Easter Walking

Easter Sunday dawned sunny so setting off from our new house at RHB we immediately saw our first Swallow and took the now well used coastal path to almost Ravenscar before turning off up to the railway. A small clump of willows in a gully produced, surprisingly a male Tree Sparrow, followed by a male Reed Bunting and then a pair of Stonechats. Returning to RHB via the railway produced a couple of Willow Warblers in suitable habitat near the old Stoupe Brow quarry, now home to several Fulmars. Trish of course heard the Willow Warblers, I had to make do with spotting one before it vanished again. This quarry has two rather large boulders somewhat larger than some houses and comparable to similar such boulders in the lake-district such as the Bowder Stone and others. A line of old rusting bolts up the shear face of one an indication of a practice climb in the late 1960's.
Total distance about 8 miles

Easter Monday I joined North Yorkshire Moors National Park volunteer ranger Richard Simpson on a patrol around Goathland district, taking in Darnholme, Julian Park, where I saw 3 Yellow hammers and a newly hatched clutch of Mallards in the nearbye pond, on to Hazel Head, Hunt House and Simons Howe where we saw our first few walkers. Returning via the old mere created in victorian times for winter skating, and the old golf course built at the same period,, we encountered our first mass hoards of visitors.
We covered around 9 miles.

Before returning home I had a quick excursion to the old whinstone mine but discovered the entrance had collapsed and the exit along the fault line had been blocked off and was unable to locate this. I've had many interesting trips through this mine.

On my way back to my car I noticed a young male inside a car, who judging from his lack of clothes and jerky movements was pre-occupied with having sex with either the rear seat or a hidden passenger. I waved hello as I passed but he did not respond. The lack of manners today is........!!