Wild at Hull

Humber Bridge Bullfinches

2012-02-13T18:18:00.000Z

This morning we went for a walk along Hessle Foreshore and the Humber Bridge Country Park. It was breezy and cold in the shore, where we watched a flock of Turnstones, a pair of Redshanks and a flock of resting Dunlins on the shore.
It was milder once in the shelter of the trees, but the paths were very icy with the thaw well underway and the walking treacherous. We had brought some seed mix with us for the bird feeding station.
Not many people had been today and there was no seed on the feeders. The birds were quite hungry, and they literally pounced on us as we put seeds on the feeders. Blue tits, Robins, Great Tits, Chaffinches, a few Blackbirds and a Long-tailed Tit fed in a colourful merry go round from branches to the feeders. Occasionally, all birds left at once, to come back after a few seconds.

After a few minutes, we heard the unmistakable calls of Bullfinches. First a female on a tree, then males arrived and flew down. We had lovely views of the Bullfinches, which were firsts for the kids. At some point three males were sitting on a row in one of the feeders. The photos don't make them justice, they are much pinkier and brighter in real life.

Dunlins

Bold robin

Male Chaffinch

male and female Bullfinch

Three male Bullfinches

A male Bullfinch feeding

A new Butterfly panel next to a meadow

The Westwood in the snow

2012-02-12T19:57:00.001Z

We went to the Westwood this morning. It was much warmer than yesterday and the snow was melting fast, but there was still plenty for snowy views and sledging. There was a strange light, like it was a sunset.

Some of the oaks near the Burton Bushes seem to have lost some big branches lately, maybe with the strong winds or the snow.

We watched some rooks feeding on the ground. Nearby, they were getting ready for nesting, sitting on or near their nests.

The Black Mill

A view of Beverley Minster

The snow makes it easy to see what animals using the area, as tracks show up nicely. Heres some rabbit tracks.

Arctic Pearson Park

2012-02-11T20:37:00.000Z

It was freezing cold all day yesterday and I headed to Pearson Park on the hope of finding some winter thrushes.

I popped to the Wildlife garden and before long I spotted a Redwing feeding on the ground under some hazels.

The tracks of a hopping squirrel were nicely marked on the pristine snow.

The pond was completely frozen over

A Female Chaffinch

Moorhen feeding

Despite the cold, spring is on its way and song was in the air. Robin singing...

...and a Stock Dove singing from the cypress near the conservatory.

This pair of Greylag geese allowed me some close approximation. Also photo on top.

The female was preening and showed off the patterned feathers of her neck.

I was watching a Blackbird feeding when I noticed something tiny moving fast on the background. It was a ~~House~~ Wood Mouse, darting back and forth to a place where food is regularly put out for the birds. Can you see it?

I managed to get quite close to the mouse.

UPDATE: WABber Wild-Woman confirmed it was a Wood Mouse.

North Cave Wetlands with a dusting of snow

2012-02-04T21:38:00.000Z

We ventured out in the freezing temperatures for a winter walk in North Cave Wetlands. Clear skies and a breeze strong enough to make you feel the biting cold. The feeders were teeming with flocks of chirping Tree Sparrows and Chaffinches. Most of the wildfowl on the west side of the reserve concentrated on a patch of water free of ice. Highlights were a couple of Buzzards gliding over us and a Kestrel hovering over the Turret hide.

Bird list

1. Black-headed Gull

2. Blackbird

3. Blue Tit

4. Buzzard

5. Carrion Crow

6. Chaffinch

7. Collared Dove

8. Common Gull

9. Coot

10. Dunnock

11. Feral Pigeon

12. Goldfinch

13. Great Tit

14. Greylag Goose

15. Herring Gull

16. Jackdaw

17. Kestrel

18. Long-tailed Tit

19. Magpie

20. Mallard

21. Moorhen

22. Pheasant

23. Robin

24. Rook

25. Starling

26. Teal

27. Tree Sparrow

28. Tufted Duck

29. Wigeon

30. Woodpigeon

East Park in January

2012-01-23T21:35:00.001Z

I've been to East Park a couple of times this month, the second time was today, and I was intent on seeing the pair of Ring-Necked Parakeets which are now roaming wild in the park. We heard their calls but couldn't locate them. Still, it was a great day out as the wind had eased and it was sunny. Several flocks of Greylag were grazing as we arrived, keeping an eye for loose dogs (above). An early Treecreeper near the playground was a bonus, and the Goosander flock did not disappoint, mixed with many Pochards and Tufted Ducks near the island by the bridge.
We became acquainted with a hybrid goose I spotted last time. It does not seem to have a partner and the other Canada Geese are hostile towards him/her. It is quite small and delicate, I wonder if it is a young of last year. There are Greylags in the park with obvious domestic ancestry (white patches). In the past (late 1990s) there were Chinese Swan Geese in the park and hybrids with Greylags but there are no traces of them now.
Photos from today unless stated.

Herring gull pair

Hybrid goose

Have you got any peanuts?

Bathing swan (photo 8/01/12)

Male pochard (24/02/11)

Male Goosander (14/02/10)

Female Goosander (photo 14/2/10)

East Park

Species (number of visits)	8 Jan, 2012	23 Jan, 2012
Black-headed Gull (2)	present	present
Blackbird (2)	present	present
Blue Tit (2)	present	present
Canada Goose (2)	present	present
Carrion Crow (2)	present	present
Chaffinch (1)	-	present
Collared Dove (1)	present	-
Common Gull (2)	present	present
Coot (2)	present	present
Dunnock (1)	-	present
Feral Pigeon (2)	present	present
Goldcrest (1)	-	present
Goldfinch (1)	-	present
Goosander (1)	-	present
Great Spotted Woodpecker (1)	-	present
Great Tit (2)	present	present
Greylag Goose (2)	100	present
Herring Gull (2)	2	2
House Sparrow (2)	present	present
Long-tailed Tit (2)	present	present
Magpie (1)	-	present
Mallard (2)	present	present
Moorhen (2)	present	present
Mute Swan (2)	1	1
Pochard (2)	1	present
Redwing (1)	-	present
Ring-necked Parakeet (1)	-	present
Robin (2)	present	present
Starling (1)	-	present
Treecreeper (1)	-	1
Tufted Duck (2)	1	present
Woodpigeon (2)	present	present
Total species: 32	21	31

Frosty walk around Oak Road Playing Fields

2012-01-14T21:26:00.000Z

After weeks of mild weather we woke up to a sharp frost and headed to Oak Road Playing Fields for a winter walk. The frost had dusted the fields and ice had formed on the shady side of the fishing lake, where Black-headed and common gulls didn't mind the low water temperature. Coots, mallards, tufted ducks and three Gadwalls completed the lake birds.

Gorse flowering

Gadwalls

Frosty grass

Tufted duck pair

View of the fishing lake

Bird list

Black-headed Gull
Blackbird
Blue Tit
Carrion Crow
Common Gull
Coot
Cormorant
Gadwall
Goldfinch
Great Spotted Woodpecker
Great Tit
Greenfinch
Herring Gull
Lesser Black-backed Gull
Long-tailed Tit
Magpie
Mallard
Robin
Tufted Duck
Woodpigeon
Wren

The woodland cemetery

2012-01-09T21:27:00.001Z

My local cemetery is now disused. The trees are well over 100 years old and there is a lot of old wood around. The neglect this cemetery suffered for a while meant that birds that like old woodland thrive here. Today we saw a Great Spotted Woodpecker flying away as we approached it, and then another one teased us later, flying from one tree to the next, but not allowing close views. It was while following the woodpecker that we came across this Treecreeper, a bird that I don't come across often, that feeds on the cracks and notches of trunks and branches. This one allowed us to get quite close, but it is such a cryptic bird that I was unable to take good shots. The one above is the only decent one I managed.
Wrens, great tits, robins and song thrushes sung this mild January morning. Two robins went about their business close to each other, possibly already pairing.

This clump of snowdrops stood brigthly in a clearing.

Bird list

Black-headed Gull
Blackbird
Blue Tit
Carrion Crow
Coal Tit
Collared Dove
Common Gull
Feral Pigeon
Goldcrest
Great Spotted Woodpecker
Great Tit
House Sparrow
Kestrel
Long-tailed Tit
Magpie
Robin
Song Thrush
Starling
Treecreeper
Woodpigeon
Wren

By the Humber bank

2011-11-27T21:17:00.000Z

Next to the shopping center in St Andrews Key, by the side of the Humber, there is a path - part of the Trans-Pennine Trail - that will take you all the way to the Humber Bridge. Today, it was bright and mild, if a bit windy, and we only traced some of the way, just to reach a reed bed with wonderful views to the Humber Bridge. Surprising the number of wildflowers still around, daisies, ragwort, sow thistle, red clover and the occasional knapweed and yarrow, although from the latter there were plenty more dry seedheads. The wind played shushing sounds on the reeds, taking their seeds away. A few black-headed gulls tried to rob a crow of a tasty morsel it had got on the rippled mudflats, exposed with the low tide.

mudflats

Carrion crow with morsel

Carrion crow

Sloes

Elder lichens

Elder

Location Map

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Watching Grey Seal behaviour at Donna Nook

2011-11-20T21:37:00.002Z

We went to see the grey seal rookery at Donna Nook today with the Hull Wildlife Watch group. While driving there it was so foggy we didn’t realise we were at the Humber Bridge until we got to the tills. We got to Donna Nook after just over an hour and a half. The car park was a quarter full, but very impressive for a foggy start of the day. Fortunately, the fog started to lift, and an hour later it was a glorious, mild still day. There were lots of seals (over 1000 pups born so far this year) and there were already some older pups with a new, grey coat.

You are guaranteed to get a shot of a fluffy white seal pup if you come to Donna Nook at this time of year, but there is so much else going on. The atmosphere is incredible, the howling calls and snorts of the seals, their unique – intense, not unpleasant – smell wafting onto the dunes, and the ease with which you can watch a large, wild mammal behaving, completely oblivious to the attention to the hundreds of watchers and photgraphers a few meters away.

Grey Seal bull

cow

a watchful cow

Telling seals apart

Male seals are called bulls, female seals are called cows and the little ones are pups. Pups are easily told apart by their white coat and small size. Cows are pale brown or grey with dark blotches, while bulls are darker, chocolate brown, with paler blotches. Males are larger and have thick, creased and matted necks. Their muzzles and heads are also larger than females’. Bulls can weigh over 300 kg.

a cow (left) threatening a bull

things escalated a bit until the male -literally - rolled away

A cow and her pup

Protective females

Left to their own devices, female seals would rather be dozing all day, feeding their pups, but they need to keep a constant eye on their pup and other cows and bulls. They are very protective of their pups and aggressive towards other cows, with constant squabbles between females getting to close to each other’s pups. Females are also very aggressive towards males, fighting them vigorously with their claws and threatening them with open mouths, making them retreat and keep a safe distance from their pups, and fights can sometimes escalate.

