Walking the Humber. Stage 3. Brough Haven to Hessle Haven

I get the 8:03 train to Brough. It's cloudy and mild. In Brough Haven, a westerly wind blows the drizzle onto my back. A Grey Heron hunts by the shoreline on the ebbing tide. There are four Shelduck and many Teal and Mallard.

 A Kestrel hunts over the grassy, muddy floodbank peppered with molehills. A bit later, a Marsh Harrier lets itself be carried east by the wind. I am walking by the disused Brough Aerodrome, the Wolds in the horizon. Curlew feed on the grassy airfield. From Brough Haven there is a long stretch of reedbed and mudflats occasionally interrupted by creeks where birds gather to wash. In one of these creeks, Elloughton Clough, a Cetti's Warbler, my first of the year sings its explosive phrase from the reeds. A Skylark sings too.

 There is not much on the Welton Waters fish complex or on the sports lake. The only thing of note is a spit on the mudflats called Oyster Ness. I can't imagine oysters growing here now. Opposite I can see South Ferriby and Read Island, and sand banks on the Humber.
 At the end of Welton Waters, I get to an area where the footpath is on the muddy saltmarsh by an industrial estate. I checked the tide times to make sure I could cross it and it is almost low tide. Despite the rain, the mud is quite firm and I can bridge this gap in the path with no issues. Just as I am rejoining the path on the bank I flush a Green Woodpecker, which flies to an Alder. Later I hear it whinnying.
There is an area of brownfield where an old tile and brickyard and a mill were sited which is now greening. In it, there is a marshy area with reeds, and clumps of old trees in the corners. I make a stop for a snack on a small copse with pine trees by Brickyard Lane.
 I decide to walk on the beach by the base of the cliff, the so called Redcliff, to have a good look at it (top shot). At its highest it is just over 10 m high. It is made of a juxtaposition of laminated sediments and glacial till indicating the existence of a moraine west of the Wolds, where the North Atlantic ice sheet pushed into the Humber Gap, a narrow opening between the Yorkshire and Lincolnshire wolds during the Last Glacial Maximum (about 20,000 years ago). At the time, an ice sheet of over 300 m high covered the Holderness and the area where Hull stands now, up to the Wolds. A glacial lake, Lake Humber, sat east of the Wolds, sandwiched between the North Sea and the the vale of York ice sheets. It is a pleasant walk at the base of Redcliff, mostly sandy underfoot with small pebbles and stones of various colours and sizes. As I approach Long Plantation, the recent erosion is evident with a few large trees collapsed onto the beach.
It is at Long plantation that I meet the Yorkshire Wolds Way, as it climbs through the wood towards Melton. 

I had planned to take the train back at North Ferriby, but it is early and the Humber Bridge looks within easy reach, so I press on. The beach by Ferriby is slightly muddy, but quite pebbly and the tide is still very low. I climb the steps onto the floodbank and on Reed Pond there is a female Goldeneye. 

 Just outside North Ferriby there is a monument to the Ferriby Boats. In September 1937, brothers Ted and Bill Wright, amateur archaeologists, found a wooden plank sticking out of the mud by North Ferriby and realised it was part of an ancient boat, exposed due to the erosion in this part of the Humber. They they painstakingly dug it out from the sticky mud at low tide. In the following decades they found and excavated two more boats. These large, 15 m long boats were well preserved Bronze Age planked boats which have been carbon dated to 1700 to 2000 BC. These boats are of international importance, as their craftsmanship was not thought to have been used until Roman times. The area around Ferriby must have had a settlement and might have offer rare opportunities to cross the estuary as the only high ground for miles, as to the East, carr and marshy ground would have prevented or made difficult to land and transport cargo to the north of the estuary. Despite the abundance of jetties in old maps of the area, little remains of them, just a few post sticking out of the mud. There is a scarcity of boats, I see none during the trip today other than those at Brough Haven. Maybe the Ferriby boats were the first Humber ferry?

 The stretch to the Humber Bridge runs parallel to the train line and the path is quite smooth, on a raised bank with large boulders by the estuary. The tide is roaring in now, covering the mudflats. The Humber Bridge looms imposing. The sky clears somewhat and there are some dry spells. I stop for a light lunch at the Country Park restaurant and walk under the bridge to Hessle Haven before taking the train back. The walk is 12 km.

Featured species: Cetti’s warbler

Another reed loving species that has become a success story. The Cetti's Warbler has steadily colonised the UK, with the first record in 1961. This small, skulking warbler, noted by its loud, explosive song, colonised Kent in 1972 and since it has spread north steadily, only slowed by harsh winters. It first bred north of the Humber in 2006.
More information
Wright, E. 1990. The Ferriby Boats. Seacraft from the Bronze Age. Routledge.
Bateman, Mark D., David JA Evans, David H. Roberts, Alicia Medialdea, Jeremy Ely, and Chris D. Clark. 2018. The timing and consequences of the blockage of the Humber Gap by the last British− Irish Ice Sheet. Boreas 47: 41-61.

