The Barmston Drain

Hull is surprisingly green from high up. The 7th floor of the University Library offers a unique vantage point to appreciate this. Parks, gardens, railway lines, cycle lanes, tree-lined avenues, the river Hull and drains, form a green network that allows wildlife to live right inside the city. One of such green corridor is the Barmston Drain (or Barmy drain, as is also locally known). You can walk, even cycle, on the banks on part of the drain. Is is crisp and sunny today and I head for the section of the drain between Stepney and Skulcoates lane via the disused railway track bed now a cycle-pedestrian path between Hull and Hornsea. As soon as we get there we see some Mallards and Moorhens feeding. A number of moorhens are immature, so they probably breed here in good numbers. The banks are well vegetated with reeds, willows, brambles and hawthorns. One of the sections has a line of good-sized poplars on one side. A Kestrel swoops down from one of the trees into a field. The drain water runs clear, with lots of submerged macrophytes. Something jumps from the bank into the water with a plop! and disappears underwater, a Water Vole, perhaps? These are known to live on the drain. Rabbits, foxes and Roe Deer have also been reported from the drain and nearby areas.
 If you ignore the odd supermarket trolley or rubbish here and there it makes a remarkably nice walk.

Grey Squirrel eating berries

Moorhen and supermarket trolley

A view of the drain towards Stepney Lane

Tales from the Riverbank, is an ongoing post with great photos of wildlife in the drain led by Bob Carter.
Where is it?

View Larger Map


Birds

1. Great tit, pair with blue tits feeding on the lime
2. Blue tit, pair
3. Blackbird
4. Magpies, a tidings of 8 magpies
5. Goldfinches, 2
6. Robins singing and ticking
7. Common gull
8. Woodpigeon, one sunbathing on a field
9. Wren
10. Sparrows
11. Starlings, feeding on Cordyline buds
12. Dunnock, cricket call
13. Kestrel, next to the drain
14. Moorhens, lots of adults and immatures in the drain
15. Mallards, several pairs in the drain
16. Long-tailed tits, group crossing near Skulcoates lane
17. Herring gulls feeding on a field, they seem to dance on the spot and then feed
18. Crow in the park, seems to be caching food
19. Mistle thrush park, pair
20. Chaffinches, pair feeding on the ground
21. Canada geese, 28 including the hybrid and the lame one.
22. Large flock of geese flying south in V, more than 50, high pitched call.

Birding in Pearson Park

It's been quite grey today, but mild for the time of year. A walk in Pearson Park gave a few nice surprises. Autumn is fully fledged: conkers on the ground, a rich brown carpet of leaves. Although most of the trees are still green, there are many branches with first tint or brown leaves. The Grey Squirrels were calling, chasing and busily burying goodies in the ground. A small flock of Common Gulls are back in the pond after returning from their breeding grounds. The pair of breeding Moorhens now sits together preening each other; the two grown juveniles nowhere to be seen.

Male Mallards are showing off their wonderfully bright new feathers. They are boringly common, but what beautiful birds they are. One male and female were courting, heads quickly bobbing. The female lowered its head and the male mounted her. Everything was over very quickly. The female fluffed its feathers and flapped her wings over the water at the end.

The female sign

Mallards Mating

There was a hybrid Canada-greylag goose with 5 Canada geese, paired to one of them. It looked a bit clumsy, but it had a good session bathing itself. Given the strong imprinting of Ducks and Geese to the adults tending them, hybrids are likely to result of nest parasitism (one species lays egg on another's nest) or brood amalgamation (a pair of one species 'fosters' a brood from a different species and they grow together. The individuals of the fostered brood become imprinted to the 'wrong' species and when adults pair with it producing hybrids. One of the parents of this hybrid -most likely a greylag- was likely to have got imprinted to Canada Geese and paired with one. See this article and this website for fascinating info and photos on hybrid geese.

Hybrid Canada-Greylag goose having a bath

Birds of the Day

1. Robins singing
2. Blackbird
3. Woodpigeon
4. Dunnock
5. Goldcrest singing from the cypres
6. Mallards mating
7. Moorhen, pair cuddling
8. Grey wagtail
9. Common gulls, 20 indivs.
10. Canada geese, 5 and a canada-greylag hybrid paired with one of them
11. Great tit
12. Herring gull, first winter juvenile
13. Crow
14. Sparrows

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


View Larger Map

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:

View Larger Map

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