Mating seals

Fighting bulls

Mating and fighting males

Grey seal males are in the rookery with one mission: to mate with as many cows as possible. Females become receptive around the period when they wean their pups. Bulls are not territorial, they try to find and mate with receptive females and they fight other males that get too close to their females of choice, so they do not really defend an area. Many males had reddish necks from fighting and there were some fights going on. I haven’t seen very long fights, after a few minutes, one of the bulls galumphs away, sometimes chased by the winner bull.

Pup

Nursing pup

Seals have this amazing control of their nostrils: they can close them at will, or they can breath only opening one of them as this pup shows.

Nursing and dozing pups

Pups only stay on the beach for a month or so. They are born quite high on the beach, out of reach from the high tide, covered on a white coat and looking quite thin. Grey seal milk is extremely rich milk (53% fat) so pups put on weight quite rapidly. They are weaned after just two or three weeks. Cows remain close to their pups, and do not feed while they are on the beach. After this short period of fasting, nursing and mating they go back to the sea, leaving the fat pup behind to its own devices. The pups will finish their moult, and spend some time on the beach before returning to sea.

Two ~~lesser~~ Greater Black-Backed Gulls feeding on an afterbirth

Carrion crows and gulls squabble for best positions at the carcass of a dead pup

Scavengers

Pup mortality is relatively low in Donna Nook (around 10%), and mostly happens due to desertion or accidental separation of mother and pup, and subsequent starvation. We watched how a group of carrion crows and ~~Lesser~~ Greater Black-Backed gulls fed on a dead pup. Carrion crows and seagulls walked around in search of afterbirths, which they also feed on.

Conservation

The size of Grey Seal colonies in the North Sea is increasing steadily, so we are likely to enjoy the spectacle of life in a seal colony for years to come.

(figure from Harrison et al 2006) 1400 pups are predicted to be born in the 2012 season in Donna Nook.

Reference

P. J. Harrison, S.T. Buckland, L. Thomas, R. Harris, P.P. Pomeroy & J. Harwood. 2006. Incorporating movement into models of grey seal population dynamics. Journal of Animal Ecology 2006, 75, 634–645.

Yorkshire Wildlife Park

2011-10-24T21:59:00.004+01:00

We spend the day in the Yorkshire Wildlife Park. There were lots of changes since we went on march 2010. The lion enclosure is open and there is a new tiger enclosure too. The lions were rescued from a dilapidated zoo in Romania, where they were locked in small cages. They must feel the relative freedom to roam in a large, open air, well vegetated enclosure with a lake and small hill. There is a bridge overlooking their enclosure, so you can truly be surrounded by 13 lions, which is a scary thought. Considering their past history, the lions look healthy and they were very active and interacting with each other, gnawing at some bones, or running from one end to the other when they thought they had seen some of the keepers. The pair of tigers, which are being kept in separate enclosures for now, are part of the Amur tiger breeding program. Their enclosure is on a slope with large oaks and a waterfall. One of them paced up and down non stop on a well trodden path, which was a bit disturbing. The kids really enjoyed watching the squirrel monkeys hunting flies up close in the walk-in South America enclosure, which also includes maras and capybaras. I found the camels very impressive, they look regal in their wooly coats, as opposed to the gangly dromedaries, and look beautifully sculptural. The lemurs did not dissapoint, and they dutifully sat in their loto positions enjoying the warm sun, and keep changing places to be in first row, blocking the sun to the second row! A tiny meerkat watched from its vantage point, while others dug tunnels or run around. A selection of shots from today follows.

Bactrian camel

Amur tiger

Mara

Squirrel monkey

Yellow Mongoose

Sunbathing ring-tailed lemurs

Impressive Ankole cattle

Chapman's zebra

Vigilant meerkat

For more info click here.

Honeysuckle Farm

2011-08-29T20:38:00.001+01:00

We spend the afternoon in Honeysuckle farm. There is plenty to do and see but the kids invariably spend most of the time jumping on the hay bales. The farm has a small woodland area with picnic tables and several ponds, two of them stocked with large carp. One of the ponds, which is quite new, is shallow and has a lot of natural aquatic plants. Young moorhens nibble in the water. Honeysuckle farm is great for dragonflies and butterflies. But today, a couple of water voles stole the show. They fed on the banks of the carp food quite happily - looking like they are very used to people - and once squabbled for the best spot, swimming from one side of the bridge to the other. We had great views for 15 minutes. I bet there are very few places around where you can feed wild water voles!

Female common darter, Sympetrum striolatum

Immature moorhen.

Swimming water vole

Water vole nibbling carp food

Amphibious bistort

Male common darter

Bombus pascuorum on teasel

Location map

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A hot day at Spurn Head

2011-08-21T22:14:00.000+01:00

A scorching day in Spurn Head, we park near the YWT information centre. Just after parking we find a common lizard (Lacerta vivipara), quite tame, climbing over the grass and a small sea buckthorn bush. There are lots of grasshoppers today, calling and mating. Migrating swallows are everywhere as well, settling in large groups on the wires and passing over our heads on their way south. On a buddleia next to one of the houses, a bunch of Red Admirals, a Peacock, a Small Tortoiseshell and a Common Blue feed together. Most of the common blues feed on bird's foot trefoil, though, and more Small Tortoiseshells on ragwort. The highlight of the day is a delightful weasel, who scuttles under a door, only to reappear a couple of seconds later. It is just a couple of meters away from where I am standing, it gives me the chance to take some shots and watch its nervous comings and goings for a few minutes. There is always something interesting going on at Spurn!

Mayweed (Matricaria)

Swallows

spot the Common lizard

A Gannet skeleton washed up on the beach

Common Blue in buddleia

The lighthouse rising over the mud flats

Small Tortoiseshells and Small White on ragwort

Common blue on bird's foot trefoil

Grasshoppers mating

Common mallow (Malva sylvestris)

The relatively new pond next to the Blue Bell

Tenfoot jam

2011-07-25T14:26:00.000+01:00

Hull blackberries are starting to reach peak season. Bramble flowers were fertilised by butterflies, bumblebee and bees, and have now become juicy blackberries ready to enjoy, either raw or made into tangy jam. We went to the tenfoot behind our house and found a large patch. With the help of a chair to reach the higher ones, we collected half a kg. in a few minutes. Blackberry jam is easy to make and is delicious, only needs a little patience with the stirring.

Ingredients: washed blackberries (weigh them), the same amount in sugar and a lemon.

Mix the berries with the sugar, squeeze the juice of the lemon and grate the rind and put everything on a pan.

Set the gas to low and stir continuously until the mixture bubbles with some effort - when it starts spitting bits around is time to stop, it might take from half an hour to 45 min. Then you pour it immediately into jars.

You might need some help as the stirring is a bit tiresome!

Helpers can also make labels, yes, those are blackberries!

Sterilise some jars using boiling water or a steam steriliser. Once the jam is done pour it into the jars while boiling hot and close the lids tight.

tenfoot jam, yum!

Fraisthorpe beach

2011-07-24T22:11:00.001+01:00

We visited Fraisthorpe beach today. With its crumbling low cliffs on a golden sandy beach, it is in some ways a typical East Yorkshire beach. But there is something special about it, with the farm and fields behind it, and the lovely cliff top path, it has got fantastic views. Something unique is the bustle of Sand Martins, which nest in a scattered colony in the clay-sand cliffs. There were lots of butterflies and bumblebees in the daisies, ragwort and other wildflowers on the cliffs and field margins, including a Brown Argus, a species I had never seen before.
The beach got quite busy later on, with dog walkers and horse riding, in addition to surfing and kite flying. A great spot for a day out.

Scorpion fly

Small Tortoiseshell

Brown Argus

A very faded six spot burnet on creeping thistle

Sea Rocket on the beach

The tide getting low

Common rest harrow (thanks Hedera!)

Greater Willowherb

Sandwich tern

Ringlet on daisy

Snails for ID

Sand martin chicks

Sand martins flying next to the cliffs

A view of the colony of Sand Martins

Adult entering nest

A view of the low cliffs

The little creek next to the entrance to the beach, Auburn Beck

Whereas at low tide the beach is very wide, high tides can reach the cliff bases at high tide, so it pays to check the local tide times.
There are toilets and a car park (£2 in summer).

Butterflies

Small tortoiseshell, 2, bramble and ragwort
Small Copper, 2, daisy
Green-veined white, 1 on Ragwort
Ringlet, 1 on daisy
Red Admiral, 3 sunbathing and flying about
Six spot burnet, 1 on creeping thistle
Brown Argus, 1
Small White, 1

Birds

Crow
Sandwich terns, flock passing by several times
Black-headed gull
Linnet, lots of them
Sand Martins
Swallows
Kestrel, 2 individuals on the way.
Oystercatcher
Blackbird
Collared dove
Woodpigeon
Sparrow
Swift
Rook
Magpies
Lesser-black backed gull
Herring gull
Swan
Pied wagtail
Starling

Location map

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Noddle Hill nature reserve in summer

2011-07-22T21:49:00.000+01:00

Last time we went to Noddle Hill it was November. What a difference the season makes. This is a superb place to visit in summer, with wildflower meadows, ponds, wooded areas, some scrub, lots of little cris-crossing paths and the big fishing lake with an island (from the educational pond, above). There were plenty of wildflowers today and we did several Big Butterfly Counts, with a total of 9 species plus Six Spot Burnets all around.

Information board at the entrance of the reserve

A large pond snail netted by the kids

Comma on creeping thistle

Mating large whites. The male flew carrying the female behind for a while and chose to settle on these almost white leaves.

Wolf spider Trochosa sp.

Six spot burnets mating

A Red Admiral on my t-shirt

Gatekeeper and red-tailed bumblebee on ragwort

Small Copper

Wild carrot

Green-veined white

Amphibious bistort

Queen red tailed bumblebee Bombus lapidarius on vetch

Peacock

Goats beard and Marmalade fly

Butterflies (& moths)

Peacocks, 3 feeding on creeping thistle
Comma, at least 2 also on creeping thistle
Speckled Wood, 2 males in a territorial dispute near the pond dipping pond
Small Copper, on the meadow next to the educational pond
Gatekeeper, many around on Ragwort
Red Admiral, one lands on my T-shirt
Green-veined white
Large white
Meadow brown
Blue (common?) too distant a view
Six-spot burnet

Birds

Magpie family
Crow, young ones on the road verges
Starlings
Goldfinch
Great tit
Long-tailed tit
Woodpigeon
Collared dove
Sparrows
Greenfinches
Blackbird
Bullfinch
House Martin
Linnet
Reed warbler
Lesser black-backed gull
Herring gull
Black headed gull
Moorhen
Mallard

High summer in Far Ings

2011-06-27T20:53:00.001+01:00

The hottest day of the year, we head for Far Ings National Nature Reserve. The origin of the nature reserve are clay pits on the south shore of the Humber, which were abandoned in the 1950s and naturally filled with water forming freshwater lakes and reedbeds. They started to attract a diversity of flora and fauna. The site has been managed by the Lincolnshire Wildlife Trust since the 1980s. With appropriate reed management, they now sustain a booming Bittern population (sorry for the pun!) and you can see several marshland and reed specialist species (Bearded Tits, Sedge, Grasshopper and Reed Warblers, in addition to many waders that come to feed on the Humber mudflats and the several scrapes in the reserve. Over 50 bird species breed on the reserve. In addition to the reedbeds and mudflats, there are meadows and some patches of scrub. We spot the first Ringlets of the year and also Small Tortoiseshells, Meadow Browns and many Green Veined While butterflies, a pair mating, with the female flying dragging the male behind.
We take the Chowder Ness round path, the longest one (about 2 miles), and stop at several hides. The best was the Target lake hide, where we watch Tufted ducks, a pair of swans and a Great Crested Grebe that approaches quite a bit. A Common Tern dives in to fish and flies over the hide. We heard a cuckoo as we arrive. There are lots of birds singing.
The new visitor centre was opened in 2007, and the top floor offers fantastic paroramic views of the reserve and the Humber Bridge. There are toilet facilities and a shop with nature books and toys. There are many hides, some overlooking the scrapes, which were dry today and one overlooking the Humber.
Entrance to the reserve and a leaflet with a map with several marked walks are free, but if you live north of the Humber you'll have to pay the bridge toll.

