Holderness: Rimswell, Roos and Tunstall

A cooler morning than previous days, blue skies with fluffy clouds, an ideal day for a long walk. Today I'm heading for Roos, and visiting Rimswell and Tunstall in a circular walk of around 17 km. I start the walk at Withernsea North Road, the last stop of X7 bus. I start by recording butterflies at the thistles on the corner of the field there: Gatekeeper, Small Tortoiseshell, Ringlet, and whites, plenty of whites. I'm rewarded by a Hummingbird Hawkmoth, my first this year, feeding on Red Valerian in a front garden. 

Small Tortoiseshell.

Hummingbird Hawkmoth

I walk on the roadside by Withernsea Sands holiday village and take a left public right of way towards Rimswell Valley and then Rimswell. The footpath weaves around arable fields, mostly of wheat, with some barley and many with broad margins, which are buzzing with butterflies, hoverflies and bumblebees. A section after a derelict bridge is on a paddock overgrown with hogweed and brambles. Then I come out by Port Natal house, and a surfaced track. A woman walking her dog asks where I'm walking. I mention how few people I encounter in these walks and the solitude and she says 'you can hear a pin drop!'. I concur!

Wheat field, looking north.

A female Black-tailed Skimmer, rests on the footpath.

A derelict bridge near Rimswell Valley.

Common Darter.

A curious young Wren.

Rimswell is a small village, along a street, Church Road. Two horses follow a cat along a field, while a Rabbit watches. Swallows and House Sparrow chirp from wires and roofs. A Buzzard calls.

Rabbit at Rimswell.

Church of St Mary, Rimswell.

The public footpath follows field margins. This wheat field at Carr Farm gave me my favourite sighting of the walk, a singing Yellow Wagtail.

Yellow Wagtail singing from the wheat.

Yellow Wagtail.

Buzzard.

A better bridge, White Bridge, with Roos in the horizon, hidden by the trees.

Yellowhammer.

I get to Roos at midday and I'm very pleased by its many mature trees. The church grounds have large lime trees and beeches. A bench is in the full sunshine, so I sit on the steps to have my snacks listening to a  Goldcrest singing from the yew trees. A Robin emerges with some prey (a lacewing, I think) in its bill and does a bit of basking. Later I spot a Blackbird basking too. Roos is quite a large village, extending mainly north to south. I walk north, taking photos of the Swifts and Housemartins, and then take a narrow footpath heading towards Tunstall, along fields.

Roos All Saints Church.

Robin basking.

Blackbird basking.

 A Sedge Warbler.

All Saints Tunstall Church.

It's getting warmer as I get to Tunstall by the main road. After a short walk to the churchyard, I take  Seaside Lane to the bus stop at Sand-le-Mere. I have an hour until the next bus so I check the ponds out. Green-veined and Small White butterflies lick salts by a pond, while four or five males Black-tailed Skimmers chase over the water, one of them catches a female and they mate. All through the walk today, hundreds or thousands of thrips filled the air, landing in dozens on my face and arms. I take the Swifts and Swallows are scooping them out.

Singing Swallow.

Mute Swan with cygnets.

A snoozing cygnet.

Cleaving Coombe with Hull Nats

My first visit to Cleaving Coombe, a dry, steep sided valley typical of the Yorkshire Wolds. It is private and grazed by cattle, but it is unimproved grassland and its biodiversity surprised me greatly. The valley is open access land, accessible via a gate at the head of the valley. There are wonderful views over the Vale of York. A herd of young cattle grazed the land, and they appear quite nervous, running from one side to the other. We kept together to avoid further stress, and left them behind. Marbled Whites were soon in evidence, nectaring from Great Knapweed (top shot) and both Field and Small Scabious. Fairy Flax and Salad Burnet were past flowering, as was Cowslip, but we managed to find a single Pyramidal Orchid. There were so many grasshoppers, three species, Common Green, Common Field and Meadow Grasshopper, the latter very plentiful. I checked a few clumps of longer grass protected by small hawthorns and found a Roesel's Bush-crickets and a large female nymph of Long-winged Conehead. On the flat bottom of the valley the grass was longer and I found another two Roesel's, one of them long-winged.

Another view of the site.

Looking down into the vale of York.

The 30 strong herd of cattle.

Meadow Grasshopper.

Roesel's Bush-cricket.

Long-winged Conehead, my mobile as a background to aid with focusing and positioning of the conehead.

Mating Common Field Grasshoppers.

A long winged Roesel's Bush-cricket.

Common Green Grasshopper.

Meadow Grasshopper.

A pink variant of the Common Field Grasshopper.

Essex Skipper.

Marbled White feeding on Scabious.

From the bottom of the valley.

Burnet Saxifrage.

Small Scabious.

Field Scabious.

Wild Thyme.

Betony.

Not many birds about, but some exciting ones. We heard a Marsh Tit calling from the woods, a Yellowhammer was singing from the hawthorns atop the valley, and a family of Stonechats.

Stonechats.

Male Stonechat.

Overall, a great site of much diversity, I hope I will visit it again soon.