Nut Wood & Wauldby Scrogs

Woods now cover less than 3% of East Yorkshire. They are tiny specs on a blanket of arable land. A few Woodland Trust woods try to preserve this dwindling resource. Amongst these is Nut Wood, a little ancient semi-natural woodland, parts of which date to the 13th century. I have always visited it in the autumn, but it is known locally as Bluebell Wood and the display of wild flowers in spring is worth a visit. Flora includes Lords & Ladies, Wood Anemones, Wild Garlic and Dog's Mercury. Amongst the trees there is Ash, Sycamore, Oak, Beech, Spruce and coppiced Hazel, and it is surrounded by hedgerows with Hawthorn and Elder. The northern section was planted more recently. There are remarkably big old stumps scattered in the wood, but the size of the living trees is no match for them. Today we went in search of hazel nuts nibbled by rodents. There is a Dormice survey going on at the moment, although, unfortunately, dormice are extinct in East Yorkshire so we knew we were unlikely to find signs of them. There were lots of hazel shells left over by Grey Squirrels, and possibly some by Wood Mouse. We saw a number of fungi as well.
For more info check the Woodland Trust management plan for this site.

A clump of fungi at the base of an Ash

Fungus

A general view from the access point next to the road

For a 5 mile walk in the area see Walking the Riding.

Location map


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Sunny Spurn

A wonderful scorching summer day at Spurn. Clear sky and the lightest breeze. We stop by the visitor centre. A compact flock of twitchers have settled on top of the dunes overlooking a sea buckthorn bush. They are stalking a Booted Warbler, a rare accidental that hasn't been seen in many years.

A Small Tortoiseshell lets me a close approximation while it feeds in Cat's Ears.

In the dunes, grasshoppers chirp and hawker and darter dragonflies on the wing. A 7 spot ladybird lands on the sand. We see several others today. The sea bucktorn is covered in the tents of the Brown Tail Moth, the caterpillars we see are quite small, but they have devastated the branches around them. The buckthorn has already got berries.

 A large group of Starlings settle on the wires next to the visitor centre just to fly again in a flock. And every few minutes, little groups of Swallows fly low over the spit heading south. We are well into the autumn migration.
 After a picnic lunch next to the dunes we head for the point. We walk around the head of the Peninsula, a 2 km walk, and have the chance of watching groups of Swallows as they reach the edge. Some seem hesitant to cross the Mouth of the Humber and fly back and forth.

Sea Rocket Cakile maritima

Driftwood at the Point

Marram grass and Sea Buckthorn scrub at the Point

The bendy beach a the Point.

General Cemetery

 Aerial View of the General Cemetery from Google Earth

Lately, I have been visiting the Hull General Cemetery regularly. From the air, it looks like thick woodland. Trees are mostly mature, over 100 year old, planted in Victorian times (the cemetery was created in 1847). Species include Lime, Ash, Oak, Horse Chestnut, Birch, Cherry and Elm. There is lots of undergrowth, ivy and brambles and also some clearings with meadows, but there are clear (although quite bumpy!) footpaths. Wildlflowers abound: Ramsons, Garlic Mustard, Lesser Celandine. This cemetery is no longer in use and Hull City Council has recently implemented a regeneration plan which also intends to improve its value for wildlife, by planting woodland trees and flowers. The improvements include the creation of a nature trail with information on plants and animals which live in the cemetery. There are already lots of birdboxes and owl-nest boxes and bat boxes in place. A relaxing place for a walk in the middle of the city.

Lime tree

Red Admiral sunbathing on a footpath

Freshly emerged Harlequin ladybird

Brown Rat

Grey Squirrel

Cruckley Farm

Last day before term starts, the kids and I headed to Cruckley Farm. The weather had pleasantly changed from cold and autumnal into end-of-summer, warm and sunny. Cruckley farm is a working farm which can be visited and enjoyed by all ages. This farm has an interesting collection of rare breeds of sheep, cows and pigs as well as most farm animals you can list: goats, donkeys, shire horses, rabbits, geese, ducks, turkeys, peacocks, guineafowl and, of course, hens. The kids enjoyed the incubator and chick nursery today, where they were able to hold fluffy young chicks. A little group of runaway piglets made everyone laugh getting in and out of trouble around the farm and truly appearing to enjoy themselves in their adventures. The highlight of the day was a pig race: at the sound of a bell, the little pigs trotted in their comic style towards a trough full of food and the end of a circuit. The farm is placed in gently rolling countryside, with Frodingham Beck at one end. It contains a variety of habitats: a lake surrounded by woodland, a pond and, a wetland area recently created in partnership with Natural England and the Yorkshire Wildlife Trust, which is already teeming with wildflowers and dragonflies (I wasn't so impressed by the goldfish though!). There are little wooded areas and plenty of hedgerows, mostly hawthorn. The picnic area next to the farmhouse is shaded by quite old trees, amongst them a large oak. The walk around the public footpaths is around 1.8 km long. Birdwatching and bugwatching can be quite rewarding, in addition to your usual farm animals. Today, there were many Speckled Wood and Small Tortoiseshells around the farm. Hawker dragonflies, hunted among the farmhouses, a plentiful supply of flies, and we spotted both Common Darters and Hawkers around the newly dug ponds in the wetland area, a few times chasing each other.