Overall, a very nice place for a walk and birdwatching, but maybe not to be taken on the hottest day of the year.

Pair of swans in Target Lake

Meadow near Ness End Farm

Humber Bridge and reedbeds

Ringlet on Creeping Thistle

A Four Banded Longhorn Beetle, Leptura quadrifasciata, photo by Calima, age 9

Official Website

Location Map

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Birds

Great crested grebe
Cormorant
Mute swan, 2 pairs, one on the Humber and the other in Target lake
Canada geese
Tufted ducks
Kestrel, hunting over the shore of the humber
Coot with young
Moorhen, heard
Herring gulls
Common tern fishing in Target lake
Woodpigeon
Collared dove
Cuckoo calling, as soon as we start the walk
Swifts in large groups
Swallows
House martin. Home.
Blackbird, singing. A female sunbathing.
Reed warbler
Chiffchaff
Blackcap
Blue tit
Magpie
Crow
Sparrow
Goldfinch
Bullfinch, in flight, gives an impression of a black bird with a white rump. Also a pair flying over our garden whistling e-up! e-up!

Buzzing in the Newland Allotments

2011-06-19T21:24:00.003+01:00

This afternoon we joined a Yorkshire Wildlife trust event in the Newland Avenue Allotments. This is the largest allotment site in Hull, with 26 acres of land. While the kids were engaged in various bee-related activities we walked around the southern side of the site, which serves as a council nursery and wildlife area. Despite the weather, the site was buzzing with bees and other bugs. For the last ten years the area, owned by Hull City Council, has been managed to include wooded areas with young trees and lush undergrow and meadows with a variety of wildflowers and rough hedges at the sides with lots of brambles. It is hard to believe this place is in the middle of Hull as, although small, it has such a wild feel to it. A highlight was a female Nursery web spider carrying her egg sac on a grassy clearing.
The allotments are open to the public on Sunday mornings from 10 to 12. These is a Plot Shop where you can get from small plants to produce and gardening stuff. The entrance is through Tavistock street.
For more information on the allotments call Julia, the allotment association secretary on 07712161961 or email on julesallotment@gmail.com

Male red tailed bumblebee on thisles

Cuckoo bumblebee

Female Nursery web spider, Pisaura mirabilis carrying her egg sac

Red campion

Hedge Woundwort with Anthophora furcata male

Flowering rose

A large partch of Oxeye Daisies with a Colletes daviesanus bee

A view of a meadow area

Location Map

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May in Potteric Carr

2011-05-02T23:03:00.001+01:00

We visit Potteric Carr for the first time today. It is the flagship Yorkshire Wildlife Nature Reserve, the largest, ca. 200 ha. There are and several marked paths and has a diversity of habitats, with an emphasis on wetlands, including woodland, meadows, reed beds, ponds, marsh and scrapes. The paths are well surfaced and there are many hides around the main wetlands. Today we walk around the green marked path, a family friendly route, just over 2 km long and have a little detour to Piper Marsh on the red route. We see many butterflies, blue damselflies (Azure and Blue tailed) and a Four Spot Chaser.
There are red Campion and carpets of wild strawberries and the White Dead Nettle is in full bloom, especially near Sedum House. The views across the hides are wonderful with the old golden reed heads over the new growth. Being a Bank Holiday it is quite busy, but we still managed 33 species of bird for the day, the highlight being the pair of Kingfishers in Piper Marsh (above), getting in a hole in the bank of one of the islands.

Male Blue-tailed damselfly, Ischnura elegans

Courting Green Veined White butterflies, the female kept her abdomen well raised, a sign of non-receptivity. After a few tries, the male flew away.

Moorhen feeding chick

A Four Spot Chaser, Libellula quadrimaculata

Mother Drain

A wolf spider

View of Willow Marsh

View of Decoy Marsh

Butterflies
Speckled Wood, at least 5 individuals.
Green-Veined white, many, pair courting.
Red Admiral settles near the cafe.
Orange tip male

Birds

Black-headed gull. Nesting in Decoy Marsh.
Woodpigeon
Lapwing. Goole.
Jackdaws, confiding pair breeding in a nest box Sedum House
Wren singing
Goldfinches, very apparent today. A pair feeding on dandelions.
Magpie
Great tit, singing and in the feeders of the visitor center
Pheasant
Chaffinch
House martins
Mallards
Coots, with chicks
Shelduck, 2 pairs
Black cap several singing
Chiffchaff singing
Crow
Tufted duck, in several of the marshes.
Swan, pair in decoy Marsh.
Moorhen, with chick in Field Centre
Dunnock, singign, Field Centre
Blackbird chicks
Canada Goose Piper Marsh
Shoveler Piper Marsh
Sand Martins flying over Piper Marsh
KINGFISHER Piper Marsh. Pair entering the island bank.
Gadwall. Piper Marsh
Willow Warbler singing
Starling in the feeder in the visitor center
Sparrow home
Rook, road
Greenfinch home
Collared dove home

Links
Potteric Carr. The site of the friends of Potteric Carr. Lots of updated info about sightings, species lists, detailed descriptions about the walks and more.
Yorkshire Wildlife Site.

Location map

View Wild at Hull Google Map in a larger map

Spring at Speeton Sands

2011-04-10T21:55:00.001+01:00

North of the chalk cliffs of the Flamborough headland lays Filey Bay, an arc of golden sands backed by clay cliffs. Reighton and Speeton sands make the southern end of this bay. At low tide the beach is very wide and the views impressive, with the backdrop of the cliffs on one side and Filey bay in the distance. Other than the usual beach entertainment, there are other things to explore: the eroding cliffs are covered on scrub and wildflowers, and the clay they are made of is the only site in the U.K. with a marine lower Cretaceous exposure. Walking along the bottom of the cliffs it is relatively easy to collect fossil Belemnites, Ammonites and bivalve shells. There is no need of equipment as the clay is quite soft. Occasionally the tides uncover fresh clay under the sand, and then it is a good opportunity for good finds. Every visit will be different because of the speed of erosion.
A walk on the hillside illustrates how quickly plants and animals colonise the mudlides. Little primroses, coltsfoot and violets were growing on clay that evidently had settled not long ago.
Today we spot the first swallows of the year flying south and the first Chiffchaffs and Willow warblers sing from the blackthorn and gorse.

The view from the car park near the Reighton Sands holiday park

Colts Foot

Flowering gorse

Primroses

Violets

A belemnite stuck to the clay

A view towards Bempton cliffs

Tiger Beetle, Cicindela campestris, fighting with an ant

These wellington boots left behind stuck to the mud serve as a warning to visitors. There are frequent mudslides and flows and the mud can be caked outside, but soft and sticky inside.

View of the fossil-bearing Cretaceous clay

Sites
UK fossils. Informative site with site and fossil photos and indications of how to access the area.

Location map
Access through the village of Speeton is not recommended due to recent mudslides. Go to Reighton Sands Holiday Village from Reighton leaving the entrance to your right. There is a car park and a relatively safe way down to the beach.

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Millington Wood in April

2011-04-04T00:16:00.001+01:00

We make a trip to Millington Wood, a botanical gem nestled in a dry vale - Lily Vale - near Pocklington. It was originally an ash wood, but in the 60s it was replanted commercially with spruce and beech and only small pockets of the original woodland remain. It was made a nature reserve in 1991 by the East Riding of Yorkshire, and it is managed so that the replanted species are felled and the wood converted into charcoal in a kiln in the reserve (below) itself, to encourage the native calcareous ash woodland.

Today we spot early woodland flowers, many Lesser Celandines and Wood Anemones, a few Primroses and a small pocket of Dog Violets. Fresh, pungent Ramsons leaves carpeted vast sways of the wood and the flower buds of bluebells had started to appear amongst the leaves.

Primroses

Wood Anemones

Dog Violet with Bombus pascuorum

A hillside at the top of the reserve covered on Ramsons or wild garlic

As for fauna, we came across a carcass of a crow which some carrion beetles are feeding on, they run and dig for cover but we manage some shots. We spot a Peacock and a Brimstone, and several bumblebees and many ladybirds.

The carrion beetle Oiceoptoma thoracica

Seven spots and an orange ladybird hibernating

There is a good path for most of the way, which becomes steep and narrow with steps to reach the top of the valley and then you can return in a circular walk on a higher path, a bit rougher and with more steps. Overall, a mile walk.

To top today's trip we see a Red Kite flying over Market Weighton and a hare in a field nearby.

Location map:

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Beachcombing on Hessle Foreshore

2011-03-06T23:21:00.000Z

A fine day with sunny spells, I head with the children to Hessle Foreshore. We were lucky it was low tide; three parallel tide lines - mostly made of straw - draw the shore. The beach is made of chalk cobbles, flint, and much smoothed out brick and glass, with the lower level exposing the mud of the Humber. A loose flock of Turnstones feed amongst rocks, and black-headed and common seagulls rest on the shore. There are fantastic views of the estuary and the Humber Bridge. We reach a muddy creek, Hessle Haven, a small repair harbour. This is the official starting point of the Wolds Way. It felt good to be able to go for a walk and have some fresh air.

Redshank

Turnstone

sea defences at Hessle Haven

A view of the Humber shore near Hessle Haven

Yellow lichens covered a group of shore boulders

Location map

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Normanby Hall Country Park

2010-10-10T21:27:00.003+01:00

A beautiful autumnal day, we visit Normanby Hall Country Park, site of a stately home surrounded by extensive, beautiful wooded grounds and including a deer park. It is rutting season so we hope to see some action, and we are not disappointed. There is a large herd of hinds kept compact by a stately stag, who ruts every now and then, in between bringing a stray female or two back to the herd. He trundled into a creek and had a splash, and then proceeded to dig some bracken to adorn his antlers.

