A trip to Filey Bay and Primrose Valley

A beautiful day for a walk, warm with a breeze, as I got to Filey on the train. The high tide stopped me from the pull of walking on the beach, I took the coastal path south towards Primrose Valley. A Kittiwake flies east towards the Brigg as I descend the steps from Crescent Gardens. I record plants and butterflies along the path, on the side of the golf course. A Pied Wagtail family feeds on the golf course. Sandwich terns rattling calls announce them feeding just offshore, together with the howling cries of a young Guillemot begging to its parent. I descent the Primrose Valley ravine, with the luxuriant vegetation including ferns and woodland plants tucked in well sheltered from the elements. I wander up and down the ravine before climbing to the clifftop path. Now the coastal path goes through the holiday park. Just off the car park, I peek onto the cliffs and spot some Marbled Whites, too distant and active for photos. These are soft, boulder clay cliffs like those at Holderness, but the protective effect of Filey Brigg tothe north and Flamborough to the south means they erode much more slowly. They are less vertical, wider, and more irregular cliffs, allowing a diverse vegetation to grow, particularly plants that thrive on bare patches arising from slippages. These slippages have created hollows that also hold water, from small puddles and mires to large ponds. The cliffs hold their own regarding botanical diversity, including some rare species in other areas of South East Yorkshire (VC-61) like Marsh Grass of Parnassus - which I found, just about ready to flower in two patches -, Bloody Cranesbill Marsh Fragrant Orchid, and Saw Wort.

Kittiwake.

A new bridge for the coastal path.

Linnet.

Sandwich Tern.

Primrose Valley ravine.

A magnificent Hart's Tongue Fern.

I take my lunch on a lopsided bench overlooking a pond on the descent to the beach. Afterwards, I spend some time trying to work out how to get close to the shore of this pond. Unfortunately, the only accessible shore is too soft and the marginal vegetation too luxuriant. On another side a wall of creeping thisle blocks me. I take some photos of an Emperor dragonfly patrolling and a distant blooming Tubular Water-dropwort, a first for me. Pyramidal and Common Spotted Orchids dot the slope by the pond. The tide has released its grip on the beach, leaving a vast expanse, now taken by groups of people. I descend to the beach at Butcher Haven, pause to admire the distant cliffs of Flamborough, and walk back by the shingle at the top of the beach, with occasional short climbs onto the bottom cliff. 

Elongated pond south of Primrose Valley.

Pyramidal Orchid.

Black-tailed Skimmer.

Painted Lady on Hemp Agrimony.

Small White butterflies salting on a seepage.

A bud of Grass of Parnassus close to opening.

A vegetated bottom cliff with a wet seepage including photo-bombing Meadow Brown butterfly.

Common Field Grasshopper.

This Marbled White landed in front of me on Devil's-bit Scabious.

Looking south with Flamborough in the distance.

Small Tortoiseshell.

Gannet and diving Sandwich Tern.

Diving Gannets, just offshore of Filey.

A Wool carder bee male rests near a large patch of Stachys byzantina at Crescent Gardens.

I was also ready for an ice-cream, which I took at the beginning of the promenade, just before I took my train back home.

More information

A report from the YNU visit to Primrose Valley in June 2006.

Holderness: Roos, Owstwick, Hilston, Tunstall, Sand le Mere

A beautiful summer day with light breeze and warm temperature. I take an early bus to Withernsea. I'm amazed by the colour of the sea, on the falling tide, so clear blue, unlike the usual two-banded sea with the land ward sea brown with the suspended clay. I don't have long to wait for bus 129 to Roos and it is not a long ride. Around 9 am I start my walk. It is a day of U-turns due to poorly kept or impassable rights of way, and, as a consequence I have to walk much of it by roads, but only in the first half on busy roads, thankfully. Screaming Swifts chase at Roos, and I find roadside verges with flowering thistles brambles with many Small Whites and other butterflies. It is nice to have a good day to record insects in Holderness.

Withernsea sea front. Such a blue sea!

At Roos, I spot a fresh Small Tortoiseshell. This summer generation with larger numbers than the spring one.

A House Sparrow with nesting material.

Small White Butterflies on Creeping Thistle.

A bridge over a ditch overgrown with brambles stops me from accessing this Public Right of Way.

A grown oil-seed rape field, where you are supposed to walk across the crop to reach Owswick, with no path cut. I tried for a few minutes and turned round, too hard work and little reward.

I took this quiet road instead, lined with trees. 

This Yellowhammer singing from one of them.

I walk along the hamlet of Owstwick, with farm houses and cottages, and plenty of birds. As I came out, Reed Buntings and Whitethroats sing. Young Swallows are lined on a wire, with an odd young Starling joining their party.

Reed Bunting near The Elms.

I love an old wooden road sign.

At Hilston, I admire Admiral Storr's tower.

It is guarded by some Jackdaws.

Hilston's St Margaret church is a brick building, which replaced the previous church destroyed by a bomb during WWII. It looks peaceful, but look more closely and you'll see a man with a petrol strimmer around the headstones. Although, it was a nice view from my lunch-time bench, it was not so tranquil. 

A dead Common Shrew on the churchyard wall.

A few mares with foals grazed on a ridge and furrow field by Hilston.

With some apprehension, I take Hogsea lane to reach the sea and hopefully, the coastal path. A Chaffinch sings from the hedgerow, and a surprise male Marsh Harrier quarters the field. The only marshy area nearby is old Gills Mere. A Roe Deer watches me from the edge of the mere.

Chaffinch.

Marsh Harrier.

Roe Deer buck.

The end of Hogsea Lane, with a beautiful view.

I can't stop taking photos of the sea.

This time I don't have to turn round, the path goes along Pastures Lane, but at some point it disappears on a section that has fallen onto the sea due to erosion. It is only a short detour to the village of Tunstall.

A fledgling Tree Sparrow near Tunstall, one of the few I've seen in the Holderness walks.

This chicken came to check me out as I tried to get onto another right of way, this one overgrown with nettles, ouch!

Again, I take the road. It's a great view of Tunstall's All Saints church.

I head to Sand-le-Mere and after the fourth or fifth, blocked right of way, I find the restaurant, have an ice-cream, and get my water bottle topped up. I still have some time to wait for the last bus to Withernsea, which I use recording the dragonflies by the ponds next to the bus stop. It's now quite warm and ideal for them. An Emperor dragonfly also patrols the pond, but it's too quick for good photos. No swans, but a Mallard family with ducklings swims about, the ducklings occasionally chasing damselflies.

Southern Hawker.

Black-tailed Skimmer.

Ovipositing Small Red-eyed damselflies.

Four Spotted Chaser.

A Herring Gull poses in front of Pier Tower at Withernsea, while I wait for my bus back to Hull.