Species watch: the Red Poll

Yes I did spell it right.  More here.

A walk technically in Lund, but nearer to Middleton.

The surveilance continued...

Autumn has not yet revealed any of its distinctive features so I will settle with harvest views...

Lund Wold Farm (est 1884) is home to the Red Polls, a lovely breed, if not as famous as the Highlands in yesterdays post, still a pleasant change from the uniformity seen elsewhere...

 

 The overhead surveillance, they don't leave us for long.  Actually I secretly miss the old pre 1992 days when the A10 Warthogs used to fly round these parts...

There is some hawthorn for the winter visitors, yet to arrive.  In fact we were constantly accompanied by swallows and martins, yet to leave...

A pleasant change on a quiet bit of road (1 hour - 2 lorries, 2 vans, 2 cars and 2 bikes)

Millington Dale

 

 

 

Millington Dale is a bit west of Huggate and about 8 miles away, close enough that we should go more often.

 

 

I had a walk here interupted by mobile phone signals being strong enough to  relay "missed message" texts but not enough to actually phone anyone.  So if you are visiting check with your nearest etc. first. 

 

Today we had to pull over for a grey grizzled man breathlessly pushing his mountain bike up the last bit of the road before the Huggate turn, dressed in a black frizzy wig, gold lame dress and (I think) heels and stockings.  There must be a charity I should donate to because he looked like he was earning it.

 

Millington Dale ( or Pasture Dale at the top end) is such a fascinating bit of single track tarmac that it was once planned for a stage of the old RAC rally... 

Some day I will take the path less trod and follow the off tarmac track.

The natives are friendly..

A family group...

A small argument with a yellow flower..

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A gate-less compound is the site of a spring and the sound of running water is a rare sound in the usually dry Wolds...

The spring, invisible at first leads to a stream...

And to a pool...

Along the walk there are posts with enigmatic letters...

 

 

Which are explained here .

 

 

Should come here more often.

Autumn - better than Summer

 

 

Autumn is really turning out to be better than summer, and the harvest now seems to be in full swing...

 



 

A brief walk down Warter Road and the surveillance continued...

Paranoid, me?

Anyway, the trees above Londesborough were just starting to show the first bit of colour...

 

 

 

 

The next day (Friday) to the top of Great Dug Dale and close quarters with the harvest and the partridges and pheasants who were shy and jumpy, and the machinery which wasn't...



 

 

  
If you look long enough into this tree you start to see all sorts of things.  I was sure there was a little owl for a moment...

Young pheasants...

Partridge...

 

 

Wild Pansy (I think), but at least it didn't fly off in a noisy panic... 

A Red Kite below us.....

 The machines were always in the background.

The ballet of these huge machines is quite impressive...

 

 

Deep Dug Dale (or Deep Dugdale).  There is a large boulder, the strange one, which I might have mentioned before in the background.  I assume it was left by a passing glacier and was too big for people to nick for building.  It must be upwards of 5 tonnes...

 

A close up...

 

The final cut...

 I thought it was time to move.

 

 

Other places HU12 - Spurn Point

So, it's now officially autumn and the weather has taken note...

With the weather like this we managed to find the one belt of cloud to set off to Spurn Point.

The news stories had said that the lifeboat families had moved out as the road was becoming too difficult for the commute to schools, etc.  It seemed a good use of the  Jeep to investigate.

In fact, the road was open, if rough in places, and membership of YWT exempted us from the £3 car charge.   The tip of Spurn is surprisingly large, a tangle of gorse, Sea Buckthorn, ruined buildings, strange structures, dead trees and sea views.

A strangely smoking tanker sits in the distance.  It carried on smoking and didn't seem to cause any alarm, so I supposed it was meant to do that.

Bull Sands Fort sits 1.5 miles away, but still in the East Riding...

One of the pilot launches returning to the pier with the lifeboat behind.

A stand of dead trees.  I suppose that in such a changing environment (just look at the old rail tracks crossing the road madly three or four times as you drive down) it is not surprising that some things survive and some things do not.

There are marked paths and many more that twist and wander around through the ruins...

Cobweb covered ankle height entrances to heaven knows what, but I wasn't going to find out...

A very black bee on a very yellow flower...

The smoking tanker was still smoking...

The cloud started to move away and we moved back up to where the land was more narrow.  The seaward side...

I was quite pleased with this, which was why I made it a bit bigger.

Swallows were whizzing past our ears, a nightmare to try and focus on, in the end I turned the auto focus off and just took a picture when I thought they were within range..

Ships come and go...

The western side, looking south, toward the lighthouse and the lifeboat station ...

And north (ish)...

A few pics from a visit in March (which was the last time it felt like summer)...