The gardens - including a walled garden and a butterfly border - are still carpeted in flowers, and the butterflies oblige, with large numbers of Comma, Red Admiral and a few Small Tortoiseshell and Speckled Woods visiting the Verbena bonairensis and Michaelmas daisies. Many old trees, including oaks, sweet chestnuts, and beech, some of them ancient and an impressive avenue of Giant Redwoods.

Red Admirals gorging on Michaelmas daisies, two more were on sight.

Old Sweet Chestnut

The grounds, deer park and walled garden are easy to access and the deer have a 'sanctuary' where visitors aren't allowed. There is a cafe, public toilets, a gift shop (selling some of the grounds' produce) and picnic tables under each large tree in front of the hall.
As for birds, we saw jackdaws, jays, robin and woodpigeons and heard a goldcrest.

Official Website

Normanby Nature. A blog about birds and other wildlife in the local are and beyond.

Location map

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Burton Bushes and the Westwood

2010-04-19T20:44:00.000+01:00

This weekend we visited Beverley Westwood and the little woodland on the western side of the pasture called Burton Bushes (of which more here). A Skylark sang over the wide expanse of grassy pastures, and we also saw a Kestrel hovering nearby. There was a thick carpet of Wood Anemones (Anemona nemorosa) around the edges and inside the wood, and there were also Lesser celandine, Wood Sorrel (Oxalis acetosella) and Dog's Mercury (Mercurialis perennis) in bloom. The bluebells still on leaf, we saw no flowers. The main tree species is Oak, although there is also Birch and Field Maple with an understorey of Holly. Many dead trunks cover the ground, covered in thick moss, so I expect this to be a good site for fungi. Robins, Chiffchaffs and Blackcap sung their songs, and a Great Spotted Woodpecker drummed. Other interesting birds that are known to live in the wood are Treecreeper, Marsh Tit and Tawny Owls.

A view of the Westwood with the Black Mill in the background

Oaks at the edge of Burton Bushes wood

Wood Anemone

Dog's Mercury

Wood Sorrel

Another old oak trunk inside the wood

Location map:

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Yorkshire Wildlife Park

2010-03-28T20:59:00.001+01:00

We went to Yorkshire Wildlife Park today, which hasn't even been opened one year yet (it opened to the public on 4th April 2009). The park is still growing and developing and there are huge expanses of bare soil and building work in progress, and at times the tracks are too rough, barely doable with a pushchair, but we managed. There is a cafe with hot meals - but no expresso machine-, a picnic area, a children's play area and a Jungle Play Barn with big slides, which were a hit with the kids.

Black and White Ruffed Lemur

Sunbathing Ring-Tailed Lemurs

Ring-Tailed Lemur

Some of the enclosures are very effective and allow very close contact with the animals. The Wallaby Walkabout and the Lemur Woods are walk through enclosures where you can approach - and they can approach you! - a gang of Ring Tailed Lemurs, a pair of Black and White Ruffed Lemurs, a pair of Browm Lemurs and of course, wallabies. We got to the Lemur Wood at food time and it was a great opportunity to see the lemurs in action, the agressive Black and White ones chasing the ring tailed ones for pieces of fruit and veg. It was a bit chilly in the wind so as soon as the food was eaten the lemurs hug each other or hid in their huts. The sun appeared behind the clouds and immediately, the lemurs adopted a sunbathing position which looked like they were worshipping the sun.
One of the hits with the park are the African Painted dogs (top picture), a pack of four, which are part of a captive breeding program. Their enclosure is quite large and the animals look healthy and alert. Amazing to get such close views of one of the most powerful African carnivores.

A Meerkat colony is also a great attraction, a square enclosure with side windows at ground level. Always active, there is always something happening with Meerkats. An individual on the lookout, another one digging, a pair that stand up to sunbathe...

A Racoon Dog

A donkey happy to interact with the public. The park was previously a farm opened to the public, and there are still many farm animals, goats, cattle, chickens, geese and sheep.

An Red Water Hog enjoying a rub on a tree. After a good side rub, it scratched the tree with its tusks. There are visible scratches on the trunk.

The pair of Red Water Hogs have thoroughly dug out their wooded enclosure. I wonder how much longer the trees, many with exposed roots, will stay standing. The place looks like a bomb site!

The African Plains area, where zebra, antelopes and ostrich are kept are a large enclosure indeed, but you need a telescope to see the animals - and there is actually one available - as they prefer to stay away from the public, which is disappointing.
There is a small wood with a footpath and informative panels next to it.
The 13 rescued lions from a Romanian zoo are already in the park, but their enclosure is not yet finished. If you want to see the lions check the website to avoid disappointment.
The website is very slow in loading, but has information on prices, opening times and activities.
Indeed worth a visit, but I would recommend visiting in warm weather, so that the animals are more comfortable outside.
Yorkshire Wildlife Park website

Location map

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A bunch of March flowers

2010-03-21T22:03:00.001Z

A selection of photos of local flowers taken during March this year.

Lesser Celandine

Winter aconite

Chickweed

Viburnum tinus

Primroses

Rosemary

Dandelion

Speedwell

Red dead nettle (Lamium purpureum)

Grape hyacinth (Muscari racemosum)

Daffodils

Vinca minor

Daisies (Bellis perennis)

Snowdrops

Crocus

Calling frogs

2010-03-17T22:17:00.001Z

Spring is upon us. Male common frogs (Rana temporaria) have gathered in the pond at Pearson Park Wildlife Garden and call for females and scramble. There plenty of males but I only saw two females in the pond and still no frogspawn. I have so many photos of the mating frogs from past years that today I decided to concentrate in trying to get the males in the moment they call. The male's white-bluish throats inflate and they tend to 'blink', which spoilt some of the photos, but I was quite pleased with a few. The call of the Common frog has been likened to a rumbling distant motorbike, but to me it sounds like a cat purring loudly, but in any case, it is only audible (to humans anyway, I am not sure to females) within a range of a few meters, and sounds nothing like 'ribbet' at all!

North Cave Wetlands

2010-03-14T20:56:00.000Z

We've finally gone on a trip out today. It feels like months indoor but the last couple of weeks have felt very spring-like. North Cave wetlands is an old sand and gravel quarry which has been managed to produce an array of different wetland habitats and is is one of the newest Yorkshire Wildlife Trust nature reserve (open to the public in 2004). There are deep lakes, shallow lagoons, little ponds, wet fields and even a maize field where different crops have been plated to attract seed eaters. The different habitats in the reserve attract a range of birds (200 species have been recorded so far, of which around 50 breed here), and butterflies (24 sp.) and damselflies and dragonflies (18 sp.).
There are three hides, one of them, the Turret hide, in placed in a beautiful vantage point from which you can have almost an all round view of the reserve, including the sandy cliff which contains a colony of Sand Martins in the summer. The hides are plastered on informative posters and ID charts on birds and other fauna.
We saw two Rabbit feeding and their burrows are all around (also lots of Mole hills).
Today there was a large flock of noisy Black-Headed Gulls, which breed in the reserve. Great Crested grebes were courting and a Carrion Crow fed on a dead rabbit, while another rabbit (alive) fed just a meter away!

A view of Village Lake

Turret Hide

A pair of aggressive Black-Headed gulls threatening another

More information at.
Yorkshire Wildlife Trust. also a printable leaflet here.

Location Map

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Spring feel

2010-01-28T22:21:00.001Z

In the last few days the gloomy, short winter days are noticeably growing longer. Birds seem to have felt this and many species are now singing. A clump of wild primroses (Primula vulgaris) in the University grounds are now bursting with buds, and the first pale lemon colour flowers are now open. Both the latin and common name of this flower refer to how early they blossom. They are the 'first roses'.

Looking forward and looking back

2010-01-20T21:41:00.002Z

Come January and I eagerly seek the first signs of spring. This has been a very cold winter so far, so my first sign of spring, the flowering of Hazel, is delayed. The Hazels in Pearson Park Wildlife Garden would normally flower on the third week of January. Look what we saw today:

Today's best catkins, tightly shut!

The fully open catkins two years ago on the same day

I don't think they are going to open in January at all this year.
The second event to come is usually the first song of the Song Thrush. A few winters this thrush has sung all through December and January. I haven't heard the first song yet.

Busy song thrush, but no singing

The third event is the Lesser Celandine flowering. This is a very unique plant. Its foliage dies out in the summer and the only surviving part of the plant is its finger-shaped thin tubers. In November, the new shoots start growing and the flowers appear in January- early February, when there are few other flowers around. Their shiny yellow flowers brighten up the dullest winter day. No signs of flowers yet. Sadly, no signs of spring to report.

Lesser Celandine flower

Patch of Lesser Celandine in March

Summer Lesser Celandine tubers (end of may 2009)

First shoots of Lesser Celandine last November

Holly Days

2009-12-19T22:51:00.003Z

Female Blackbird picking a Holly berry

In the last few days I have watched a pair of woodpigeons and a Blackbird feeding on holly berries. This time of the year, Holly berries are an important source of winter food for of all British thrushes, including the Blackbird; robins, blackcap and woodpigeons also regularly feed on them. It is Holly tree defence by Mistle thrushes to feed on the berries that has the highest ecological significance. Holly berries keep very well even after strong frosts, and this makes them ideal trees for Mistle thrushes to defend. Mistle thrushes defence of the tree can be overwhelmed by flocks of hungry birds on periods of frost when the tree can provide emergency food than otherwise wouldn't exist. Berries on successfully defended trees can last until July, whereas undefended ones are already devoid of berries in January.

Holly berries

A bush or small tree, Holly can reach up 10 m of hight, it flowers in May and June and it is dioecious, which means that there are male and female trees and only female ones produce berries.

A large female Holly growing on a street in Hull

Holly male flowers and buds in early May

Hollies are pollinated by bees and bumblebees. Holly Blue butterflies also visit the flowers and in April the females of the Holly Blue can be seen laying their eggs on young shoots and buds at the tip of the branches.

Female Holly Blue laying eggs

Given that they are evergreen and well defended by their hard, spiky leafs, Holly is also used for shelter and as a good nesting tree by many birds.
Sources: Snow, B. and D. Snow (1988) Birds and Berries. T&AD Poyser, Calton.

A new wood for Hull: Wilberforce Wood

2009-12-05T22:21:00.000Z

An oak sapling just planted

Today it was Tree O'clock, an attempt to beat the wold record of most trees planted in one hour. We took a few oaks with us, some saplings we had grown from acorns we collected in Sherwood Forest three years ago, and some others we collected in a garden centre as part of the scheme. The day was promising, sunny sky, no wind and relatively mild. We chose to join forces with The Woodland Trust to help create a new forest in Hull, Wilberforce Wood. A few years ago the site was agricultural land with strongly boggy tendencies, according to the satellite photos by Google Earth, as it is right on the floodplain of the river Hull, in North Carr. We planted mostly Alder, a native species well suited to wet areas and that grows quickly. In all we managed to plant 1600 saplings in one hour, together with around 20 other volunteers. Many holes - filled with water to the rim - had been dug in advance so it wasn't back-breaking work, just very muddy. Many wolf spiders were active, Meadow Pipits and Goldfinches chirped and there were even some flowering buttercups to enliven the day.

