Yaffle Traditional Cache
geoartcache: Cache needed maintenance. Archived.
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Difficulty:
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Terrain:
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Size: 
(small)
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Printmaker, Hester Cox has created a series of geo art caches that take the seeker on a journey through Hackfall Wood with each cache illustrating a story of one of the many creatures that live there and leaving the visitor with a book of impressions from their day.
Yaffle: Green Woodpecker
Tale:
Yaffle is among the many English folk names given to the Green Woodpecker and relates to the laugh-like call that it makes. They are also known as Laughing Betsey, Yaffingale, Yappingale and Jack Eikle. Other names, including Rain-bird, Weather Cock and Wet Bird, have been given to the bird because it is supposed to have the ability to bring on rain.
In one version of the Genesis, when God had finished creating the earth he asked the birds to dig hollows with their beaks in order that they would become rivers, lakes and seas. The green woodpecker was a vain bird and was concerned that he would get his brightly coloured feathers dirty so he refused to dig. As punishment, God condemned the woodpecker to always peck at wood and to never be allowed to drink from the pools, streams and rivers but only from falling rain drops. God also said that the woodpecker’s voice would only be heard when all other birds and animals were sheltering from approaching storms and this may well be why it is so often regarded as the ‘rainbird’.
Hackfall:
Green Woodpeckers are the largest and most colourful of the UK’s woodpeckers. In Hackfall it is possible to spot all three species: the green, the lesser and the greater spotted woodpeckers. Green woodpeckers particularly like to eat ants and when they find a good anthill they will return to it regularly and can often be seen on the ground jabbing their strong beaks into the ants’ nest and catching the inhabitants with their long sticky tongues!
To spot them look for a green bird with a bright yellow rump and red head that has an undulating flight. You might also hear their laughing call throughout the woods.
This geocache is part of a series of caches hidden in Hackfall as part of North Yorkshire Open Studios - http://www.nyos.org.uk
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
Ybbx sbe n tebhc bs gerrf ba gur cngu vapyhqvat n qvfgvapgvir ubyybj orrpu, n ovepu naq n ynetr orrpu gerr. Lbh arrq gb ybbx pybfr gb gur onfr bs gur ynetrfg gerr.