A train trip to North Ferriby

 

A short train trip to North Ferriby, Long Plantation and Red Cliff. The day ended up being of sunny spells and mild, although it was quite windy by the Humber. I walked straight to the Humber from the station, then walked east to the pond. A dozen Wigeon were at the Humber and on the shore.

Wigeon

Wigeon and gulls.

The pond was interesting, with Coot, Little Grebe, Mallard, Gadwall, Greylag and Teal, all single pairs.

View of the pond.

 

Little Grebe.

Gadwall.

Teal.

Afterwards, I followed the high tide route of the Wolds Way along the village and into the top of Long Plantation.

Goldfinches feeding on Lavender seedheads. The advantages of not deadheading your lavenders!

The entrance to Long Plantation.

Long Plantation is a deciduous woodland with mainly beech and Sycamore. Some large trees had been cut and most of the trees are quite young, although there is a fair amount of dead wood on the ground and stumps. A Buzzard flew over and a Sparrowhawk flew onto a tree, looking like it just had a bath.

Great Woodpecker nest hole.

Great Tit.

The days of the fields west of the plantation appear numbered due to impending development. A Green Woodpecker Yaffled and flew onto a mound, I only managed a record shot.

Large Oak and flooded fields.

The view towards Brickyard lane.

I didn't spend much time at Redcliff as there was a flock of Curlew on the foreshore. I counted 15.

Many Dun Sentinel snails at low tide.

Curlew

The cliff looked quite different from last time and I wonder how much success the Ivy bees and Sea Aster bees will have in such fast eroding cliff.

A Bombus terrestris worker on Red Dead-nettle.

Brick Lane and Redcliff at high tide

After the WEBS survey at Pickering Park I headed to Brickyard Lane to check Redcliff again. I park near the end of the lane and walk towards the Humber on this wooded lane. What a different day to last week's: cool, cloudy, and still, with an hour to high tide as I arrived. I explored around Brick Lane first. A skein of Pink-footed geese flew over NE, a surprise as so early, but only on Saturday I thought I heard their calls overhead as I left the house. 

As I return to the lane, I flush a Grey Wagtail by the large puddle.

There is a mixed flock of tits, with Blue, Great, Long-tailed and a surprise Marsh tit, which repeatedly returns to an elder. A Treecreeper is also about.

Marsh tit.

Marsh tit.

The hot weather of last week has brought the Ivy into blossom. There was a large one growing at the base of a dead tree. Despite the cool conditions, Ivy was bursting with insects, mainly wasps, honey bees and droneflies. 

Dronefly, Eristalis tenax.

I scan the flowers looking for Ivy bees and I finally see one! Very active, looks like a female. I manage some record shots. Not my first Yorkshire one, but the first one that is in the right habitat. A colony was found in South Cave a couple of years ago

Female Ivy bee.

The habitat.

I wasn't sure if the beach would be passable at high tide, but there is a lot exposed and it was already high tide, so I decide to give it a try. 

In the middle section of Redcliff I spot a Sea Aster bee female on a Sea Aster. It is the only one I see today. I wonder if there are many places where both Ivy and Sea aster bees live in the same area.

As I walk by the recently flooded saltmarsh, I notice thousands of tiny snails on the mud, they are Dun Sentinels, Assiminea grayana, a tiny snail that lives only in this saltmarsh habitat in estuaries. 

Habitat shot of the Dun Sentinel (Click to enlarge). 

I get to Long Plantation and check the colony of bees that puzzled me last week. Although near an area of sea aster, they looked more orange than Sea Aster bees, especially the abdominal bands, and given the woodland habitat adjacent to the cliff, I wondered if they would be Ivy bees. The bees are present and quite active, they are hard to count, but I can count 14 at the same time as they buzz about, investigating the nest holes and each other. The ones I take photos of are all males, and this matches the behaviour and the fact none are carrying pollen. They are interested in each other, but after contact, they leave, as if checking if there are females. This time, I manage better photos than last week.