A view of the site

Creeping Buttercup, Ranunculus repens

How to get there

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The Deep

2009-11-26T23:28:00.001Z

It's windy, cold and one feels more like hibernating than like going on a walkabout. A wonderful alternative is going to The Deep, OK, I am in the fringes of what I have allowed myself to write about in this blog, but The Deep is a good excuse to wander off limits. The Deep is Hull's aquarium. When it opened in 2002 it had what it used to be the deepest tank in the world (not sure if the record still holds now). A wonderfully colourful reef tank is still my favourite place. You can sit on the floor and imagine yourself diving in a bright, shallow tropical lagoon with rays, small sharks and fishes of all colours and sizes.

Nautilus

Giant Isopods

The Twilight Zone is also quite good, with a tank with several Nautilus, fish with luminescent patches, and deep sea giant isopods and the life cycle of the jellyfish.

Atlantic Mudskipper

A reconstruction of the lobe-finned fish Tiktaalik

Recently, they have installed a new Mangrove swamp tank for Mudskippers, fantastic to watch too, and an exhibit with a reconstruction of Tiktaalik, an ancient fish which was in the evolutionary line to the evolution of tetrapods. The exhibit is so realistic that you wonder from a distance if the fish is alive. These are the last part in the Evolution of Seas exhibit.

Clown fish and anemone

Garden Eels

A reconstruction of the jaws of Carcharodon megalodon, a giant fossil shark which dwarfs the Great White Shark

Other attractions are a shark tunnel, garden eels and a North Sea tank. From The Deep's restaurant there are wide views of the Humber estuary and the mouth of the river Hull and its impressive tidal barrier.
The Deep Website

East Park

2009-11-23T19:28:00.001Z

The Chestnut Walk

The weather forecast was sunny for the morning, so I headed off to East Park. Not many people around, some dog walkers, and parents/grandparents with young children. The wildfowl approached us, looking hopeful for a little bread, but they were disappointed.

I hadn't been to the little zoo for a while. The Rheas seemingly bred earlier in the year, and their young were forming a little group of 4, a little taller than a peacock. There was also a young, cream coloured alpaca amongst the grown up ones.

Usual birds for the season. The highlight were three pairs of Goosanders, which kept close to the island, therefore the photos were not great. They were preening and diving.

Mirror Mute Swans

Deer feeding

Goosanders

Feral pigeon enjoying the sun

Black-headed Gulls

Confiding Coot

Birds

Crow, there are lots, it is easy to count 10 visible at any one time
Black-Headed gulls, the most common in the park, everywhere
Woodpigeons eating on the grass near the trees
Magpie
Canada Geese
Blackbirds feeding in rowan and hawthorn
Greylags, large flock on the feeding area
Wren, "Chrrr!"
Starlings
Coot, lots about
Mallards
Herring Gull immature flying over the lake
Moorhens, 2
Tufted Duck
Swans, pair, swimming with stunning symmetry.
Blue tit
GOOSANDERS, 3 males and 3 females, between the island and the bridge.
Pochard
Common gull, I see one.
A duck in the island I cannot ID, with white band on body, likely a Drake Teal
Collared dove

The (almost non-existant) Holderness ancient woods: a virtual tour (1)

2009-11-18T22:08:00.002Z

This is an unusual post. I haven't been out today, or the last few days. It's been raining a lot. Frustration. I usually vent my frustration of not being able to be out and about with two things - my favourite computer games if you like- : Google Earth and Geograph. Virtually flying over satellite imagery of the earth is the best thing ever if you like looking at maps, and I can spend hours looking at maps. Enter Geograph, where you can see down to earth photos of most sites in the UK, for free, and I am hooked. So I put together this virtual tour of the few sites thought to hold the last remaining ancient in the Holderness peninsula according to English Nature:
"Holderness was at one time cloaked in forests. From the initial colonisation of birch as the glaciers retreated, to a high forest of oak some five thousand years ago, early human settlers would have been faced with an extensive wildwood..."
Unfortunately, the soil left behind after glaciations is extremely fertile and the plains of Holderness are prime agricultural land (you struggle to see pastures as well as forest). This means most ancient woods were felled to make room for agriculture. A few tiny jewels survive

Burton Bushes

A satellite view of Burton Bushes, courtesy of Google Earth

Burton Bushes is the last remnant (11 ha) of the old Beverley Westwood, nowadays a surviving common land usually grazed by cattle. The horizontal bar is equivalent to 100 m to give you an idea of its size. The following excerpt gives some information on the puzzle of why the wood is now pasture and the bushes is the only significant area remaining of the wood:
"Near Beverley stood, some years ago, an extensive range of thriving oak-wood, though not of large size, called "The West-Woods." These were held under the See of Durham, and regular falls were taken by the lessees, or the Bishop, at stated periods, by which means a perpetual succession was preserved; and while the timber and underwood remained in an uniform state, a regular income arose from them to the See. But these woods were, by some means or other, taken down a few years since, though not without having become an object of legal investigation; but whatever might have been the decision of the law, the law could not make the woods grow again, or the land revert to wood; consequently it is now cultivated, and some one has thus obtained the whole capital value of the wood, who had only a right to the annual income arising from it, and with it has obtained the annual income of the land into the bargain."
(From A general view of the agriculture of the East-Riding of Yorkshire By H.E. Strickland, 1812; scanned by Google Books)
Still today there is some ecological interest in this tiny fragment of ancient forest and the place is a SSRI (Site of Special Scientific Interest, see this for more info).

Blue Bells in April. Photo by Carolyn Metcalfe from Geograph.

A description of a walk around the Westwood, inlcuding Burton Bushes, can be found at the Walking the Riding website (under "Beverley Westwood Bounds).

Noddle Hill Fishing Lake and Community Woodland

2009-11-15T20:53:00.006Z

If you look at a local map, the low-lying areas north of Hull, around the river, are littered with toponyms including 'Ings' and 'Carr'. This is evidence this area was is flooded in the past, and, despite being crisscrossed by drains and ditches, is still easily flooded today. A 'carr' is a waterlogged wooded terrain, where common trees are alder, willow and sallow, whereas 'ings' is an old Yorkshire word for water meadows and marshes. Some examples are North Carr, Nun Carrs, East Carr, Swine Carrs, Carr Hill, Turf Carr, Carr House, Skidby Carr, The Ings and New Ings.

A view of North Carr, the diagonal line towards he right is the Holderness Drain. Note the whitish areas that, despite being in the middle of crop fields, are temporary ponds where regular flooding occurs. Drains and ditches also mark the limits between fields.

The place where we went today is placed on an edge of North Carr. It is a fishing lake surrounded by fields that were planted a few years ago (1996-99) and now are developing into a woodland and wet grassland. Two names are used for the site, Noddle Hill Fishing lake and Bransholme Fishing lake. This site is likely to become the first local nature reserve in Hull. It is well known for its dragonflies, fourteen species have been recorded here (check this website from the British Dragonfly Society for info and the latest sightings).

Great Culvert Pumping Station next to Holderness Drain.

Foredyke Stream

A view of the lake

The resident pair of Mute Swans

There are several marked paths, a Woodland Path and a Pond Path, and several other shorter ones with suggestive names. The Woodland path is a circular walk around the perimeter of the site, there are broad views of North Carr and Foredyke Stream (a drain in fact). The paths are being improved for access, but there are still many muddy sections. There is a small educational pond surrounded by bullrushes and with a dipping platform and many benches and tables for picnicking.

Foxes, rabbits, squirrels and harvest mice can be found in the site or nearby areas. As for birds, Barn Owls, Lapwings, Golden Plovers, Reed Buntings and Skylarks among many others have been sighted. A plant list can be found here.

Today there weren't many birds at the site. This is our bird list:

Carrion Crow
Blackbird
Robin
Mallard
Moorhen, several immatures.
Goldfinches
Mute Swan, pair, not ringed.
Wren
Dunnock
Woodpigeon
Collared Dove

Where to find it:

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The Barmston Drain

2009-11-09T20:33:00.001Z

Hull is surprisingly green from high up. The 7th floor of the University Library offers a unique vantage point to appreciate this. Parks, gardens, railway lines, cycle lanes, tree-lined avenues, the river Hull and drains, form a green network that allows wildlife to live right inside the city. One of such green corridor is the Barmston Drain (or Barmy drain, as is also locally known). You can walk, even cycle, on the banks on part of the drain. Is is crisp and sunny today and I head for the section of the drain between Stepney and Skulcoates lane via the disused railway track bed now a cycle-pedestrian path between Hull and Hornsea. As soon as we get there we see some Mallards and Moorhens feeding. A number of moorhens are immature, so they probably breed here in good numbers. The banks are well vegetated with reeds, willows, brambles and hawthorns. One of the sections has a line of good-sized poplars on one side. A Kestrel swoops down from one of the trees into a field. The drain water runs clear, with lots of submerged macrophytes. Something jumps from the bank into the water with a plop! and disappears underwater, a Water Vole, perhaps? These are known to live on the drain. Rabbits, foxes and Roe Deer have also been reported from the drain and nearby areas.
If you ignore the odd supermarket trolley or rubbish here and there it makes a remarkably nice walk.

Grey Squirrel eating berries

Moorhen and supermarket trolley

A view of the drain towards Stepney Lane

Tales from the Riverbank, is an ongoing post with great photos of wildlife in the drain led by Bob Carter.
Where is it?

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Birds

Great tit, pair with blue tits feeding on the lime
Blue tit, pair
Blackbird
Magpies, a tidings of 8 magpies
Goldfinches, 2
Robins singing and ticking
Common gull
Woodpigeon, one sunbathing on a field
Wren
Sparrows
Starlings, feeding on Cordyline buds
Dunnock, cricket call
Kestrel, next to the drain
Moorhens, lots of adults and immatures in the drain
Mallards, several pairs in the drain
Long-tailed tits, group crossing near Skulcoates lane
Herring gulls feeding on a field, they seem to dance on the spot and then feed
Crow in the park, seems to be caching food
Mistle thrush park, pair
Chaffinches, pair feeding on the ground
Canada geese, 28 including the hybrid and the lame one.
Large flock of geese flying south in V, more than 50, high pitched call.

Birding in Pearson Park

2009-10-14T21:00:00.002+01:00

It's been quite grey today, but mild for the time of year. A walk in Pearson Park gave a few nice surprises. Autumn is fully fledged: conkers on the ground, a rich brown carpet of leaves. Although most of the trees are still green, there are many branches with first tint or brown leaves. The Grey Squirrels were calling, chasing and busily burying goodies in the ground. A small flock of Common Gulls are back in the pond after returning from their breeding grounds. The pair of breeding Moorhens now sits together preening each other; the two grown juveniles nowhere to be seen.

