Wilsthorpe Dunes and Fraisthorpe Beach with Hull Nats

I was keen to visit Wilsthorpe dunes on a warm summer day to check on its invertebrates. Other than at Spurn, sand dunes is not a common habitat in East Yorkshire, and I was curious to see if this small patch of dunes at the top of Bridlington Bay held something of interest. Today's was a day visit with Hull Nats. It was warm, with a breeze and sunny spells. I had brought my bat detector and checked for bush crickets, both Long-Winged Coneheads and Roesel's sung from the more grassy areas.

We spend some time identifying the dune grasses: Lyme grass, silver blue at the front, and Sea Couch in the next fringe. On a low hump by the edge of the dune we identified Sand Couch, with long, creeping rhizomes.

Sand Couch, Elymus farctus.

Both Long-winged Bush-cricket and Roesel's were present. A possible Short-winged conenead on a dune slack coudn't be confirmed.

It's worth looking up and admire the setting every now and then. The Flamborough headland is in the horizon.

Gannets were fishing offshore.

Many dry seedheads of Hounds Tongue and young rosettes of its distinctive leaves.

Sandwich Terns. This time of year a visit to the dunes has the background sounds of calling Sandwich Tern juveniles chasing adults.

Plenty of Linnets and Goldfinches feeding on thistle seeds.

I was very pleased to spot a Sand Bear Wolf Spider, Arctosa perita, at the front of the dune by the anti-tank blocks where we had our lunch. I've only previously recorded it in Spurn.

Some chicks looking like they are close to fledge are still present at the Sand Martin colony at Fraisthorpe.

We saw a flock of 10 Ringed Plovers, this one lander a bit nervous as the tide was high amongst the passers by.

Common Field Grasshopper.

I believe this is a sand digger wasp, Ammophila sabulosa. The adult female captures and paralises caterpillars and stocks nests she digs in the sand with those, and then lays eggs on the caterpillars.

A dune robber fly, Philonicus albiceps.

We found a few clumps of Sea Rocket and other coastal dune specialists.

Saltwort, Salsola kali.

This was the most bizarre find of the day, a mummified rabbit that Andy uncovered at the beach.

Fraisthorpe to Bridlington Harbour

 A mild, overcast day with light southernly wind. I get to Fraistorpe beach just after low tide. Auburn Beck runs gingerly across the beach. Where it reaches the tideline a flock of Sanderling is bathing, with a few gulls, two Dunlin and an Oystercatcher. Sanderlings are very common today, in groups and singles all along the beach. Even some passers by, who note my binoculars, ask me what are the little birds running on the beach. The round walk is 11 km.

A flock of 22 Great Crested Grebes sits on the waves. It always surprise me to see them on the sea.

Beach Pied Wagtail.

Red-throated Diver (honest!).

The dunes off the Park & Ride.

Yorkshire Belle and Cormorants.

I make it to Bridlington Harbour in time to walk up the ramp before the tide comes in. A flock of Turnstones and Purple Sandpipers are feeding on the harbour wall. There are still 42 Redshank and 4 Dunlin feeding on the harbour itself, although 35 Redshank have already assembled at their usual roost.

Turnstone.

Purple Sandpiper.

Turnstones on South Beach.

Turnstone.

Redshank Roost.

A begging adult Herring Gull. A pair lands near me as I have my lunch and they make a duet of juvenile begging calls.

Black-headed Gull and lobster pots.

Cormorants and Great Black-backed Gulls roosting on the harbour roof.

Juvenile and adult Great Black-backed Gull.

After lunch, it's time to head back. There is a large flock of Sanderlings on the south beach, I count 84. Occasionally flushed by dogs chasing gulls, they keep running along the beach, and flying back and forth along the beach to avoid dogs and people.

Sanderling flock in flight.

As I get back to Fraisthorpe, I spot a flock of Oystercatchers, roosting on the beach with a Curlew. Their attempt is short lived as they are promptly chased by a dog. Some of them fly over to the fields, and the rest settle a bit further away.

Oystercatchers about to be chased by the dog.

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).