going to end...

It loomed and threatened and then it did nothing., and on Tuesday
we returned to North Cliffe Woods.

The bluebells had been replaced by white daisy-like flowers that have
elluded my research.  There are so many of them that I ought to be able to
find out sooner or later.

A young GS Woodpecker was calling to a sibling in a tree a little further on. 
It was so well fitted into the cleft of the tree that we would have missed it if it wasn't
calling from time to time...

A small copper posing nicely...

A ladybird but is it a native or an alien Harlequin in disguise?...

A close up of the things that are not daisys, the blue fringing is not a computer fiddle...

Hudson Way

Friday 25 May 2012

Another sunny day ("Don't take it for granted" says voice in head) and a fairly early start to the Hudson Way at Granny's Attic, the former Kiplingcotes station, of which more later.

We were greeted by a Greenfinch calling from the top of the may blossom...

 

and a Wren in the next bush...

The old track bed runs for three and a half miles in this direction to Market Weighton...

We only followed it for about a mile to the YWT nature reserve at Kiplingcotes Chalk Pits.  It is apparently a RIG or something which I thing stands for Reasonably Interesting Geology.

Rabbits were everywhere, but you don't need a photo to tell you what a rabbit looks like, do you?

Well alright then...

Actually this one turned up in our garden the other day.

I make no apologies for including more pictures of Hawthorn blossom.

Some even have a blush of pink...

But there were very few insects.  It might have been a bit early but last year I was pleasantly surprised by the number of bees.

There was Kidney Vetch ...

The nature reserve was cropped very close. Most of the scrub has been cleared and between the rabbits and the "Flying Flock" of which more here the sward is very short...

The blue bit in the distance is chalk scree under the strong sun.

There were some wild strawberries...

Can you eat wild strawberries from a nature reserve?

The anthills made for interesting shadows in an otherwise nature free nature reserve.  Lets hope it develops later in the summer.  I was hoping for orchids.

On the way back, if an insect has six legs and a spider has eight...

What do you call something with seven?

A shiny greenbottle...(that's not the answer, it was more of a rhetorical question)

And a Willow Warbler singing ...

A weird daisy looking flower.  I have no idea, any suggestions?

Back at the station, Kiplingcotes station and its buildings are, I think, the only buildings surviving from the Beverley to York railway built by George Hudson in 1846/7.  There is no habitation in the surrounding area and the station was Lord Hotham's price for allowing the railway on his land.  The signal box has been restored and is now an art gallery...

There is  more on the history here.

Farberry Garth

Thursday 24 May 2012

To the woods near Farberry Garth Farm at the head of Dug Dale.

Not a footpath but a track leads faintly to the woods...

The trees are nearly in full leaf.

Patches of sunlight still find away through for now but soon all will be in deep shade.

Back on the road the only traffic was a tractor laden with bales of wool and heading very slowly heaven knows where..

To the north is Dalton Gates Cottage and the trees that David Hockney painted in "Bigger Trees Near Warter"...

A small representation of the original is here. 

Elsewhere all was yellow with the oilseed rape in flower...

Kiplingcotes

Wednesday 23 May 2012

To Kipligcotes for a short walk as the clouds thinned and the sun came out.

We parked by the starting post which has gained a small sculpture...

Before the addition it looked like this.

Kiplingcotes is the oldest horse race in the country,but the racecourse has "good to VERY firm" going...

There is a history of the race here.

All around we were taunted by yellowhammers, warblers, skylarks and others who remained tantalising out of reach of my camera.  Eventually one snatched pic of a whitethroat...

I hope for better later on in the summer.

- - - - - -

 Back home and the sun came out and the poppies were so bright that they overloaded the camera with colour...

Looks a bit like a 1970's poster.

Yesterday's power-washing of the patio had made a lot of woodlouse families homeless and picking up the brush set them off again...

Next door's House Martins were sitting (I think) on eggs and the partner was struggling to fit in...

The swallows were being a bit elusive and I didn't want to interrupt nest building, so they will have to wait for a while.

Great Dug Dale, kites and tales from the country.

 Tuesday 22 May 2012

Great Dug Dale near Warter is a delight on the first proper day of summer.

Red Kites overhead, this first looking a bit ragged with a tail feather missing.

Dug Dale is open access land and sits beneath the arable fields above.

The May is now well and truly out.  What seems like a blanket of white is in fact a confection of pinks and yellows floating on top of the white petals.

 We climbed so high that flecks of snow clung to the rocks as we found a cave leading to an enchanted land...

It was a hot day so it might have been bird lime and a hole in the roots of an ash tree but it's nice to think.

Anothet Red Kite on the way back, along with a kestrel fighting with a lapwing, a buzzard and a sparrowhawk, all except the kite evading my camera..

One day I will get a kites head in focus.

On the way back we had an interesting chat with a gamegeeper feeding his pheasants who told us of Marsh Harriers,  the numbers of kite nests, possible hen harriers and redstarts.

Back at Warter the home field looked a picture...

Except for one poor sheep who seemed to have got over-eager with the supplement bucket...

Her lamb didn't seem to mind...

Invasions - Spanish and others

20th May 2012

A simple walk up Warter Road,  the weather slill overcast but not raining.

The cowslips are still showing well...

There was a Linnet singing to its mate, but it was a bit shy...

And a very shy ginger bumble emerging to taste a very hairy "dead" nettle flower...

We noticed that the bluebells had been out and out in the open (ie not under trees) for some time and looked a bit closer.  The plants looked like Spanish imposters or hybrids, but I would be happy to be told otherwise.

And then a car drove very slowly along the road towards us.  Very slowly.  What could it mean? 
Then the tractors came...

And they came...

And they came...

Cheer up lad, only another 20 or 30 miles to go.  Should be home in daylight if you are lucky.

It was, I think the annual East Yorkshire Young Farmers Charity Tractor Run, but we had no idea it was happening, it wasn't in the local paper.

And then they went...

 
With the prospect of trying to overtake around 200 tractors travelling at walking pace on a single track road we decided to go the other way.