Male Mallards are showing off their wonderfully bright new feathers. They are boringly common, but what beautiful birds they are. One male and female were courting, heads quickly bobbing. The female lowered its head and the male mounted her. Everything was over very quickly. The female fluffed its feathers and flapped her wings over the water at the end.

The female sign

Mallards Mating

There was a hybrid Canada-greylag goose with 5 Canada geese, paired to one of them. It looked a bit clumsy, but it had a good session bathing itself. Given the strong imprinting of Ducks and Geese to the adults tending them, hybrids are likely to result of nest parasitism (one species lays egg on another's nest) or brood amalgamation (a pair of one species 'fosters' a brood from a different species and they grow together. The individuals of the fostered brood become imprinted to the 'wrong' species and when adults pair with it producing hybrids. One of the parents of this hybrid -most likely a greylag- was likely to have got imprinted to Canada Geese and paired with one. See this article and this website for fascinating info and photos on hybrid geese.

Hybrid Canada-Greylag goose having a bath

Birds of the Day

Robins singing
Blackbird
Woodpigeon
Dunnock
Goldcrest singing from the cypres
Mallards mating
Moorhen, pair cuddling
Grey wagtail
Common gulls, 20 indivs.
Canada geese, 5 and a canada-greylag hybrid paired with one of them
Great tit
Herring gull, first winter juvenile
Crow
Sparrows

Nut Wood & Wauldby Scrogs

2009-10-11T22:31:00.006+01:00

Woods now cover less than 3% of East Yorkshire. They are tiny specs on a blanket of arable land. A few Woodland Trust woods try to preserve this dwindling resource. Amongst these is Nut Wood, a little ancient semi-natural woodland, parts of which date to the 13th century. I have always visited it in the autumn, but it is known locally as Bluebell Wood and the display of wild flowers in spring is worth a visit. Flora includes Lords & Ladies, Wood Anemones, Wild Garlic and Dog's Mercury. Amongst the trees there is Ash, Sycamore, Oak, Beech, Spruce and coppiced Hazel, and it is surrounded by hedgerows with Hawthorn and Elder. The northern section was planted more recently. There are remarkably big old stumps scattered in the wood, but the size of the living trees is no match for them. Today we went in search of hazel nuts nibbled by rodents. There is a Dormice survey going on at the moment, although, unfortunately, dormice are extinct in East Yorkshire so we knew we were unlikely to find signs of them. There were lots of hazel shells left over by Grey Squirrels, and possibly some by Wood Mouse. We saw a number of fungi as well.
For more info check the Woodland Trust management plan for this site.

A clump of fungi at the base of an Ash

Fungus

A general view from the access point next to the road

For a 5 mile walk in the area see Walking the Riding.

Location map

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Sunny Spurn

2009-09-13T21:10:00.004+01:00

A wonderful scorching summer day at Spurn. Clear sky and the lightest breeze. We stop by the visitor centre. A compact flock of twitchers have settled on top of the dunes overlooking a sea buckthorn bush. They are stalking a Booted Warbler, a rare accidental that hasn't been seen in many years.

A Small Tortoiseshell lets me a close approximation while it feeds in Cat's Ears.

In the dunes, grasshoppers chirp and hawker and darter dragonflies on the wing. A 7 spot ladybird lands on the sand. We see several others today. The sea bucktorn is covered in the tents of the Brown Tail Moth, the caterpillars we see are quite small, but they have devastated the branches around them. The buckthorn has already got berries.

A large group of Starlings settle on the wires next to the visitor centre just to fly again in a flock. And every few minutes, little groups of Swallows fly low over the spit heading south. We are well into the autumn migration.
After a picnic lunch next to the dunes we head for the point. We walk around the head of the Peninsula, a 2 km walk, and have the chance of watching groups of Swallows as they reach the edge. Some seem hesitant to cross the Mouth of the Humber and fly back and forth.

Sea Rocket Cakile maritima

Driftwood at the Point

Marram grass and Sea Buckthorn scrub at the Point

The bendy beach a the Point.

General Cemetery

2009-09-11T22:27:00.003+01:00

Aerial View of the General Cemetery from Google Earth

Lately, I have been visiting the Hull General Cemetery regularly. From the air, it looks like thick woodland. Trees are mostly mature, over 100 year old, planted in Victorian times (the cemetery was created in 1847). Species include Lime, Ash, Oak, Horse Chestnut, Birch, Cherry and Elm. There is lots of undergrowth, ivy and brambles and also some clearings with meadows, but there are clear (although quite bumpy!) footpaths. Wildlflowers abound: Ramsons, Garlic Mustard, Lesser Celandine. This cemetery is no longer in use and Hull City Council has recently implemented a regeneration plan which also intends to improve its value for wildlife, by planting woodland trees and flowers. The improvements include the creation of a nature trail with information on plants and animals which live in the cemetery. There are already lots of birdboxes and owl-nest boxes and bat boxes in place. A relaxing place for a walk in the middle of the city.

Lime tree

Red Admiral sunbathing on a footpath

Freshly emerged Harlequin ladybird

Brown Rat

Grey Squirrel

Cruckley Farm

2009-09-09T20:15:00.003+01:00

Last day before term starts, the kids and I headed to Cruckley Farm. The weather had pleasantly changed from cold and autumnal into end-of-summer, warm and sunny. Cruckley farm is a working farm which can be visited and enjoyed by all ages. This farm has an interesting collection of rare breeds of sheep, cows and pigs as well as most farm animals you can list: goats, donkeys, shire horses, rabbits, geese, ducks, turkeys, peacocks, guineafowl and, of course, hens. The kids enjoyed the incubator and chick nursery today, where they were able to hold fluffy young chicks. A little group of runaway piglets made everyone laugh getting in and out of trouble around the farm and truly appearing to enjoy themselves in their adventures. The highlight of the day was a pig race: at the sound of a bell, the little pigs trotted in their comic style towards a trough full of food and the end of a circuit. The farm is placed in gently rolling countryside, with Frodingham Beck at one end. It contains a variety of habitats: a lake surrounded by woodland, a pond and, a wetland area recently created in partnership with Natural England and the Yorkshire Wildlife Trust, which is already teeming with wildflowers and dragonflies (I wasn't so impressed by the goldfish though!). There are little wooded areas and plenty of hedgerows, mostly hawthorn. The picnic area next to the farmhouse is shaded by quite old trees, amongst them a large oak. The walk around the public footpaths is around 1.8 km long. Birdwatching and bugwatching can be quite rewarding, in addition to your usual farm animals. Today, there were many Speckled Wood and Small Tortoiseshells around the farm. Hawker dragonflies, hunted among the farmhouses, a plentiful supply of flies, and we spotted both Common Darters and Hawkers around the newly dug ponds in the wetland area, a few times chasing each other.

Crown of oak

Swan in Frodingham Beck

Fields

Speckled Wood

Photo finish

Location Map:

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Summer at the Oak Road Playing Fields

2009-07-22T21:40:00.001+01:00

Almost two months since the last post here. Must get out more! The weather wasn't great today, although it was sunny and warm, the wind was gustly at times, and the wind turbine roared like a plane in the sky. The wildlife was fantastic though, and the meadows were beautifully covered in wildflowers - wild carrot, birdsfoot trefoil, catsears, spear thistles, common thistles, rosebay willowherb, ragwort and more. Butterfly-wise there were many Speckled Woods and many spiral flights (one of them with three individuals spiralling away) and we saw Green-Veined Whites, Gatekeepers, a Small Skipper and a sunbathing Small Tortoiseshell. I was expecting to see some dragonflies, but I only saw a blue damselfly which didn't wait for me to get my camera ready. A young frog and a tiny recently emerged toad completed the day.

Soldier beetles Rhagonycha fulva mating on Wild Carrot

Female Small Skipper Thimelicus flavus

Babysitting coot and charge

Tiny toad Bufo bufo

Today's Birds

Mallard, with fully grown ducklings
Coot, at least two families with young of different ages.
Woodpigeon.
Swift
Swallow family
Pied wagtail
Reed warbler singing from the reeds
Blackcap singing
Blackbird brambles (with blackberries)
Magpie, 2 indivs near the house on the brambles
Crow, family of 4 or 5
Goldfinch

Bempton Cliffs

2009-05-24T22:22:00.040+01:00

A blue sky and warm weather takes us to the cliffs of the RSPB nature reserve, Bempton Cliffs. The reserve includes not only the high chalk cliffs overlooking Filey Bay and Speeton sands, but also fields next to them, which today were covered with a pink carpet of Red Campions (Silene dioica). Buttercups and Gorse were also flowering. Nettles are very abundant, and we see a few peacock butterflies. The main reason to visit Bempton cliffs are the nesting seabirds and May and June are the top months to see them nesting. There are eight breeding species: Kittiwakes, Razorbills, Guillemots, Gannets, Fulmars, Puffins, Herring Gulls and Shags. Today we see them all except for the Shag (the rarest breeder, also tends to nest at the base of the cliff). Kittiwakes make the background noise at the cliffs.

A group of Kittiwakes pulling grass to line their nests.

We have a picnic on a meadow watching a Kestrel hovering over the cliffs.

A Kittiwake, a Razorbill and a Guillemot, the most common breeding seabirds in Bempton Cliffs

Herring gull

A view of the cliffs, at the bottom of the photo a group of nesting Gannets can be seen

The 'What's About' poster at the reserve visitor centre.

Links
RSPB Bempton Cliffs Nature Reserve

Birds of the day

Fulmar flying
Gannets on nests and flying.
Kestrel hovering over the cliffs
Pheasant calling
Herring gull on the cliffs and flying
Kittiwake collecting grass in groups and on the cliffs
Guillemot on cliffs and flying
Razorbill on cliffs and flying
Puffins on flight
Woodpigeon
Collared dove
Rock dove, nesting in the cliffs
Swift
Skylark
Swallow
House martin
Dunnock
Blackbird
Whitethroat singing
Rook
Jackdaw, everywhere, nesting in the cliffs
Crow
Magpie, one in Bempton the other chasing a couple of starlings (one could be a fledgling)
Starling
Tree sparrow
House sparrow
Greenfinch
Goldfinch
Chaffinch
Linnet
Yellowhammer
Pied wagtail

Map

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Spring at Burton Constable

2009-05-23T21:56:00.003+01:00

I can't believe its over a month we went anywhere out of Hull. Today it was a warm day with sunny spells and we went for a walk to the grounds of Burton Constable. We explored the area around the Hall and followed the Waymarker Trail. We found out what a Ha-ha is (intrigued? check here). At one end of it stands an ancient tree, a Sweet Chestnut, with some of its main branches now dead and partially covered by Ivy. It is the most impressive tree I have seen in East Yorkshire, with an enormous girth. As it is near the house and the house was built at the end of the XVI century, it is probably over 400 years old.

