Stretching The Legs A Bit

One as-threa promised post with piccies and stuff about what I got up to;




Sunday. It was time for a change. I took a day off from my Wild Wheatear Hunts and went up on t' Moor to have some fun.


And fun I did indeed have!


The sun shone, the wind was light [though pretty toothsome] and the Skylarks were singing all over the place...

I even managed to get a bunch of stuff in; birds, rocks, and archaeology!

:D



So, I parked at Sourton and after hopping over a few runnels [because taking the easy way up is boring], got up onto the Tor. There were lovely rocks [well, if you're into agglomerates..]

See?

Sourton Tor, not made of granite.

Oh yes, lots of lovely pictures are a' comin'... [Mua-ha-ha-ha-ha]

Here's a better one;

Limestone inclusion

Ahem.

So, my primary target was this place;

Managing to brood even in the sunshine..

Can't make it out? Here's a closer view;

The Barad-dur

Great Links Tor

Scuse the 'orrible sunblasts - only a dinky mobile camera...

Here's a nicer shot of the main outcrop;

The walk was brightened by a surprise in a puddle on the track;

Frog!

It was definitely spring-y, with many bumblebees [white- and red- arsed varieties] and a Red Admiral on the wing. 


Lunch was enlivened no end by an utterly amazing - indeed almost surreal - flypast. I was sat close to a nice chunk of rock when whoosh! a bird shot past from behind me. It passed me at head height between me and said granite - inside arm's length! What was it? Male Sprawk!!

You know what surprised me the most? [And we're talking degrees here, lots of surprise to go around] The sheer teeniness of it. You read measurements, see them compared to other birds, know that they're tiny, but it's not until they're that close that you truly appreciate it.


Speaking of birds, there were also quite a few of these about;

Golden Plover

[yes, that is s/pl]

The odd ones and twos dotted around on the deck were not the half of it. Not the hundredth, even! A massive flock of ~600 was joined by another of ~180.... So with the non-flyers that's about 800 Golden Plover knocking around the upper Lyd valley on Sunday. Wowzer. And yes, quite a few were in resplendent black-bellied s/pl. With that many birds, I was watching underwings and listening hard, but didn't get a sniff of anything transatlantic with them [well, you don't know unless you check].

The show they put on - especially when the ~600 were flushed by a party of 18 happyhikers - was quite something, I can tell you. Detouring around all the parties on the deck was less fun, though..


After the GP had settled, I took a good wander about the upper Lyd valley, as I'd seen what looked like a stone row that wasn't marked on my map.

Passing a small settlement,

Hut circle

[Little Links Tor on skyline]

I found what was indeed a dinky and slightly damaged alignment. Three small stones were standing, with a fourth leaning, and several more fallen and covered by vegetation. The row stopped suddenly a distance short of a partial pound reaching from the bluff by the Lyd; I suspect more than one stone ended up there. With the lack of steep slope, the stones were still very well lined up;

Looking east towards Woodcock Hill

With annotation;

And looking towards the Great Nodden;

Those rocks in the foreground may be a terminal feature. Or they may just be rocks..


Speaking of standing stones... Further upstream, an area worked by tinners contained some very impressive uprights. These were not natural poses, and I'd suspect someone had a sense of humour if it hadn't involved such a clear amount of effort [these were multi-ton chunks of granite...].
Here's a good one;

Negalith

The misty haze which had hidden cornwall through lunch was still present when I toddled up Great Nodden for coffee at the top. So nothing flying past to be seen. Still, with nowt but Skylarks for company, I wasn't that disappointed.


It was a good day, I covered about 15 k's and found some lovely little spots. Even if the only white-rumped bird I saw was a Stonechat*...


There's always next time.




Be Seeing You..


[[*Nope. Way too much orange underneath.]]