A long trip including a train ride to Scarborough and a bus drive to Brow Top to walk from there to Robin Hood's Bay. Brow top is in moorland, which appears to be managed for grouse as there are very obviously burnt patches. I fail to find Mossy Mere, a name that suggests a boggy area, but there are no paths and the heather is woody in many places. A Stonechat sits on a gorse bush and meadow pipit flocks fly off. I reach the trig point marking 220 m, and then it's mostly downhill, meandering alongside country lanes and minor roads. I have taken my Echo meter detector to check for bush crickets. The views are wonderful, the day mild, with no wind.
The trig point and the sea in the distance, looking north.
Robin Hood's Bay.
A cottage outside wall has many Wall Pennywort dry seed heads. No leaves to be seen. This is a plant of humid walls and cliffs, more at home on the west coast.
Badger latrine.
The most common orthopteran of the day, Field Grasshopper.
The view from Robin Hood's bay, looking north. I have a picnic on a bench and it is balmy, i have to take my fleece off.
Small Tortoiseshell.
After my lunch, it's time to search for Dark Bush-crickets. I leave the village and take the steps for the Cleveland way. Atop the steps, on the sunny side of the hedge, my ultrasound device picks the scratchy calls of dark bush-crickets, unfortunately, a barbed wire fence prevents me from seeing where they are so I have to content myself with the recording. A Lizard scuttles behind a clump of grass further on the coastal path and as a consolation prize I spot a singing Roesel's, the Northernmost I've seen.
Looking back to Robin Hood's Bay and the hedge.
Roesel's male calling.
Whilst trying to spot the calling Dark Bush-crickets, I see these bugs. Later, I find out they are Boat Bugs, Enoplops scapha, a local species in the UK, which is found in dunes and coastal cliffs.
Basking Peacock.
I quickly walk up the steep street to catch the bus and have to sprint for it.
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