A view of the live side of the ancient sweet chestnut

A view of the old chestnut covered on Ivy

The tree trunk

Around the farm houses and stables, House Martins were busy nest building.

In the North Pond, which used to be part of a moat, Moorhens and Coots were being followed by their hungry chicks. The wooded areas were teeming with insects, although we did not see many butterflies.

A pair of geese flying

Moorhen with chicks

We manage to spot a Hare.

Tenthredo sawfly

Previously in the large lake I have seen toads mating.
This is today's bird list:

Blackbird
Crow
Woodpigeon
sparrow
Chaffinch
Greylag (pair)
Moorhen, with 2 chicks
Coot with 1 chick
Several mallards with ducklings of different sizes
House Martins making nests
Swallows
Jackdaws on the fields
Rooks. 2 with one chick begging
Great tit
Pheasant
Goldfinches singing

Map

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Note added: I reported the Sweet Chestnut in the Ancient Tree Hunt website, as it wasn't there, and a couple of days later it was verified by Tony Burgoyne and its girth measuret at 7.28 m. Tony said this is the largest tree recorded in East Yorkshire! It now has a record here.

Drewton Dale

2009-04-18T22:26:00.001+01:00

We walk up Drewton Dale to Weedley Springs and back, a valley in the southernmost fringes of the Yorkshire Wolds, just north of South Cave. The easterly wind has brought us some cloud that failed to lift but despite the cool breeze it feels like spring is here. Many wildflowers on the dale. There are old Ash trees and many Hawthorns and I see some elms. From the Google Earth images, a combination of plantations and old forest is seen in the area. The landscape is rolling and very pleasant to walk and the highlight is the little stream, Drewton Beck, with flooded fields, dams and clear water springs. We see a fresh Peacock and various queen bumblebees (B. terrestris, B. lapidarius) a Vollucella bombilans and a Male Red Mining bee. Flowering plants include primroses - a large patch growing on an inaccessible bank next to the disused Hull-Barnsley railway tunnel -, Cowslip, Ground Ivy, White Nettle, Marsh Marigolds, Violets, Blackthorn, Lesser Celandine, Daisies and Dandelions.

We failed to see the Red Kites that breed in the area, but nevertheless the visit to Drewton Dale is well worth it.

Nursery Web Spider, Pisaura mirabilis

Peacock, Inachis io

Polyporus squamosus

Violets

Primroses, Primula vulgaris

Birds

1. Greylag, couple

2. Jackdaws

3. Rooks

4. Pheasants, lots!

5. Mallards, several in the beck and flooded banks

6. Robin

7. Blue tit

8. Kestrel

9. Willow/Marsh tit

10. Lapwing, nuptial flight

11. Chiffchaff, singing

12. Willow warbler, singing

13. Blackcap

14. Blackbird

15. Woodpigeon

16. Swallows, established in the farm buildings

17. HOUSE MARTINS first of year

18. Chaffinch

19. Greenfinch

20. Skylark

21. Moorhen

22. Song thrush

Links
Birdwatching information at Birdnerd
Red Kites in Yorkshire

How to get there

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Full on spring at Oak Road lake

2009-03-21T20:54:00.000Z

What a fantastic day to start spring. Blue sky, warm and almost no wind. We walk around the lake. The willows were in bloom and many bees and bumblebees were gorging on the catkins. We saw the first Bombus lapidarius and B. pascuorum of the year feeding on them. The nettles are starting to grow in earnest. A pair of Little Grebes kept calling in their 'laugh-like' way and Great tits were singing. We found a flooded site next to the wind turbine covered in frog spawn. No sign of breeding toads though. To end the visit, a Small Tortoiseshell fluttered about and stopped for long enough for me to take some shots.

View of the lake and reedbeds

A beautiful flowering willow

Willow catkins

Poplar catkins

Coot among the reeds

Male swan

Small Tortoiseshell

Not a lot of birds around today, though.

1. Swan, 1 male

2. Coot (>6)

3. Moorhen (prrr!)

4. Mallards (6 or so)

5. Pair of little grebes (laughing a lot!)

6. Blackbird

7. Reed warbler? (singing)

8. Wood pigeon

9. Crow

10. Great tit

11. Long-tailed tit with feather in beak flies into the trees

Tophill Low

2009-02-20T17:41:00.008Z

This morning we went to Tophill Low nature reserve. There was quite a lot of high cloud and we didn't see the predicted sunny spells, but it was a mild day and wonderful for a winter walk. Tophill Low is a purpose-built nature reserve around water treatment works owned by Yorkshire Water. There are two deep water reservoirs (called 'O' and 'D' reservoirs due to their shape), ponds and marshes with islands, reed beds and wooded areas. The diversity of habitats attract a range of bird species (150 are regular in the reserve) and also dragonflies and other insects. There is a visitor centre (now in need of some refurbishment) with a viewing area into a bird feeding station next to a pond and a meadow. There are 12 hides, several of them accessible to wheelchairs (and pushchairs!).
The feeding station was busy today and we had a good look at rabbits chasing each other, a great spotted woodpecker, chaffinches, goldfinches, greenfinches, dunnocks, moorhens and blackbirds. The kids were entranced (the rabbits, specially, were a hit!)
The mashes were teeming with birds and we saw a range of species. We walked around the 'O' reservoir and the various ponds around it, and also had a look at the Watton Nature Reserve.

A large flock of lapwings takes flight from South Marsh East

Little Grebe

Flowering gorse

The day's bird list:

1. Little Grebe. South Marsh East (SME)
2. Cormorant. Watton Nature Reserve.
3. Greylags.
4. Canada geese.
5. Shelduck. SME.
6. Mallard.
7. Wigeon. SME.
8. Shoveler. SME.
9. Pochard. SME.
10. Tufted duck/scaup?
11. Buzzard. Flying over Car Park.
12. Kestrel. Watton village.
13. Pheasant. Around visitor centre
14. Moorhen. FS.
15. Coot. SME.
16. Lapwing. More than 100 flushed from South East Marsh.
17. Redshank. SME.
18. Black-headed gulls. Bev rd. one carrying something, others chasing.
19. Woodpigeon. Visitor centre.
20. Collared doves. Singing, one carring stick in Dunswell.
21. Green Woodpecker. Laughing in flight, pair.
22. Great Spotted Woodpecker. Feeding Station (FS).
23. Dunnock. FS
24. Robin. singing everywhere.
25. Blackbird. FS. Also, when we are leaving a singing male from the aerial in front of the house.
26. Song Thrush. FS. Eating of the meadow.
27. Long-Tailed Tit. FS.
28. Coal tit. FS. Feeders
29. Great tit.
30. Blue tit.
31. Magpie. Roundabout.
32. Rooks on nests Woodmansey.
33. Tree sparrow FS.
34. Chaffinches. FS.
35. Greenfinches.FS.
36. Goldfinches. FS.

The Reserve's website, including a map, at Yorkshire Water.

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Humber Bridge Country Park in the snow

2009-02-16T16:46:00.002Z

After lunch we head for a walk in the Country Park. There is still quite a lot of snow in places, although it feels mild. In the field next to Riverside Cottage, Mistle Thrushes and Redwings feed. We have taken some bird food with us and when we get to the feeding station we put some on the feeders. Almost instantly several Robins fall around us and start eating, followed by Blue Tits, Great Tits, Dunnocks and a pair of Blackbirds. A Song Thrush, oblivious to this frenzied activity, keeps singing enthusiastically from the top of a nearby tree. The Song Thrush singing and the leaves of the Lords and Ladies seem to be the only signs of spring today.

Robin on a feeder

Snowy meadow

Lords and Ladies fresh shoots

To help you get there:

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Big Garden Birdwatch

2009-01-29T20:20:00.044Z

I have done the Big Garden Birdwatch a few times in my garden. I don't do as much birdwatching as I would like lately and it is a bit sad to spend a whole hour just to see a blackbird and a couple of blue tits (I don't have a very popular garden with birds). So, last year I decided to do the BGB in my local wildlife patch, the Pearson Park Wildlife Garden. The results were encouraging, I even had a magic moment with a very tame robin, who let me take some macro photos of him while singing. Today then, I wrapped up warm and I headed for the wildlife garden. I took the camera as well, but I wasn't as lucky as last year. It was cold and cloudy, so I had to keep walking around. The pond was frozen solid. My observation time was from 11 to 12 am. It's still so early in the year but many birds were pairing and singing. The great tits were teachering away and a stock dove was booming and a greenfinch singing from the trees. The dunnocks seemed to be courting and chasing each other. I was very surprised to see a warbler, I think probably a chiff-chaff active in the bushes. There was a couple of robins together, the male singing and third one replying from the other side of the garden. It was altogether busy and only a 5 min lull when nothing really happened.

These are my results:

Great tits (2) male and female. Male singing.

Song thrush (1). I've already heard it singing this year, but not today.

Blackbirds (2) Male and female.

Robin (3). Couple and a third male. Two singing.

Blue tit (2) Singing.

Stock dove, booming from high in the trees.

Dunnock (3) Together, 2 chasing each other.

Greenfinch (1) Singing from the poplar.

Chaffinch (1). Male.

Chiff-chaff (1). Most likely, as it's the only occasionally hibernating warbler.

Woodpigeon (5) On a tree.

Magpie (3). As the hour finished.

Total of 12 sp. Not too bad!

Last year's results for East Yorkshire were:

House sparrow 2.64

Starling 2.19

Blackbird 1.48

Goldfinch 1.25

Collared dove 0.93

Blue tit 0.87

Tree sparrow 0.83

Chaffinch 0.69

Woodpigeon 0.67

Long tailed tit 0.65

(source RSPB )

Pearson Park and its Wildlife Garden

2008-11-22T17:10:00.011Z

There is nothing remarkable about the wildlife at Pearson Park: a pond full of mallards and a couple of moorhens, a flock of pigeons that like to sunbathe on the roof of the ice-cream shop, some grey squirrels, a big grassy space that is regularly walked by a pair of crows. A little bit of extra interest in the winter, when common gulls and Canada and Greylag geese add more noise. However, tucked in a corner of the park there is a lovely wildlife garden. There is a little pond - getting more overgrown with vegetation every year- meadows, plenty of native trees, a hedgerow, a dry stone wall, a herb garden, lots of brambles and nettles. Everything is quite small, it is only a reduced area, but it shows how little is needed to attract wildlife to your doorstep. The meadow attracts grasshoppers (Chorthippus brunneus), butterflies (Ringlet, Gatekeeper, Common Blue), cinnabar moths; the pond teems with mating frogs and newts in March and various dragonflies and damselflies, the trees attract birds and Specked Wood butterflies, the herb garden buzzes with bees and bumblebees all summer. Its a great place to visit all year round.

Here is a selection of photos I've taken in the Wildlife garden.

