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.