Newbald Becksies YWT Nature Reserve with Hull Nats

This was my first visit to Newbald Becksies, a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI citation) and nature reserve managed by the YWT. It is a very small site, just 2 ha. The site is a fen at the base of a chalk slope fen by springs, flushes and streams. Willows, ash and sycamore form a band of semi-natural woodland on the upper, drier levels. The main interest of the site is its special fen flora, with several species that are very scarce in East Yorkshire. However, some of these, including Butterwort, were lost between the late 60s and 80s, coinciding with increases in agricultural fertiliser use. 

There are no paths and access is difficult (the main gate was blocked by vegetation and to survey it we had to climb it). Wellies are a must. Despite its small size, it takes us a while to walk through it, with some boggy areas that almost swallowed a couple of us! A central area includes carpets of Bogbean, with a few flowers, and Marsh Valerian flowering and a few rosettes of Marsh Orchids. Common Cottongrass, Sedges, mosses and both water and marsh horsetails are also present. The day was mostly overcast with showers. The northern area had grass dominated and horsetail dominated areas. Despite the weather, we recorded several Orange Tips. Parts of the site appears very overgrown in places and in need of some management. We spend a good couple of hours botanising and insect recording on the site and I make a decent 20 bird species list.

An interpretation board.

The rosette of a marsh orchid.

Hull Nats members recording on site.

Buzzard.

Bogbean.

Close up of Bogbean flower.

One of the chalk streams traversing the site.

Watercress.

Holderness: Aldbrough, East Carlton, West Carlton, Tansterne, Flinton, Etherdwick

The day was bright, cool and with forecast showers, which materialised at midday. I got bus 24 to Hornsea and waited for bus 129 by St Nicholas Church. At Aldbrough, Swallows and Swifts circle above, but I don't linger too much. I take Carlton Lane towards the hamlets of East and West Carlton. The lane runs on the edge of the Lambwath Valley, by fields of oilseed rape and wheat, with a few paddocks. A copse at East Carlton is noisy with Rook fledglings calling parents. Both hamlets are little more than a farm and a cottage. At West Carlton, I turn left towards Tansterne, where a large biomass power station apparently sits unused and incongruous on the landscape. A pond amongst trees mirrors the sky (top shot) as menacing dark clouds travel from the south. 

Female Greenfich.

Tansterne Biomass Power station.

East Carlton Farm.

Young Rook at the Rookery and East Carlton.

Linnets were looking at their best today.

Carlton Manor at West Carlton.

Just after leaving behind West Carlton I hear an unfamiliar song, it's a Yellow Wagtail, singing atop a lone still mostly bare ash. I find two more males before getting to Tansterne, with Reed Buntings and Chaffinches on the hedges. Tansterne feels more like a proper hamlet. Chickens and Greylag Geese with goslings share a yard by a pond. It is starting to drizzle, and I walk faster towards Flinton. 

Yellow Wagtail.

Another Yellow Wagtail.

Reed Bunting.

A resident of Tansterne Grange.

Buzzard.

Yellowhammer.

It is now raining steadily. Coincidentally, I come across a disused bus shelter on the crossing at Flinton. Not having a churyard to visit, and given the weather, I sit out (stand out) the rain and have my lunch in the bus shelter. Soon enough the cloud passes and we get some sunny spells. The rest of the walk is on a main busy road with uncut verges and hedges reducing visibility. I power on towards Etherdwick and Aldbrough. As I walk, I notice a male Yellowhammer on the verge, shuffling towards the road. I manage to stop it. It appears to be stunned, maybe hit by a car. Otherwise appearing unharmed, I leave it by the hedge and wish it luck. It probably has young in the nest nearby. 

Looking back towards Flinton, bus shelter on the left.

Yellowhammer.

Meadow Pipit carrying food.

Sand Martins at Etherdwick.

I look at the timetable and I think I can make the next bus to Hornsea, but I end up missing it by a couple of minutes. Which means I have to get the bus to Withernsea an hour later. I wait it out with a coffee in the entrance of Aldbrough church, watching the Swallows and Rooks.

Swallow.

Jackdaw.

Rook.

Greenfinch feeding on dandelion heads.

South Landing, Danes Dyke, Bridlington

Another unplanned trip. Initially I thought I'd go to Bempton, but upon checking the weather with a cold northerly I decided to stay on the Flamborough area, but walk on the sheltered, shouthern side of the peninsula. I got the train to Bridlington and then the C14 coaster to Flamborough. On the way I watched the increasing number of Kittiwakes settling onto their nest sites and starting to call. Herring Gulls and Lesser Black-backed are well known urban gulls, not so Kittiwakes (other than the famous colony on the Tyne bridge in Newcastle). They are charismatic, endangered birds and we should celebrate them, but instead people put netting on roofs to deter them, which ends up entangling gulls and their chicks.

This Kittiwake is not moving from her nest on King Street, but it is a risk to nest by the netting as either the parents or the chicks can become entangled.

This Herring Gull wasn't as lucky. It probably was a long and painful death.

This Kittiwake displayed on its downpipe. They use very narrow ledges, but this one is quite ambitious!

After a short bus ride I got to Flamborough. The tide was rising and I had 3 hours before high tide. It was not a very high tide, so that left plenty of time to walk to Danes Dyke by the base of the cliff, which should take half an hour. When I got to South Landing, I was surprised about the amount of sand on the beach (top shot). This was the case much of the walk, which made it for a much nicer one underfoot, as I alternated walking on chalk boulders and walking on quite compact sand. It was relatively quiet bird wise, compared to the winter.

Whitethroat at South Landing.

Great Black-back Immature showing its bulky bill.

Displaying Stock Dove.

Rock Pipit.

As I was approaching Danes Dyke, I noticed hundreds of sand hoppers, jumping up the beach ahead of the rising tide. Some got stopped by chalk boulders, and they would pile up in front of the boulders and slowly make their way up. I walked around Danes Dyke until high tide. Walk on the dry bed of the beck, had a coffee and recorded the wonderful ferns. The calls of a Nutchatch called my attention and Imanaged to find it and take some photos. An Early Purple Orchid was also quite a nice and unexpected find.

The bottom of the ravine.

Unfurling Male Fern.

Unfurling fronds of Hart's Tongue Fern.

Ferns everywhere under the greening canopy.

A bed of flowering and pungent ramsons at the sides of the path.

Nutchatch upside down.

And right way up. There are also Nuthatches at Sewerby, but few other places in East Yorkshire have then.

Early Purple Orchid.

The wind didn't bother me much in the sheltered south side of the peninsula. It was cold even in the sunshine.

A Green Tiger Beetle was hunting on the beach. Until a wave took it away!

Pied Wagtail. I love the white canvas of the chalk rocks at Flamborough.

Oystercatchers.

Whimbrel.

Wheatear.

Turnstones. A group of 22 fed and roosted on the beach.

One of two Purple Sandpipers fed with the Turnstones.

The Yorkshire Belle.

Crow and Rabbit.

A brisk walk along north beach and I soon was back at Bridington. The tide was still quite high and after a walk around the harbour I walked back to the station to catch my train back.