Great Bustard Old Country. Walk 7: in the parish of Nunburnholme

Today we had the second frost of the year, a clear winter day, great for a walk, with the mud frozen solid. I take the bus to Market Weighton to start a route around the Wolds passing through the parish of Nunburnholme. Starting at Market Weighton's church, the route follows the Wolds Way towards the outskirts of town, then almost due north, straight across fields. The winter wheat is sprouting and some Rooks feed in a loose group. I hear the alarm call of a Fieldfare, which sits atop a hedge with a Dunnock and Linnets. Yellowhammers call from the hedges. After crossing the busy Towthorpe Lane, the footpath follows the wavy course of Towthorpe Beck and passes by the site of the medieval village of Towthorpe. This is a very wooded area of the Wolds, with copses and plantations. Next is Londesborough Park, with wide open views and mature trees in parkland. I see the first Red Kite of the day then, gliding towards the lake. Redwings and Fieldfares feed on berries. Near the deer shelter a Mistle Thrush tries unsuccessfully to keep the other thrushes away from yew berries.

Rook.

Fieldfare.

Yellowhammer.

Two Little Egrets sit on trees near the site.

Many nervous Redwings about, feeding on the hawthorn berries at Londesborough Park.

Looking north across Londesborough Park.

Londesborough Church.

I cross the pretty village of Londesborough and take the road towards Nunburnholme. I have been ascending slowly but surely and now I'm reaching the top of the Wolds. I can see for miles across the Vale of York. The sunshine is warming the ground and a vortex of a few crows, a Buzzard and three Red Kites are riding on a thermal, it's an amazing view. A kite flies low over the road, surely eyeing a freshly roadkilled Pheasant. A couple of Tree Sparrows and a Reed Bunting sit atop a hedge. I'm passing by Cleaving Coombe, a valley with unimproved pasture which is a haven for chalkland flowers. It is open access land and a designated Local Wildlife Site I've visited before.

Climbing to the Wold top.

View towards the Vale of York.

Red Kites and Crows gliding around a thermal.

Red Kite low over the road.

Red Kite over Cleaving Coombe.

Tree Sparrows and Reed Bunting.

At a crossroads below, my route leaves the Wolds Way to take the left turn to Middleton-on-the-Wolds as I takes in more of the high wolds, on a detour around Nunburnholme Wold.  I am 164 metres OSL, the highest point of the route. A male Kestrel flies away taking a small prey away to eat. It is a quiet road, flanked by hedges bursting with berries. A mast marks the turn towards the Wold. Nunburnholme Wold is crossed by electricity poles and flanked by woodland. I skirt a wood on the flank of Deep Dale. Dozens of groups of Pheasants fly off wing-clapping as I walk through the wood. The crunching of leaves alerts them to my presence. There is evidence of Ash dieback in the wood, with some fallen trees across the path. When I emerge from the wood, it is downhill all the way to Nunburnholme. I hear a Marsh Tit. More Kites and Buzzards. They are everywhere! Nunburnholme is a small quaint village nestled at the valley bottom, watered by Nunburnholme Beck (which becomes Burnby Beck and then Hayton Beck).

Crossroads at the top of the Wolds.

Hedges full of berries.

Crossing Merebalk Plantation.

Buzzard.

Yellowhammer.

Red Kite.

Buzzard.

 A freshly roadkilled pheasant.

I'm at Nunburnholme, where I have arranged to meet my friend Lori Lawson-Handley for her lunch break. She has set up the table with some delicious food, and we catch up over food and tea. The hour goes quickly and it's time for me to leave for the final stretch of the walk.

A record shot of a Great White Egret flying over Bratt Wood.

Nunburnholme Grade I listed church of St James.

I pay a quick visit to Nunburnholme Church, where Francis Orpen Morris, worked as vicar of Nunburnholme from 1854 until his death in 1893. He was an influential - and controversial! - naturalist and conservationist. He wrote popular books on birds (A History of British Birds), butterflies and general natural history. Partly, the success of his books stem from his productive collaboration with award-winning wood-engraver and printer Benjamin Fawcett, at Driffield. Fawcett produced stunning illustrations in vibrant colour, initially by hand colouring the wood engravings, and subsequently adding colour using multiple wood blocks before final hand retouching.

