A trip to Filey Bay and Primrose Valley

A beautiful day for a walk, warm with a breeze, as I got to Filey on the train. The high tide stopped me from the pull of walking on the beach, I took the coastal path south towards Primrose Valley. A Kittiwake flies east towards the Brigg as I descend the steps from Crescent Gardens. I record plants and butterflies along the path, on the side of the golf course. A Pied Wagtail family feeds on the golf course. Sandwich terns rattling calls announce them feeding just offshore, together with the howling cries of a young Guillemot begging to its parent. I descent the Primrose Valley ravine, with the luxuriant vegetation including ferns and woodland plants tucked in well sheltered from the elements. I wander up and down the ravine before climbing to the clifftop path. Now the coastal path goes through the holiday park. Just off the car park, I peek onto the cliffs and spot some Marbled Whites, too distant and active for photos. These are soft, boulder clay cliffs like those at Holderness, but the protective effect of Filey Brigg tothe north and Flamborough to the south means they erode much more slowly. They are less vertical, wider, and more irregular cliffs, allowing a diverse vegetation to grow, particularly plants that thrive on bare patches arising from slippages. These slippages have created hollows that also hold water, from small puddles and mires to large ponds. The cliffs hold their own regarding botanical diversity, including some rare species in other areas of South East Yorkshire (VC-61) like Marsh Grass of Parnassus - which I found, just about ready to flower in two patches -, Bloody Cranesbill Marsh Fragrant Orchid, and Saw Wort.

Kittiwake.

A new bridge for the coastal path.

Linnet.

Sandwich Tern.

Primrose Valley ravine.

A magnificent Hart's Tongue Fern.

I take my lunch on a lopsided bench overlooking a pond on the descent to the beach. Afterwards, I spend some time trying to work out how to get close to the shore of this pond. Unfortunately, the only accessible shore is too soft and the marginal vegetation too luxuriant. On another side a wall of creeping thisle blocks me. I take some photos of an Emperor dragonfly patrolling and a distant blooming Tubular Water-dropwort, a first for me. Pyramidal and Common Spotted Orchids dot the slope by the pond. The tide has released its grip on the beach, leaving a vast expanse, now taken by groups of people. I descend to the beach at Butcher Haven, pause to admire the distant cliffs of Flamborough, and walk back by the shingle at the top of the beach, with occasional short climbs onto the bottom cliff. 

Elongated pond south of Primrose Valley.

Pyramidal Orchid.

Black-tailed Skimmer.

Painted Lady on Hemp Agrimony.

Small White butterflies salting on a seepage.

A bud of Grass of Parnassus close to opening.

A vegetated bottom cliff with a wet seepage including photo-bombing Meadow Brown butterfly.

Common Field Grasshopper.

This Marbled White landed in front of me on Devil's-bit Scabious.

Looking south with Flamborough in the distance.

Small Tortoiseshell.

Gannet and diving Sandwich Tern.

Diving Gannets, just offshore of Filey.

A Wool carder bee male rests near a large patch of Stachys byzantina at Crescent Gardens.

I was also ready for an ice-cream, which I took at the beginning of the promenade, just before I took my train back home.

More information

A report from the YNU visit to Primrose Valley in June 2006.

Train trip: Walking from Bempton to Filey

This trip had been on my wish list of walks for a while, and today, sunny weather and ebbing tide, I took the 7:25 train to Bempton. On the way, on a field north of Cottingham I manage a photo of nine Roe Deer. A Yellowhammer sits tight while a male Sparrowhawh flies past over my head on Cliff road at Bempton. A Brown Hare seems to be following a track on a field, zig-zagging and eventually coming quite close.

Roe Deer.

Brown Hare.

Red-legged Partidge at Cliff Road.

Singing Yellowhammer by the Dell.

I sit watching the birds at the Bempton Cliffs RSPB reserve feeders while I wait for the cafe to open, at 9:30. After a hot drink, I'm ready for the walk. There seems to be fewer birds on the cliffs than on our visit a couple of weeks ago, but it is still busy. I don't linger much, but a Stonechat by the military area is nice.

Feral Pigeons.

Guillemots.

Stonechat.

Razorbill.

I leave the reserve. The cliff is very exposed to the westerly wind. Despite this, Linnets and Skylarks are feeding in the fields. Two Buzzards are playing with the wind on a ridge, one of them seem to be carrying a stick on its talons. A Peregrine swoops at one of them, and then hangs from the air over the cliff edge, hovering.

Pill Millipede.

Hovering Peregrine.

Buzzard.

Peregrine fly past.

The view from the trig point, the highest part of the cliffs at Buckton, at 135 m OSL.

Shortly after, the path down to Speeton Sands is being reprofiled and repaired with a small digger. It's relatively easy going until the steep steps down the ravine onto the beach by Black Cliff, which are in need of some TLC, the clay having eroded behind the retaining boards. The ravine highest humidity shows in a diversity of ferns and some tree cover in the shape of sycamores. There is a nice pond on a shelf near the ravine.

View east with the pond in the foreground.

I check some recent falls of large lumps of the Jurassic clay, and pick up some fossils.

Small Belemnites stick out of the clay.

Ammonite.

Armoured clay 'sausages' rather than balls on the beach.

Carline Thistle. one I like to record.

There is an explosion of flowering Colt's Foot like little sunshines on the cliff face.

The remains of a porpoise on the beach.

Fluke.

My first dronefly of the year.

Quite a lot of Cuttlefish bones on the beach, the largest about 17 cm.

It is a walk of two halves, the second part taking place along the long exposed beach, at low tide. It is much sheltered with barely any noticeable wind on the beach. After a quick lunch stop I carry on beach combing and make it to Filey with just enough time to grab a hot chocolate in the cafe and board my train back home.

Walk information. Distance between the stations: almost 17 km. Toilet facilities and cafes at Bempton, Hunmanby Gap and Filey. The walk is best attempted with an ebbing tide, as there is barely any beach at high tide. Poor accessibility and hard going, especially on the way down to the beach.

Train trip: Filey in December

The run of cloudy days continues, but it was sheltered at Filey bay. The tide was high and rising, so I decided against walking to the Brigg. Instead, I walked along Carr Naze, more exposed at the top of the cliff. At the north side of the Naze, several pairs of Fulmars circled tirelessly or sat on nests. Hundreds of Guillemots flew from the sea and stood shoulder to shoulder on cliff ledges. A Kestrel took advantage of the updraft over the cliff slopes.

Redshank.

Rock Pipit.

Fulmars.

Fulmar.

Guillemots.

Female Kestrel, hovering by the edge of the cliff.

Guillemots.

Fulmars and Guillemots.

Shag and Guillemots.

At high tide, 24 Oystercatchers fed on the country park fields.

I walk back to Filey, to my favourite cafe, Frothies, for coffee and lunch before I take my train back.