Migrants Way. Stage 13. Barmston to Bridlington

A cool, bright morning, with a flowing tide, I park at Barmston's Sand Lane near the Black Bull Inn. I make the first stretch of the walk inland, and take Hamilton Hill road, a farm track that is a public right of way. Wheat fields have just been harvested. Two hares run playfully, spying each other over the lines of straw, then jumping over. 

A large Rook flock also feeds in the field. I take some photos of the flock and back at home I notice that a lumpy shape in the middle of the shot that I thought was a hare is in fact a pair of Grey Partridge!

The coastline runs due North-South. The landscape is really pleasant, with the undulating terrain near the hill, and the farm copses in the distance and scattered hedgerows, with the occasional pillbox. The main interest is Hamilton Hill, presiding with its mighty 26 m over the landscape, the path I'm following skirting the hill. The soil is very sandy.

Looking back towards Hamilton Hill

The land slopes towards the sea, and allowing views towards the white cape of Flamborough.

Near Earl's Dyke, on another harvested field, two Lapwing, and nearby a Wheatear on the wheat straw. On a hedge nearby a Reed Bunting and a flock of Tree Sparrows and Linnets and a juvenile Yellow Wagtail, what a great combination of birds!

Adult lapwing.

Juvenile lapwing

Juvenile Yellow Wagtail.

On a brief sunny spell, butterflies flutter around thistles: Ringlet, Peacock, Red Admiral, Small Tortoiseshell, and Green-Veined White.

Peacock.

Earl's Dyke

I take the path by the beautiful Earl’s Dyke to access the beach (top shot). The Earl's Dyke is a semi-natural stream flowing to the sea, the outlet flowing free with no sluice or barrier, just the remains of old anti-tank defences now out at sea, with piles of shingle moved to the side probably by the farmer to improve the water flow. On the beach, four Dunlin, including two juveniles, run along the tideline. Two Golden Plover fly by near the beach. From then onwards, I walk on the beach.

Dunlin

Sandy cliffs

The bottom sediments of the cliff exposure north of the Earl's Dyke are laminated sandy/silty deposits underneath till, maybe indicating a pro-glacial lake. From here onwards, there is an almost continuous Sand Martin colony, with hundreds of nests dug on the soft sandy tills. On the nest entrances, grown juveniles peek out. 

The adults respond to passers by with high pitched alarm calling and the juveniles retreat into their nest holes. Offshore, noisy Sandwich Terns with juveniles fly past, dive-fishing. Gannets and a few juvenile Kittiwakes, probably just fledged from the colonies at Bridlington or Flamborough.

Auburn Beck

I get to Auburn Beck, another semi-natural stream. The beach is now sandy: Fraisthorpe Beach. Some children play by the beck on the beach. A few Pied Wagtails feed on the grass by the caravan park, with a juvenile Yellow Wagtail amongst them.

The reduced erosion allows the plants to grow on the cliff, and the steps made on the cliff are a more permanent access point to the car park.

The glacial till stops being a feature of the landscape a little north of Auburn Beck, and the protection of Flamborough Headland and the Smithic Sandbank is felt in that coastal erosion appears to be non existent. On the low cliffs by Fraisthorpe, vegetation grows on the cliff itself, and there is plenty of flowering mayweed, colt's foot and ragwort in the dry areas and hairy willowherb and reeds on seeping areas of the cliff.

Dunes

Dunes have actually developed between Auburn Farm and Wilsthorpe, possibly due to wave refraction by the Smythic Bank (a 10 km long sandbank just offshore of Bridlington, which during spring tides can rise 2.7m from the sea).

I'm now near Bridlington and the narrower beach due to the rising tide feels busy with families and dog walkers. A few surfers are on the water, the sea quite calm. A Grey Seal near the shore peeks toward the beach, its head over the water. It is almost high tide when I reach the end of the walk at the beach huts by the Bridlington Park and Ride.

But just before I start the way back, the piercing alarm calls of a few Herring Gulls call my attention. The gulls are chasing a Grey Heron. The heron takes off and lands by the sea wall, cowering at the bottom of it. The gulls slowly forget about it. It is a young heron, a bit of fluffy down still visible at the top of its head. It looks unharmed, so I let it be, hopefully it will fly away from Herring Gull nests.

A pair of Linnets feeds on the beach.

Juvenile Pied Wagtail.

I take my shoes off and walk on the tideline all the way back. I'm rewarded by finding a shiny, fresh Quahog shell!

The Low Grounds

I reach the Earl's Dike and continue on the beach. After a higher cliff ridge, peppered with Sand Martin nests (above), the land south of Earl's Dyke is very low lying, a thin layer of peat juts out of the sand, the remainder of another old mere. Just inland there are grassy uncultivated, areas, I presume because they are often flooded by the sea.

Peaty layer on the beach.

The Low Grounds, with Hamilton Hill on the horizon from the beach.

A Meadow Pipit carries insects for chicks.

I climb the cliff by the caravan park at Barmston to return to Sands Lane. 

Ords
Ord is a local word in Holderness, designating an elongated, irregular trough in the beach, flanked by tongues of sand. The drop in ord height can be from 1.5 m to almost 4 m. The ords often hold water, and can expose the glacial till platform, and the base of the till cliff, speeding up erosion as they become subject to wave action during high tides. Armoured mud balls often lie at the base of an ord, marking the point of high erosion at any given time. Ords are not permanent features, they move southwards like waves in the sediment. Ords can be identified and followed as individual units in the Holderness coast from their formation in Barmston until they reach Spurn. If you visit a particular spot in the cliff, the change in the height of the beach from one year to the next is often very noticeable and this is due to the ord movement. The movement of a particular ord was calculated as it moved through the south Holderness coast from 1969 to 1983, with an average speed of 500 m per year!