This exquisite Great Bustard illustration was printed by B. Fawcett's for British Game Birds and Wildfowl by B.R. Morris, brother of F.O. Morris.

I found the link between Nunburnholme and the Great Bustard in the memoir that Rev. Marmaduke Charles Frederick Morris, son of F.O. Morris - who succeeded him as rector of Nunburnholme church -wrote on his father:

‘In the first half of the present [19th] century few birds were more interesting to those dwelling on the wolds of Yorkshire than the Bustard. During part of that time these birds used to breed in the parish of Nunburnholme, and there are those still living who remember to have seen them in the neighbourhood. It interested my father greatly to learn from one of his parishioners in 1876 [after he had written his book 'A history of British birds] that he remembered a nest of the Bustard having been found in the parish, and described the egg, which he had seen accurately.’

Red Partridge at Burnby.

Crow mobbing Red Kite

The Red Kite's return

There are no Bustards today, but plenty of Red Kites! It is hard to imagine that only at the turn of the Millennium there were no Red Kites in Yorkshire. In fact, their extinction as a resident bird happened at a similar time than the Great Bustard, and only migrants turned up occasionally after. The timing of the species extinction, and the cause of their demise is described by naturalist and pioneer conservationist Charles Waterton (b. 1782, d.27 1865) of Walton Hall, Wakefield:

'of all the large wild birds which formerly were so common in this part of Yorkshire, the Heron alone can now be seen. The Kite, the Buzzard, and the Raven have been exterminated long ago by our merciless gamekeepers Kites were frequent here in the days of my father; but I, myself, have never seen one near the place.'

In fact, the Red Kite just survived as a resident in the UK in a small population in Wales. Once raptor persecution became illegal, and given that habitat for this mainly scavenging species was plentiful, in the late 20th century, a reintroduction program in England was initiated. Yorkshire joined this effort with 69 young individuals released between 1999 and 2003 at Harewood estate, near Leeds. Shortly after the first releases, several individuals were seen in the southern Wolds, where they settled to breed. The species went from strength to strength and the reintroduction of Red Kites has been a resounding success: in a couple of decades the species went from Endangered to Green listed.

In my walk today, several bird species I saw didn't occur at the turn of the century: Little Egret, Great White Egret and Buzzard. They all have returned on their own steam, taking advantage of reduced persecution and other changes (e.g. Buzzard will have benefited from the banning of DDT and other damaging pesticides in agriculture). They are now part of Yorkshire biodiversity.

Reintroducing the Great Bustard to the Wolds?

The Great Bustard, unlike other species, won't return to the Wolds on its own. Its populations are in decline across its range and its range is contracting. Like the Red Kite, they are very site-faithful, the young return to breed near where they were born, and return to the same place each year. In Spain, which is a current stronghold for Great Bustards, areas suitable for the species are not being recolonised due to this strong site fidelity. If we want to see the Great Bustard returning to the Wolds, a reintroduction program is needed. Such a reintroduction has been achieved in Wiltshire by the Great Bustard Group. There is now a self-sustaining population reintroduced from Russian and Spanish birds. This is a world's first, and any further reintroductions in the UK will benefit from the wealth of experience gathered in the Wiltshire project.

Travel. Bus X46 to York to Market Weighton, return on the same bus back from Hayton. All facilities at Market Weighton and good bus services.

Route. Market Weighton, Londesborough, Nunburnholme Wold, Nunburnholme, Burnby, Hayton. OS Map. 15 km. Sections on country lanes, others across fields or field boundaries. Some gentle uphills and downhills.

More information

Eaton, M.A., Aebischer, N.J., Brown, A.F., Hearn, R.D., Lock, L., Musgrove, A.J., Noble, D.G., Stroud, D.A. & Gregory, R.D. (2015) Birds of Conservation Concern 4: the population status of birds in the United Kingdom, Channel Islands and Isle of Man. British Birds 108: 708–746. (BoCC4) Leaflet.

Kofoid, C. A. (1938). Francis Orpen Morris: Ornithologist and anti-Darwinist. The Auk, 55(3), 496–500.

Yorkshire Red Kites.

