Holderness: Easington, Out Newton, Skeffling

A warm day with a light westerly breeze and mostly blue sky, I take the Spurn Explorer bus to Easington. Today's aim is Out Newton. A hamlet on the edge of the cliff made of four scattered farms. I've planned a circular route, north along the coast then west and then south towards Skeffling. Although there are some anglers off Easington caravan park, the way down looks a bit perilous, so I decide against walking on the beach for a while. High tide is only a couple of hours away so it's a clifftop walk today. Last time I walked this route I did it on the beach so this stretch is a new route for me. I walk through the caravan park and then reach the clifftop. Sand Martins fly around the cliffs. Easington's gas terminal and storage facility means it is defended from coastal erosion by almost 1 km of rock armour. I walk between the facility and the defenced coast. Rabbits hide between the rocks. At the beginning of the defence there is a small sandy beach. I descend and I'm pleased to fund some Sea Holly and Lime Grass. Linnets, Reed Buntings and Skylarks. An Oystercatcher calls from atop a building. 

Woodpigeon mid hop. They always hop when approaching a potential mate to court.

Easington beach.

The edge of Easington Caravan park, looking back.

Sand Martins.

Young Rabbit by the rock armour.

Silver Y.

Whimbrel. It was on the Easington Defences.

One of a pair of Shelduck that took off from the cliffs.

The end of Dimlington Road.

This is the only remain of Dimlington Farm. The couple of buildings represented in this 1771 map are now gone.

The hamlet may be no more, but Dimlington survives also as the name of a period of advance of the ice during the last Ice Age Maximum, the Dimlington Stadial, which deposited the high boulder clay cliffs just over 30 m high. The cliffs are also a SSSI due to its geological interest. Dimlington High Land and Dimlington Road from Easington, which sharply turns west just before hitting the sea, are the other indications on the ground of the existence of the hamlet.

Shortly after I start the walk, I find the first Painted Lady. I couldn't photograph it, but dozens were active and steadily moving north on the light westerly breeze. Later I find several egg-laying on spear thistles. They appear to be using the coast to navigate as in my return, which I do inland, I don't find any.

Ovipositing Painted Lady.

An alarmed Meadow Pipit. This species is characteristic of the coastal strip of grassland.

A slippage of the edge of the cliff has taken some recently ploughed and seeded field with it.

At midday I stop for some lunch. The only place to sit is the ground, so I choose a spot with a view of a patch on the field edge where the crop has failed to grow. Soon a Yellow Wagtail lands and starts feeding. A man is walking south along the coast. He stops to talk briefly and says he's on his way to Easington from Withernsea. He is on a long distance walk and will return to Withernsea to catch the bus to Easington tomorrow. He's been walking from Blyth.

Yellow Wagtail.

Cliff Farm cottage.

I take Out Newton Road and then Balk Road. I'm surprised by its heavy traffic, for a single track road with passing places in the middle of nowhere! I'm glad when I left the road to take the humorously called Three Foot Lane, which runs parallel to a wavy drain, probably originally a beck draining Dimlington high land. A cream-top Marsh Harrier quarters along the field and past a small copse, Broom Plantation. Soon I get to Hodgson Field NR, originally farmed land which a farmer had left to revert to nature. One of the fields is now scrub, the others are grazed or meadows. I make a note to come back with more time. I realise there is a bus coming and I can just make it at nearby Skeffling.

Marsh Harrier.

Hodgson Fields information board.

Entrance to Hodgson Fields.

Yellowhammer.

Swallow at Skeffling.

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.