A very tame robin

Hazel catkins (Corylus avellana)

Mating Common Frogs

Red admiral (Vanessa atalanta) on Blackthorn flowers

Male Common Blue butterfly (Polyommatus icarus)

Male Azure Damselfly (Coenagrion puella)

Cinnabar moth caterpillar (Tyria jacobaea)

Common Field Grasshopper, Chorthippus brunneus
If you want to get there, the Wildlife Garden is in the southwestern corner of the park, next to the entrance through Princes Avenue...

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Donna Nook Seals

2008-11-16T21:55:00.003Z

It's a bright, mild autumn day. As planned, we set out for Donna Nook, the seal rookery in the Lincolnshire coast, near North Somercotes. We get there after getting to Horseshoe Point in mistake (flushing a pair of kestrels in the way) about 11:30.

The colours of the autumn make this trip just worth it. Donna Nook is a stretch of low-lying sandy coast on the south bank of the mouth of the Humber, with dunes covered in sea buckthorn and marshes. It is a RAF shooting range, but, apparently, operations do not seem to disturb the seals. The area is protected as it is a grey seal breeding ground during November and December.

There are lots of people today, the overflow car park is quite busy.

We can hear the howling of the seals from behind the artificial sea wall, actually a barrier of sand covered in grasses and sea buckthorn. Their calls are high pitched, ululating cries such as ones somebody would make to scare you ooh,ooh ooh! There are many seals, scattered on the beach. The visibility is very good and we can see the Spurn lighthouse and the wind turbines of Easington in the low horizon on the north.

Two bulls threaten each other, open mouthed, on the dunes over a female.

One of them approaches the female, but she threatens him and he stays put.

The bulls have cuts and blood around their scarred necks. Bulls are larger than cows and tend to be darker, chocolate colored, with lighter patches; cows are grey or tawny, with darker spots and blotches, although there is a lot of individual variation. Males and females have very different looking heads. Bulls have bigger muzzles and have a convex profile, the females have an almost flat profile, with a long muzzle. The pups are creamy white, skinny when newborn, but they turn quite round when a few days old (they are weaned at two to three weeks old, and after molting their coats go to sea).

We watched a female and her pup at close range. She nuzzled the pup and then rolled (ouch!) over him, seemingly keen for the pup to nurse, presenting him her belly and then scratching him when the pup reached for her muzzle. They also seem to play together, mock biting and scratching each other.

It is a great day out to see the seals. Real animal behaviour happening right in front of you: bulls chasing and measuring each other up, females fighting them, females interacting with their pups, pups nursing, pups and their mums resting and particularly pups, rolling and 'hand-waving', stretching and just, seemingly enjoying their newly found life on the sand. This one is fanning its flippers:

Evidence of the births the previous night is clear. There are two afterbirths on the sand in the next photo. The rear of the females is still covered in blood and the newborn has its umbilical cord attached.

A dead pup on the beach, half eaten. A magpie walking around looking for fragments of placenta.

The Lincolnshire Wildlife Trust does a great job keeping the public behind a weak wooden (now double) fence, to reduce impact and contact with the seals, and there is up to date info in the warden's hut on the numbers of seals in the beach: 477 pups have been born so far this year (over a thousand last year). This is a UK wildlife safari at its best!

The following is from the Lincolnshire Wildlife Trust website, which contains maps and info on the reserve and the seals.

Monday 17 November

285 bulls, 673 cows, 477 pups.
With an estimate of between 9,000 and 10,000 visitors over the weekend.

East Park Birding

2008-10-28T21:33:00.013Z

The largest park of Hull, and, after the recent revamp, by far the most beautiful, East Park is a wonderful bird-watching site. The large lake has deep and shallow areas and islands. I have seen nesting Great Crested grebes bringing little fish to their young in the lake. Swans, geese and coots also breed in the lake. Wildfowl is abundant in winter, with Canada Geese, Greylags, Barnacle geese, Pochard, Tufted ducks, Mallard, Moorhen and coot usually around. Occasionally there are whooper swans, lesser white fronted geese, Goosander, red-footed geese, pintails and red-crested pochard. Wildfowl is quite used to people and allow close approach, so if you want photos close-ups are guaranteed.

There is a large, new aviary which could do with a few more birds - and a zoo with goats, guinea pigs, alpacas, wallabies, fallow deer, peacocks and rheas. The zoo has an educational building with some tanks with millipedes, stick insects, tarantulas and snakes. A visit to East Park is for the whole family, and especially in the summer when there are rowing boats and a splash slide. More info in the Hull City Council and the Hull Valley Wildlife Group websites.

Today it was cold, 5-7 oC, but no wind - it can be really chilly in the winter here if there is the least breeze - so we had a long walk around the park, walking up the tree lined promenade, watching squirrels burying acorns (and ignoring our conkers) and stopping by the model boat lake, and the walking around the large lake, the Zoo, across the bridge and back round the north side of the lake.

These are some of my favourite photos from East Park, all taken with a Powershot G6:

Two Coots

Geese pair with goslings (13/05/07)

Mute Swans and cygnets

Bold Crow

Tufted duck drake (22/03/06)

Pochard drake (22/03/06)

Black-headed gulls like to rest on the wall next to the lake

Lesser white-fronted goose (10/12/05)

Birds of the day:

1. Canada Geese
2. Greylags
3. 2 Mute swans with red rings (Y329, Y330)
4. Coots
5. Moorhens
6. Pied Wagtails
7. Great Tit
8. Crows
9. Magpie
10. Dunnock
11. Blackbird
12. Mallards
13. Common Pochard
14. Great Crested Grebe
15. Tufted Duck
16. wader with broad white trailing edge, pigeon size or slightly smaller (redshank?)
17. Black-Headed Gulls
18. Starlings

Spurn, spurn

2008-08-30T15:14:00.107+01:00

One of my favourite places in Yorkshire is Spurn Head. If the Holderness Peninsula is an elephant's head, Spurn would be the trunk. Geologically, Spurn Head is a spit: is a narrow belt of land made of sand and mud at the North end of the Humber estuary. Often, the road that leads to the lighthouse and lifeboat station has to be repositioned after winter storms, as the dunes move and cover it, it shows how dynamic this coast is, constantly subject to erosion and deposition. On a sunny day is absolutely dazzling. The contrast between the colors on the estuary side, bright green and pink-grey, and in the seaward side, sandy and blue is amazing. It also feels wild and exposed, this more markedly in the winter. Spurn is very popular with bird watchers, specially during the migratory season, as it is one of the most important places in the country to see migratory birds.
Spurn has a variety of habitats: mudflats, saltmarshes, ponds, dunes, scrub, beaches...

On the Humber side of the spit there are mudflats and near the shore marshes where you can find samphire and sedum.

Mudflats and marsh

Samphire

The beach on the North Sea side is mostly sandy, with scattered pebbles and fossils. Beachcombing is always fun. One day we were surprised by hundreds of dead pipefish washed ashore.

Pipefish

In between both beaches, a narrow line of dunes.

Dune ripples

The dunes are stabilised by sea buckthorn, often covered by tents made by caterpillars of the Brown Tailed Moth.

Tent of Brown Tailed Moth caterpillars

Sea holly

Sea holly is common and in between the buckthorn there are brambles, lesser celandines, orchids and many other flowers.

North of the reserve information point there is a beautiful pond called Canal Scrape. This explains the many dragonflies and even newts that can be seen in Spurn.

Canal Scrape

Spurn Head is a wildlife reserve of the Yorshire Wildlife Trust, and cars have to pay a small entrance fee. You can park in the Blue Bell Cafe and walk if you wish, but you will miss something if you don't get to the lighthouse and walk on the beach around the point.

Today we are welcome by a wonderful sight: over the bright green marsh, two Little Egrets fly past gracefully. It's the first time I see egrets in this country and what a perfect place to do it.

In the fields just before getting to Kilnsea, a roe deer, at midday and in the middle of the field.

There are swallows everywhere.

In the dunes, I watch a few interesting invertebrates.

A dune wolf-spider, Arctosa perita, beautifully camouflaged.

A female grasshopper, Chorthippus brunneus, trying to feed while males do some competitive singing and one of them manages to mate with her.

A scary-looking robber fly, Philonicus albiceps.

Also, several butterflies: Red Admiral, Small Tortoiseshell, Common Blue and Small White.

How to get there:

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Links
Spurn Bird Observatory. Full of info with daily sightings. Map and also checklists of moths, butterflies and dragonflies.
Spurn Head Nature Reserve. Page of the Yorkshire Wildlife Trust.

Oppy Wood

2008-08-28T13:19:00.005+01:00

A beautiful sunny day, we head for Oppy Wood. This young wood was created 10 years ago by the Woodland Trust as part of their Woods on your Doorstep campaign. The site is nestled in between Cottingham and Hull, and trees are steadily growing. After a visit to the site you would probably would not call it 'a wood', as it's mostly an open wet meadow with young trees, but it has a wild feel to it nevertheless. The wood is not too large, so you can walk around it in less than an hour, and there are two circular paths which are regularly mowed. There are old drainage ditches which can overflow and add to the diversity of habitats. Today there were lots of berries: hawthorn, gelder rose, blackberries and dog rose, and acorns, some covered in an interesting gall. In the spring the site has lots of wildflowers. We see a hawker dragonfly hunting, see grasshoppers and a beautiful iridescent stinkbug nymph (Troilus luridus). And the presence of a Speckled Wood butterfly population is a good omen for the site becoming a woodland with time. I look forward to see this wood mature.

You can find more info on the site here.

These are some pictures I've taken in our visits to Oppy Wood.

Troilus luridus

Female grasshopper

Speckled wood (Pararge aegeria)

Silk button spangle galls on the underside of oak leaves caused by the gall wasp Neuroterus numismalis

Knopper galls on acorns. Gall wasp Andricus quercuscalicis

Sloes. Blackthorn (Prunus spinosa)

To help you get there:

There are parking spaces in Dane Park Lane, at the west side of the site.
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Humber Bridge Country Park

2008-05-10T19:37:00.006+01:00

A sunny day, we head for the Humber Bridge Country Park in the morning. This is a site claimed back by nature after being a chalk quarry for centuries. Now is is nicely wooded, with areas kept as meadows, rocky cliffs and ponds. Today we see several Orange Tip butterflies, a Peacock and a Holly Blue. There are many wildflowers in the meadows: garlic mustard, lords and ladies, hawthorn, buttercups and daisies.
There are three marked nature trails in the park, each with an habitat theme, the Meadow Trail, the Pond Trail and the Cliff trail. A highlight of the Park is the willow viewing tunnel next to the bird feeder station, its just like a living hide, what a great idea. Birds are quite tame and if you are lucky you might even see the bullfinches!
A few photos from the park.

Flowering hawthorn

Speedwell

Lords and Ladies (Arum maculatum)

A wood carving of a rabbit signaling one of the trails.

A map with trails can be downloaded from here.
The Friends of Humber Bridge Country Park website is packed with information on the history, geology and wildlife of this now an East Riding of Yorkshire Local Nature Reserve.
How to get there:

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