Great Bustard Old Country. Walk 6: in the sea near Auburn House

We've had a few foggy, very dull days lately, but today it dawned clear with blue sky and a light northerly wind. I get a morning train to Bridlington to remember an unusual event that happened almost 162 years ago, of course, in relation to the Great Bustard. This is one of my favourite East Yorkshire walks, from Bridlington to Fraisthorpe beach, and doing it with such wonderful weather is uplifting. The tide is low revealing a wide and long sandy beach, cut by small rivulets and pools. As I walk along the harbour wall, two Purple Sandpipers feed on the rocks at the base of the wall, while a couple dozen Redshank feed on the pools on the sand. I carry on walking south along Bridlington Promenade, a lone Redpoll flying over calling. Then I take the footpath across the dunes at Hilderthorpe, which offers great views of Bridlington Bay (top shot). The sea is flat as a mirror and I quickly spot a Red-throated Diver just off shore.

Purple Sandpiper at Bridlington Quay.

A crow got a crab, and a gull gave chase to have a go at stealing, it, unsuccessfully. The other crow seems to come along for moral support. 

View of the Marram Grass at the dunes.

Meadow Pipit.

Red-throated Diver.

As I turn my bins up to check what turns out to be a buoy, I'm 'bin-bombed' by a group of Bottlenose Dolphins! They are breaching and moving north quite fast. I'm no good counting dolphins, but I guess there must be at least five. I watch them and take some clips for a while, the first time I see them by Bridlington. What a lovelt surprise! Funnily enough, earlier at the promenade, I met someone I know who told me he's seen dolphins at Brid before.

Bottlenose Dolphin surfacing.

Breach!

It is quite mild in the sunshine and I have to stuff my coat in my backpack. Seven Skylarks chase chirping overhead. Two groups of 9 and 10 Oystercatchers sit by some pools. Sanderlings sprint along the tideline. I'm getting to Fraisthorpe Beach. I look at three Great Crested Grebes in the distance, then a bird on the beach calls my attention: a Snow Bunting! It is feeding with a pair of Pied Wagtails near the strandline, picking seeds and moving quite fast in between. With the low winter light I manage to take some decent shots. A family walking a dog flush it to the cliff, but it promptly returns and carry on feeding. At some point, another flies over calling, a wonderful chirping call, and the first Snow Bunting joins it and they both fly off.

Oystercatchers.

Snow Bunting.

Snow Bunting.

Snow Bunting and Pied Wagtail.

I counted 24 Sanderling in a loose line along a stretch of beach at Auburn Sands.

The bustard that came in off the sea

I have now got to the area I was aiming for: Auburn House. Today, Auburn house is long gone with the tides, it's old location on the beach. It was offshore, near here, that on the 11th of November of 1864, a fisherman named Welbourn picked a freshly dead Bustard floating on the sea. They sent the bird to Mr. T. Jones of Bridlington Quay, who the same day got in touch via telegram with Beverley doctor and ornithologist, William W. Boulton, Esq., offering the specimen for sale. Mr. Boulton, aware of the importance of the find, arranged for the bird to be sent to him on the next train. He carried out a detailed examination of the specimen, a female, which still had some green fine grass in its crop. Resident bustards had been extinct for a few decades and any individual finding was deemed of note. This was the last wild Bustard that (almost!) landed on East Yorkshire, a likely immigrant from the continent. Mr Boulton promptly wrote an article to The Zoologist with his findings. Mr. Boulton died in 1897 and it is likely that, once his collection was sold, the stuffed bustard was adquired by the Bridlington antiquarian, Mr. Thomas Boynton. It was Boynton who added the detail the bustard had been picked near Auburn house. Mr Thomas Boynton still held the mounted bustard on his collection, and the male specimen from the Scorborough collection when Nelson wrote his book (1907). At Mr Boynton's death in 1919, the bird passed to 'a well-known Yorkshire collector' according to Thomas Sheppard, Curator of Hull Museum, and the current whereabouts of this specimen are currently unknown.

The Migrants

Many bird species take advantage of the mild oceanic climate of the UK, and arrive in autumn and winter, migrating from the continent. When Bustards were still plentiful in Germany and other eastern European countries they behaved in the same way. During particularly hard winters, usually single birds or small flocks turned up in the various places in the UK. Migrants were likely to have also come here when the species was resident, but once the Bustard became extinct, they were more obvious. It is even possible that migrants contributed to obscure the date of extinction of the resident population.
Bird migration is a flexible strategy. Although many species migrate regularly and predictably, anticipating poor conditions, other species only move occasionally, in years where conditions are poor. These are usually referred to 'irruptions'. Species like Waxwings, Crossbills, or Siskins behave like this, in response to poor crops of seeds they rely on in the winter. Bustards do not dig for their food, like game birds, and lack a uropygial gland to waterproof their plumage. They don't do well when the ground is covered with snow, as they can't find food, and their plumage soaks when they sit on snow. Snow cover, rather than lack of food, is the best predictor of bustard irruptions. The figure below illustrates the likely geographical origin of the British immigrants in relation to winter temperature.