Two Yellow Wagtails feed amongst a cow's legs at Beverley Westwood during autumn migration (22/9/2013).

Featured bird: Yellow Wagtail

The Yellow Wagtail is a long-distance migrant which spends winters in west and sub-Saharan Africa. The British race, Motacilla flava flavissima, is Red Listed due to rapid population declines since the early 1980s (73% population reduction between 1970 and 2007. As other farmland birds, population decline seems to be due to agricultural intensification. Yellow Wagtails successful breeding in the area is encouraging, and it does several red listed and declining farmland bird species seem to be calling this area home, like Grey Partridge, Lapwing, Skylark, Linnet, Tree and House Sparrow and Starling. 

Walk information

July. 12 km circular. Start: Barmston Sands Lane, TA170593 finish at Bridlington Park and Ride. Toilets at Auburn Farm and Bridlington Park and Ride. Several access points as cliffs are quite low (at Barmston Caravan Park, Earl's Dyke, Auburn Farm, Wilsthorpe boating compound and the Park and Ride, amongst others.

More information
Pringle (Nee Phillips), A. W. Holderness coast erosion and the significance of ords. Earth Surf. Processes Landforms 10, 107–124 (1985).

Migrants Way. Stage 12. Skipsea to Barmston

A mild, mainly cloudy day with high clouds and a short afternoon shower. The tide is rising and high, the sea quite calm. I park at the end of Skipsea's Cliff Road to find two police cars parked. It turns out someone has found a WW2 bomb on the beach and the police are cordoning the area. Luckily, I'm walking on the opposite direction!

The police walking towards Withow Gap.

Plenty of fishermen and fisherwomen on the rising tide, both beach and clifftop fishing.

I walk atop Skipsea Cliffs towards Ulrome. Sand Martins fly over. The cliffs are 14 m high, sloping down. Just before the caravan site blocking the path by Tranmere Cliff, there is an easy way down the beach. 

Way down the beach through a set of steps and ramps made on the clay.

There is no trace of the private sea defences that at some point were in place to protect the caravan site at Skipsea. A group of 7 Swifts fly south.

Woodpigeon on the cliff.

Another access to the clifftop at Skipsea Sands, takes advantage of the low cliffs, with a harder clay layer under a crumblier sand and gravel top that erodes faster, making a gentler slope.

I reach a small ramp on the clay which makes a slipway for the boats of a nearby boat complex and climb to the very low clifftop. There is a wide strip of low lying grassland by an area called the 'highlands'. Several Reed Buntings sing.

Boat Complex car park.

Singing Reed Bunting.

Grassland by the boat complex.

Saltmarsh and dune plants grow on the low lying land around the 'highlands', which is probably often splashed by the salt water. I hear a Corn Bunting song coming from a pillbox on a nearby hill, but it might be at the other side of it, because I can only see first an Oystercatcher, then a Meadow Pipit on it.

Oystercatcher on pillbox.

Shoveler fly past.

Another pillbox, right at the cliff edge.

Barmston Drain.

Barmston Drain catchment drains drain towards the sea, as opposed to the river Hull or Humber. Its outflow is defended with rocks and forms a spit. After reaching the end of the walk I return to the rocks by the spit for lunch and a spot of sea watching as the tide turns. Sand Martins and Sandwich Terns have been a constant presence through the walk. The occasional Kittiwake or Gannet fishing too. A Fulmar flew past me, brushing the clifftop. Now, A Cormorant has taken possession of the marker post on the spit. It flaps away any other that attempts to land on it. There is a raft of a dozen or so Cormorants just offshore. They drift slowly north, but then fly back to their preferred position. A Reed Warbler sings from the drain. Flocks of Tree Sparrows and Linnets come to the bare ground by the spit to feed or drink. Then a female Yellow Wagtail and a Ringed Plover. This area between Barmston and Fraisthorpe is well known for its bird diversity both for residents and migrants.

King of the Cormorants.

Barmston drain outlet.

Kittiwake

Cormorants

One of the two mallards on the beach.

Gannet turning to dive.

One of two Great Crested Grebe fishing offshore.

Sandwich Terns.

Skipsea Castle

Skipsea Castle

On the way back I make a quick stop to see the 'castle' and the moat surrounding Skipsea Castle. Skipsea Brough had a naturally defended position with two meres, now drained, forming a moat: Skipsea Low Mere and Skipsea Bail Mere SSSI. Cows graze on the low lying terrain around the mound, and it's easy to see how the wet terrain could be turned into a defensive feature.

Sandwich Tern with Danes Dyke in the background.

Featured bird: Sandwich tern
Sandwich terns are our largest breeding tern species. They are often noisy, their 'ki-rrick' calls announcing their presence. Although they don't breed locally (nearest colonies are in the Netherlands and East Anglia, they use Bridlington Bay for fishing and during passage and can be seen from April to September. Peak counts are in the second half of July, when individuals disperse from their breeding grounds and noisy fledglings join their parents in fishing expeditions. Sandwich terns are Amber listed due to recent declines in both breeding and wintering populations and range.

Walk information
9 km circular. Start: Skipsea Cliff rd. TA180551, finish Barmston Sands Lane. Access to the beach at Criftings Boat complex, Barmston Main Drain and Barmston Sands Lane. other ad hoc access points cut on the cliff.

More information

Skipsea Mound article.

Barmston Trekkelen site.
Glenn, Neil & John Miles 2017. Best Birdwatching Sites. Yorkshire. Buckingham Press, 340 pp.