Sunshine & kites

The sun is shining and it's gloriously warm so lunch was outside today. Whilst we were just enjoying the sunshine we heard a lot of noise above us. Looking up and there is the unmistakeable shape of a red kite being mobbed by rooks and a couple of crows. The kite seemed most un-bothered and lazily flapped its way towards Whitby - obviously fancied a day at the seaside!
It looked like it had yellow wing tags, a bit difficult to tell against the sun but probably, if so it's travelled a long way, two yellows mean origin south of England and hatched in 2004.

Yesterday afternoon we heard the Goathland Fire Engine (station at the end of the road) screaming it's way through the visitors. A large chunk of the moor was on fire, the Whitby Gazette has updates and photos, view these here. We do know that the fire has sparked up again today and the Goathland Volunteers are once again on scene. If you're planning to go out and bout this weekend please be aware of the fire risk wherever you may be.

The latest edition of CJS Weekly has gone to press, this week there are 11 pages with 65 new paid posts of which 52 came direct to CJS, plus the usual volunteers and snippets of information which this week feature The Woodland Trust relaunching the MOREWoods programme and news of the Campaign for the Farmed Environment.