(from Martínez et al 2013 Records of Great Bustards Otis tarda in the Balearic Islands during the 19th century. Revista Catalana de Ornitologia, 29, 70–74.)

Historic bustard irruptions

Remarkable irruptions happened In the winters of 1870-71, 1879-80, and 1890-91 when considerable numbers occurred in the UK and in mainland Europe outside their breeding distribution, particularly Belgium, France and Italy, and even as far as the Mediterranean Islands. Females and immature individuals are more likely to migrate than males, the reason being that females and young individuals are the size of a goose, whilst males are the size of a mute swan. Small individuals have more energetic costs to stay when weather is hard. They are also likely to be outcompeted by the larger males. Therefore, it is less metabolically costly for a female to migrate when conditions are hard. Still, mortality during migration is a cost to pay, and there were noticeable reductions in populations as fewer individuals returned than had left the breeding grounds.

Strong irruptions were described for the winter of 1970-71, one of exceptional severity, and good numbers of bustards were noted in the UK. Yarrell describes 14 bustard records, from Somerset, North Devon, Middlesex, Northumberland, and Hampshire, all those where sex was given were females. Similarly, in 1879-80, bustards turned up in Jersey, Cornwall, Dorset, Kent, Essex, and Cambridgeshire, and an influx was also noted in France, where the species had also become extinct. In 1890-91 an influx of at least seven, all females, was noted from several places in the South of England. These irruptions kept happening through the 20th century, with the last noted one in the winter of 1969-70 when around 300 Great Bustards, mostly from East Germany, were seen in West Germany, Holland, Denmark, France and Scotland.

In Yorkshire, other than the Auburn House bird, two other immigrants, both females, were recorded after the residents' extinction. The first was killed at Rufforth, near York in 1861, the second, had ‘haunted the neighbourhood since Christmas’ and was eventually found dead at Islebeck Grange Farm, near Thirsk, on March 1st 1926. There have been no Yorkshire migrants of this species in the 100 years since, and these irruptions are unlikely to happen now due to the reduction of mainland European populations of the species and the amelioration of the climate.

*  *  *

I'm surprised to find out that the Cow Shed is open on a Monday, and take advantage of it for a hot drink. I return on the clifftop path, which is the official route of the England Coastal Path, which I haven't done before. The Oystercatchers are gathering on the pastures behind the car park, displaced by the rising tide. It is not as sunny as earlier and the wind is more noticeable at the clifftop, but it is still quite balmy for November, probably quite a different situation from that day in November 1864.

Looking north towards Flamborough and Bridlington Bay. A slumped section of the cliff on the right.

A flock of Goldfinches were feeding on burdock seeds on the clifftop.

A view of Bridlington Harbour, where the bustard was probably landed.

Travel. Return train to Bridlington. All facilities at Bridlington. At Fraisthorpe beach there is a public toilet block by the Cow Shed cafe, which is open every day.

Route: Walk on the beach, dunes or clifftop. 10 km return. OS link. Check tides if planning to walk on the beach. There is a continuous coastal clifftop path.

More information

Boulton, W. W. (1865). Ornithological notes from Beverley. Zoologist, 23 9442–9446.

Fortune, R. (1926). Field Notes: Great Bustard in Yorkshire. The Naturalist, 51, 171.

Martínez, C., Ferrer, X., Borràs, R., Christel, I., & Cama, A. (2013) Records of Great Bustards Otis tarda in the Balearic Islands during the 19th century. Revista Catalana de Ornitologia, 29, 70–74.

Nelson, T. H., Clarke, W. E., & Boyes, F. (1907). The birds of Yorkshire: being a historical account of the avi-fauna of the County. A. Brown. v.2.

Sheppard, T. (1923). Yorkshire Great Bustards. The Naturalist, 48, 87–89.

