If you have been to the restaurant lately, you may have seen that we have been selling posies of garden flowers, along with bespoke Kath Cox ‘flower frogs’, plus Whitby Gin tumblers (made from old gin bottles). All profits from these sales are raising funds for our local nature group, so we thought you might like to know a bit more about what this is. So it’s over to the Chair, Brian Loader, who has written this post about the group, and how to get involved. Thank you Brian!

Giving Goathland Nature a Helping Hand

There can be little doubt that those of us who reside in or visit Goathland and its surrounding landscape are very fortunate indeed to experience first hand the natural treasures it offers. We are regularly privileged to witness the majestic flight of the barn owl quartering one of our fields. And who doesn’t enjoy the company of our charming Roe Deer or the joy of seeing Hares boxing in March. Goathland is host to many varieties of migrant birds who visit us. Summer could surely never be as sweet without the haunting call of the Curlew or the contrasting screams of the Swifts. Over 600 species have been identified and recorded to-date on the online App iNaturalist.  These include animals, wild flowers, trees, plants, butterflies, reptiles, amphibians, and insects that inhabit our mixture of upland farm pasture, running streams, mixed woodland and open moorland. If that were not enough, Goathland parish is also a wonderful vantage point for observing the dark night sky at its very best – including on occasion the Northern Lights!

So, it may come as a surprise to many people to learn that even here, in this seemingly rural idyll, nature is under threat. Goathland is not isolated from the wider crisis affecting British wildlife. Evidence provided by over 60 UK nature conservation groups in 2023 vividly documented the decline of Britain’s animals, birds, plants, insects, bees, and many other organisms (LINK State of Nature 2023). More locally, Yorkshire Wildlife Trust identified 3000 species at risk of extinction, 1 in 5 species having declined 25% in the last 30 years. (LINK Yorkshire’s Nature 2024).

One of the consequences of this sad state of affairs is that common species are increasing at the expense of our rarer species. I recently experienced an insight into this phenomenon when I examined a one-hundred-year-old nature journal of the Goathland area which is now in the possession of Whitby Museum. It is a written record, with some fine hand-drawn illustrations, of the abundance of wildlife to be found in the area and provides a stark contrast to today. The author, W S Medlicott who lived in Partridge Farm from 1921, regularly identifies birds of prey such as Hen Harriers and Merlin that are sadly seldom to be seen these days. Moreover, once common entries of fly catchers, redstarts and other birds are now largely absent from our environs.

When confronted with the scale and seeming relentlessness of this tragic decline of our wildlife we can often feel powerless to do anything to stop it. Caught like a doomed hare in the headlights of an oncoming juggernaut it feels like we can only wait for the inevitable demise. For sure the causes of this crisis are varied and multi layered. So too, many remedies are likely to be global and national and beyond our capacity to effect change. But all cannot be lost. At least that is the view that a number of Goathland residents have taken. Nature needs our collective help and we felt that should establish a community group to undertake the task.

In March this year Goathland Nature Group was founded with the purpose of learning about, discussing, recording, celebrating and actively supporting our local nature and wildlife. We meet regularly to identify ways in which we can support nature by collaboratively working with other groups and stake-holders; educating ourselves and others about wildlife; recording our wonderful natural environment; and, undertaking constructive and sustainable activities where appropriate to conserve and enhance our local nature for future generations.

What does all that mean in practice? In our short existence, we have so far presented a series of talks on nature topics; launched an active Facebook group that currently has over 100 members; set up an iNaturalist project to record local species; provided a stall at our Village Show and monthly farmers markets; and undertaken a nature survey of our churchyard. Working in partnership with the Parochial Church Council, Village School, Parish Council, and the Goathland Village Hall and Hut, we are currently planning further public talks, Litter-picking, a wildlife-friendly open gardens event, a Swift, Swallow & Martin Project, and further nature survey’s and bioblitz’s.

If you would like join us and give nature a helping hand, please join us.

Email: goathlandnature@gmail.com

Phone: 07814497340

Follow us on Facebook Goathland Nature Group

or iNaturalist: Goathland Nature Project

Our next talk will be at Goathland Village Hall, 7:00pm on Thursday 25 September. It will be given by Elaine Hoyle who is the Natural History Curator at Whitby Museum and she will be discussing Medlicott’s journal mentioned above. Hope to see you there!

Brian Loader

Chair, Goathland Nature Group.