Crown of oak

Swan in Frodingham Beck

Fields

Speckled Wood

Photo finish

Location Map:

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Summer at the Oak Road Playing Fields

Almost two months since the last post here. Must get out more! The weather wasn't great today, although it was sunny and warm, the wind was gustly at times, and the wind turbine roared like a plane in the sky. The wildlife was fantastic though, and the meadows were beautifully covered in wildflowers - wild carrot, birdsfoot trefoil, catsears, spear thistles, common thistles, rosebay willowherb, ragwort and more. Butterfly-wise there were many Speckled Woods and many spiral flights (one of them with three individuals spiralling away) and we saw Green-Veined Whites, Gatekeepers, a Small Skipper and a sunbathing Small Tortoiseshell. I was expecting to see some dragonflies, but I only saw a blue damselfly which didn't wait for me to get my camera ready. A young frog and a tiny recently emerged toad completed the day.

Soldier beetles Rhagonycha fulva mating on Wild Carrot

Female Small Skipper Thimelicus flavus

Babysitting coot and charge

Tiny toad Bufo bufo

Today's Birds

1. Mallard, with fully grown ducklings
2. Coot, at least two families with young of different ages.
3. Woodpigeon.
4. Swift
5. Swallow family
6. Pied wagtail
7. Reed warbler singing from the reeds
8. Blackcap singing
9. Blackbird brambles (with blackberries)
10. Magpie, 2 indivs near the house on the brambles
11. Crow, family of 4 or 5
12. Goldfinch

Bempton Cliffs

A blue sky and warm weather takes us to the cliffs of the RSPB nature reserve, Bempton Cliffs. The reserve includes not only the high chalk cliffs overlooking Filey Bay and Speeton sands, but also fields next to them, which today were covered with a pink carpet of Red Campions (Silene dioica). Buttercups and Gorse were also flowering. Nettles are very abundant, and we see a few peacock butterflies. The main reason to visit Bempton cliffs are the nesting seabirds and May and June are the top months to see them nesting. There are eight breeding species: Kittiwakes, Razorbills, Guillemots, Gannets, Fulmars, Puffins, Herring Gulls and Shags. Today we see them all except for the Shag (the rarest breeder, also tends to nest at the base of the cliff). Kittiwakes make the background noise at the cliffs.

A group of Kittiwakes pulling grass to line their nests.

We have a picnic on a meadow watching a Kestrel hovering over the cliffs.

A Kittiwake, a Razorbill and a Guillemot, the most common breeding seabirds in Bempton Cliffs

Herring gull

A view of the cliffs, at the bottom of the photo a group of nesting Gannets can be seen

The 'What's About' poster at the reserve visitor centre.

Links
RSPB Bempton Cliffs Nature Reserve


Birds of the day

1. Fulmar flying
2. Gannets on nests and flying.
3. Kestrel hovering over the cliffs
4. Pheasant calling
5. Herring gull on the cliffs and flying
6. Kittiwake collecting grass in groups and on the cliffs
7. Guillemot on cliffs and flying
8. Razorbill on cliffs and flying
9. Puffins on flight
10. Woodpigeon
11. Collared dove
12. Rock dove, nesting in the cliffs
13. Swift
14. Skylark
15. Swallow
16. House martin
17. Dunnock
18. Blackbird
19. Whitethroat singing
20. Rook
21. Jackdaw, everywhere, nesting in the cliffs
22. Crow
23. Magpie, one in Bempton the other chasing a couple of starlings (one could be a fledgling)
24. Starling
25. Tree sparrow
26. House sparrow
27. Greenfinch
28. Goldfinch
29. Chaffinch
30. Linnet
31. Yellowhammer
32. Pied wagtail

Map



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Spring at Burton Constable

I can't believe its over a month we went anywhere out of Hull. Today it was a warm day with sunny spells and we went for a walk to the grounds of Burton Constable. We explored the area around the Hall and followed the Waymarker Trail. We found out what a Ha-ha is (intrigued? check here). At one end of it stands an ancient tree, a Sweet Chestnut, with some of its main branches now dead and partially covered by Ivy. It is the most impressive tree I have seen in East Yorkshire, with an enormous girth. As it is near the house and the house was built at the end of the XVI century, it is probably over 400 years old.

A view of the live side of the ancient sweet chestnut

A view of the old chestnut covered on Ivy

The tree trunk (child for reference)

Around the farm houses and stables, House Martins were busy nest building. 

In the North Pond, which used to be part of a moat, Moorhens and Coots were being followed by their hungry chicks. The wooded areas were teeming with insects, although we did not see many butterflies.

A pair of geese flying

Moorhen with chicks

 We manage to spot a Hare.

Tenthredo sawfly

Previously in the large lake I have seen toads mating.
This is today's bird list:

1. 
   
2. Blackbird
3. Crow
4. Woodpigeon
5. sparrow
6. Chaffinch
7. Greylag (pair)
8. Moorhen, with 2 chicks
9. Coot with 1 chick
10. Several mallards with ducklings of different sizes
11. House Martins making nests
12. Swallows
13. Jackdaws on the fields
14. Rooks. 2 with one chick begging
15. Great tit
16. Pheasant
17. Goldfinches singingMap

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Note added: I reported the Sweet Chestnut in the Ancient Tree Hunt website, as it wasn't there, and a couple of days later it was verified by Tony Burgoyne and its girth measured at 7.28 m. Tony said this is the largest tree recorded in East Yorkshire! It now has a record here.