Streich, W. J., Litzbarski, H., Ludwig, B., & Ludwig, S. (2006). What triggers facultative winter migration of Great Bustard (Otis tarda) in Central Europe? European Journal of Wildlife Research, 52(1), 48–53.

Yarrell, W., Newton, A., & Saunders, H. (1882). A history of British Birds (4th ed., Vol. 3). John van Voorst.

A tree for a bird: Goldcrest and Yew

 

Many people are familiar with the Yew Taxus baccata. It is a compact tree with dense, dark canopy that becomes decorated with bright red small berry-like fruits, called arils, this time of year. The Yew is an evergreen conifer native to the UK, although growing in the wild as woods mostly in the South Downs. They are widely planted as ornamentals in formal gardens and parks, but they have a long, historical association with churchyards and cemeteries, where some of the oldest yews in the country survive, some over 1000 years old, predating christianity. All parts of the yew are toxic, containing the alkaloid, taxol, except for the red flesh of the aril. Arils ripen from August, peaking in October or early November and lasting until December. 

A young Yew in the Western Cemetery in Hull.

Goldctrest on Yew at East Park, Hull.

Goldcrests

Goldcrests are one of our smallest birds. They weigh 5-6 g. which is the weight of a 20p coin! They are greenish-grey, with paler underparts and a distinctive yellow (in females) and golden (in males) erectile crown framed with black. Goldcrests are very active and rarely pause in their activities, they need to feed constantly, and they search for tiny insects like spiders, springtails, insect eggs, etc. The link between the Goldcrest and the Yew has nothing to do with the arils, but with the tree structure. The dense evergreen canopy creates a microclimate sheltered from wind and damp, allowing Goldcrests to save precious energy. Other trees favoured by Goldcrests are also evergreen and with thick foliage: like spruce and ivy. If you approach a yew in a quiet location and listen carefully, you may hear a high-pitched song, like someone playing a tiny violin. Pause and look and you might have a glimpse of the tiny Goldcrest.

Other species associated with yews

Yew berries are eaten by a range of birds: Blackbirds, Mistle Thrushes - who often guard them, chasing other birds away -, Starlings and Robins. Greenfinches will eat the seeds, removing the poisonous tough seed coat and the fleshy aril. Grey Squirrels also love the berries and are often seen sitting on yews feeding on them.

More information

Finding Goldcrests in Hull. A post in Wild about Hull.

Snow, B. & Snow, D. Birds and Berries. 1988. T & AD Poyser.

Birding at Hull City centre

I had been told of a Caspian Gull in the city centre and I thought it had been a while since I did some birding in town, so I went for a twitch. The gull had been seen around Princes Quay and the Marina area and I headed that way. There were very few gulls around but I hadn't been waiting long when two Great White Egrets flew over. I first saw they were Grey Herons given their size, and I couldn't believe it when I zoomed in on the photo at the back of my camera. This was only my third sighting of the species in Hull, the first one at Noddle Hill in January 2024.

Great White Egrets flying over town.

A close up of the individual on the left hand side, showing the wider, pale bill and large legs.

The Mediterranean Gull that is a fixture of the Marina and Princes Quay area in winter. There has been one there since at least 2016. This one has got a metal ring and is probably the same returning individual.

Some Blackbirds were feeding on rowans near the Marina.

Common Gull.

One of two Pied Wagtails at the Marina. I counted 5 in town.

Long Tailed tit.

Black-headed Gull.

Dunnock.

A particularly pinkish Black-headed Gull.

I took a long walk around the Marina area and the Humber front and I had almost given up on finding the Caspian Gull when I spotted this gull on Princes Quay just by Ask, so close! A very white head and body, elongated head and long legs are all key identification features of the species, so I'm happy this is it. I managed to take most of the photos I wanted and I moved on to try and get a side photo of the body when it took off.

Caspian Gull immature.

Caspian Gull.

Caspian Gull.

The excitement carried on. Through the morning the feral pigeons had been flushed a few times and I hadn't found the reason for it. As I walked at Queens Gardens, the reason became apparent as a Peregrine barrelled ovehead towards the Guildhall. A complete list of 26 species (six of them gulls!) for the city centre is not bad at all.

Peregrine overhead.

Moorhen.

Lesser Black-backed gull on favourite perch.

A view of Queens Gardens.