Grey Heron and Shelduck on Brough Haven.

Flood bank and sea wall by Brough, with the reedbed belt and mudflats beyond.

Brough Aerodrome and the Wolds.

Elloughton Clough, where the Cetti's warbler sung.

West Clough.

The stickiest bit of the stage today. At high tide it has to be rock hopping.

Teal. 

Curlew.

Field by Long Plantation.

The beach by Redcliff.

Redcliff and Long Plantation.

Redcliff with some laminated sediments.

Fallen trees on the beach.

Wolds Way sign in Long Plantation.

Looking back from Ferriby beach.

Redshank.

Goldeneye.

Remains of jetties and the Humber Bridge.

The only horses (and donkey) on the stage.

A group of Wigeon.

Monument to the Ferriby boats.

Hellebore.

Humber Bridge.

Another ruin of a jetty.

The chalk mill by Humber Bridge.

Lesser Black-backed gull and Common Gulls.

Looking back to the Humber Bridge.

The Official sign of start of the Yorkshire Wolds Way.

Pied Wagtail.

Curlew at Hessle Haven.

Hessle Haven.

Remains of the shipyard and dock at Hessle Haven.

Today's stage. 12 km.

Walking the Humber. Stage 2. Broomfleet Island to Brough Haven

I take the 7:40 am train to Broomfleet and get there about 8:00. There is frost on the ground, but it is still and bright as I walk towards the village. The lack of wind and sun on my face means it doesn't feel too cold. Flocks of gulls in formation fly over from their roost in the Humber. A Sparrowhawk flushes Starlings, Greenfinches and Fieldfares from a field. I see my first distant Marsh Harrier, mobbed by a crow.
Today's route joins the Trans Pennine Trail at Crabley Farm and I use not very well trodden Public Rights of Way by field edges skirting Broomfleet island (land reclaimed in 1706) until Crabley Creek so I don't need to cross the railway line. Eight roe deer in two groups feed on the fields.
 The path by the drain is quite featureless, but the backdrop of the Wolds, with a dusting of snow from yesterday and the beautiful day makes for enjoyable walking.

 I get to Crabley Farm, where the Rights of Way are not very well signed to say the least, and it takes me a while to find the path to the floodbank. Crabley Creek meanders to the Humber estuary. In this area there are wide reedbeds with fenced grazing marsh on the side and hawthorn hedges. A small flock of Yellowhammers and Reed Buntings feed on the floodbank.

 On a paddock with a pond fringed with bullrush Fieldfares, blackbirds and a Mistle Thrush feed. While I watch them, I spot a Green Woodpecker. The side of the field has many ants nests and the woodpecker visits them in sequence, occasionally perching on the posts.
 I scan the skyline for raptors. Two Buzzards fly in from the Wolds onto the reedbeds. A little later I am lucky: a pair of Marsh Harriers, the male following the female and diving to her. She carries on hunting over the reeds, occasionally turning and stalling as she sees something between the reeds.
I arrive to Brough Haven. Teals peep from the exposed mud. There are also Mallard, Redshank, Common and Black-headed Gulls. I walk to the train station to get my train back.

Featured bird: Marsh Harrier.
Now a common sight all around the Humber, one of its strongholds in the UK, where it winters and breeds. Large numbers in the surroundings of Blacktoft Sands, where there is a roost of over two dozen individuals, a true nature spectacle to behold. It is an Amber species due to recovery from near extinction in the 60s. A raptor of reedbeds and marshes. Although a large and heavy harrier, it has an easy flight, suspended with wings angled in a shallow V flying low over the reeds, or circling in groups as they leave roost. The female is chocolate brown with cream head and shoulder patches, the smaller male has dark wing tips, silver grey middle wings and tail and brown shoulder and back patches. More Information here.

Roe Deer.

Roe deer. Wind turbines and the Humber Bridge on the distance.

The public right of way to Crabley Creek.

Trains crossing.

Pond near Crabley Farm.

Crabley Creek.

Sheep at Crabley Farm.

Yellowhammer.

A dusting of snow on the Wolds.

Fieldfares.

Green woodpecker feeding on ants nest.

The green woodpecker field.

Green Woodpecker.

Pair of Marsh Harriers, the male on the top left corner.

Female Marsh Harrier over reeds. Weighton Lock in the background. 

The female Marsh harrier turns sharply and dives down.

Drake teal on Brough Haven.

Brough Haven.

Male Kestrel by Brough Haven.

Today's stage. About 9 km.