I climb the metal steps and look for ivy nearby. There is plenty on the ground, and immature ivy climbing trees, but the tree just above the nesting aggregation has had its mature ivy cut down. There are a few some mature ivy branches, the ones that produce flowers, but no large specimen like the one at Brickyard lane. I return by the beach, now much more exposed by the tide. The only thing of note on my return is the calling woodpecker at Brickyard lane.

A walk along Redcliff

 

A warm, sunny day with no wind. I headed to North Ferriby to explore Redcliff. I parked at the end of Humber Road. Two hours after high tide, I expected the beach to be walkable. I checked the beach. There was a good expanse exposed. Ten Curlew fed at both sides of the steps. Two Common Sandpiper fluttered ahead along the beach. 

Curlew.

Six of the Curlew.

The beach was muddy and I changed into my wellies. I had walked along this stretch of beach, which is part of the Wolds Way, in 2018, so I was expected to be in a similar condition. The Humber is changeable and the mud proved thicker and deeper than last time. The last 100 m I had to scramble on the sea wall. Scrambling on boulders with wet, muddy wellies isn't something I was planning this morning, and it was a relief to make it to Long Plantation.

Almost there!

 A lady walking her dog that I met there told me that in the past there had been a footpath on the wall, but that it was blocked when someone bought the stretch of land in front of their garden. Not only bad for Wold Way walkers, but also for all the residents of North Ferriby, which can't enjoy the Humber Front any more.

Long Plantation.

The mist cleared as I got to Long Plantation, and it became much sunnier and warmer. Migrant Hawkers and Common Darters were plentiful. I descended the metal steps onto the beach. There is a broad band of saltmarsh, with plenty of Sea Aster, then a sandy beach by the cliff. I look for insects on the sunny cliff. There are some Field Digger Wasps carrying flies up to their burrows on the cliff. They struggle with the weight of the prey and some lost flies lie on the bottom of the burrows.

Ectemnius sp.

Male Field digger wasp, Mellinus arvensis.

Male Field digger wasp with prey, Mellinus arvensis.

A large female mining bee, possibly Andrena bicolor.

I move onto checking the patch of Sea Aster, the sweet scent of their flowers in the air, insects buzzing.

Helophilus pendulus.

Myathropa florea

Sea Aster bee.

This Eristalis (possibly arbustorum) makes for a good Colletes mimic.

The habitat looks ideal for a colony of Sea Aster bees, but in my first check, I find no nests. There are plenty of butterflies and I do a list, the most common, Small Tortoiseshells, but I see two or three Painted ladies and a Red Admiral and Speckled Wood. There are several buddleja clumps 

Larinioides cornutus.

Small Tortoiseshell.

Painted Lady.

A colony of Sand Martins, but no birds in sight, maybe departed already?

There are also many Migrant hawkers and Common Darters feeding along the cliffs.

Common Darter.

Common Darter.

Female Migrant Hawker.

Southern Hawker by Brickyard lane.

Some location shots.

Chrysotoxum festivum.

A dead common shrew.

On a large tree trunk on the tide line I spot a wasp, it moves like a spider wasp, always wing flicking, searching every nook and cranny of the trunk. It is hard to take a photo of it but I manage a sharp one. It does look like a Pompilus cinereus, the leaden spider wasp, one of the commonest species.

Habitat shot of the Spider Wasp.

I walk a bit along Brickyard lane. The guttural calls of Great Black-backed gulls alert me to their presence, with a group loafing with other gulls on a spit ahead. There is a patch of reeds and Brickyard Lane is quite wooded. The view of Redcliff is beautiful (top shot).
It is very hot and still, I walk back along the beach, checking the cliff for bees. Just about 20 m from the metal steps by Long Plantation a SW facing cliff is buzzing with Colletes. There are females coming in and out of nest holes and males buzzing about. Are these Sea Aster bees or Ivy bees? They look very reddish, but I don't manage good photos of them. 

The Colletes colony.

On one side a large patch of Sea Aster, on the other the suitable cliff.