Buzzing in the Newland Allotments

This afternoon we joined a Yorkshire Wildlife trust event in the Newland Avenue Allotments. This is the largest allotment site in Hull, with 26 acres of land. While the kids were engaged in various bee-related activities we walked around the southern side of the site, which serves as a council nursery and wildlife area. Despite the weather, the site was buzzing with bees and other bugs. For the last ten years the area, owned by Hull City Council, has been managed to include wooded areas with young trees and lush undergrow and meadows with a variety of wildflowers and rough hedges at the sides with lots of brambles. It is hard to believe this place is in the middle of Hull as, although small, it has such a wild feel to it. A highlight was a female Nursery web spider carrying her egg sac on a grassy clearing.
 The allotments are open to the public on Sunday mornings from 10 to 12. These is a Plot Shop where you can get from small plants to produce and gardening stuff. The entrance is through Tavistock street.
 For more information on the allotments call Julia, the allotment association secretary on  07712161961 or email on julesallotment@gmail.com

Male red tailed bumblebee on thisles

Cuckoo bumblebee

Female Nursery web spider, Pisaura mirabilis carrying her egg sac

Red campion

Hedge Woundwort with Anthophora furcata male

Flowering rose

A large partch of Oxeye Daisies with a Colletes daviesanus bee

A view of a meadow area

Location Map

View Larger Map

May in Potteric Carr

We visit Potteric Carr for the first time today. It is the flagship Yorkshire Wildlife Nature Reserve, the largest, ca. 200 ha. There are and several marked paths and has a diversity of habitats, with an emphasis on wetlands, including woodland, meadows, reed beds, ponds, marsh and scrapes. The paths are well surfaced and there are many hides around the main wetlands. Today we walk around the green marked path, a family friendly route, just over 2 km long and have a little detour to Piper Marsh on the red route. We see many butterflies, blue damselflies (Azure and Blue tailed) and a Four Spot Chaser.
There are red Campion and carpets of wild strawberries and the White Dead Nettle is in full bloom, especially near Sedum House. The views across the hides are wonderful with the old golden reed heads over the new growth. Being a Bank Holiday it is quite busy, but we still managed 33 species of bird for the day, the highlight being the pair of Kingfishers in Piper Marsh (above), getting in a hole in the bank of one of the islands.

Male Blue-tailed damselfly, Ischnura elegans

Courting Green Veined White butterflies, the female kept her abdomen well raised, a sign of non-receptivity. After a few tries, the male flew away.

Moorhen feeding chick

A Four Spot Chaser, Libellula quadrimaculata

Mother Drain

A wolf spider

View of Willow Marsh

View of Decoy Marsh

Butterflies
Speckled Wood, at least 5 individuals.
Green-Veined white, many, pair courting.
Red Admiral settles near the cafe.
Orange tip male

Birds

1. Black-headed gull. Nesting in Decoy Marsh.
2. Woodpigeon
3. Lapwing. Goole.
4. Jackdaws, confiding pair breeding in a nest box Sedum House
5. Wren singing
6. Goldfinches, very apparent today. A pair feeding on dandelions.
7. Magpie
8. Great tit, singing and in the feeders of the visitor center
9. Pheasant
10. Chaffinch
11. House martins
12. Mallards
13. Coots, with chicks
14. Shelduck, 2 pairs
15. Black cap several singing
16. Chiffchaff singing
17. Crow
18. Tufted duck, in several of the marshes.
19. Swan, pair in decoy Marsh.
20. Moorhen, with chick in Field Centre
21. Dunnock, singign, Field Centre
22. Blackbird chicks
23. Canada Goose Piper Marsh
24. Shoveler Piper Marsh
25. Sand Martins flying over Piper Marsh
26. KINGFISHER Piper Marsh. Pair entering the island bank.
27. Gadwall. Piper Marsh
28. Willow Warbler singing
29. Starling in the feeder in the visitor center
30. Sparrow home
31. Rook, road
32. Greenfinch home
33. Collared dove home

Links
Potteric Carr. The site of the friends of Potteric Carr. Lots of updated info about sightings, species lists, detailed descriptions about the walks and more.
Yorkshire Wildlife Site.

Location map

View Wild at Hull Google Map in a larger map

Spring at Speeton Sands

North of the chalk cliffs of the Flamborough headland lays Filey Bay, an arc of golden sands backed by clay cliffs. Reighton and Speeton sands make the southern end of this bay. At low tide the beach is very wide and the views impressive, with the backdrop of the cliffs on one side and Filey bay in the distance. Other than the usual beach entertainment, there are other things to explore: the eroding cliffs are covered on scrub and wildflowers, and the clay they are made of is the only site in the U.K. with a marine lower Cretaceous exposure. Walking along the bottom of the cliffs it is relatively easy to collect fossil Belemnites, Ammonites and bivalve shells. There is no need of equipment as the clay is quite soft. Occasionally the tides uncover fresh clay under the sand, and then it is a good opportunity for good finds. Every visit will be different because of the speed of erosion.
 A walk on the hillside illustrates how quickly plants and animals colonise the mudlides. Little primroses, coltsfoot and violets were growing on clay that evidently had settled not long ago.
 Today we spot the first swallows of the year flying south and the first Chiffchaffs and Willow warblers sing from the blackthorn and gorse.

The view from the car park near the Reighton Sands holiday park

Colts Foot

Flowering gorse

Primroses 

Violets

A belemnite stuck to the clay

A view towards Bempton cliffs

Tiger Beetle, Cicindela campestris, fighting with an ant

These wellington boots left behind stuck to the mud serve as a warning to visitors. There are frequent mudslides and flows and the mud can be caked outside, but soft and sticky inside.

View of the fossil-bearing Cretaceous clay

Sites
UK fossils. Informative site with site and fossil photos and indications of how to access the area.

Location map
Access through the village of Speeton is not recommended due to recent mudslides. Go to Reighton Sands Holiday Village from Reighton leaving the entrance to your right. There is a car park and a relatively safe way down to the beach.


View Larger Map

Millington Wood in April

We make a trip to Millington Wood, a botanical gem nestled in a dry vale - Lily Vale - near Pocklington. It was originally an ash wood, but in the 60s it was replanted commercially with spruce and beech and only small pockets of the original woodland remain. It was made a nature reserve in 1991 by the East Riding of Yorkshire, and it is managed so that the replanted species are felled and the wood converted into charcoal in a kiln in the reserve (below) itself, to encourage the native calcareous ash woodland.

Today we spot early woodland flowers, many Lesser Celandines and Wood Anemones, a few Primroses and a small pocket of Dog Violets. Fresh, pungent Ramsons leaves carpeted vast sways of the wood and the flower buds of bluebells had started to appear amongst the leaves.

 Primroses

 Wood Anemones

Dog Violet with Bombus pascuorum

A hillside at the top of the reserve covered on Ramsons or wild garlic

 As for fauna, we came across a carcass of a crow which some carrion beetles are feeding on, they run and dig for cover but we manage some shots. We spot a Peacock and a Brimstone, and several bumblebees and many ladybirds.

 The carrion beetle Oiceoptoma thoracica

Seven spots and an orange ladybird hibernating

There is a good path for most of the way, which becomes steep and narrow with steps to reach the top of the valley and then you can return in a circular walk on a higher path, a bit rougher and with more steps. Overall, a mile walk.

To top today's trip we see a Red Kite flying over Market Weighton and a hare in a field nearby.

Location map:


View Larger Map

Beachcombing on Hessle Foreshore

A fine day with sunny spells, I head with the children to Hessle Foreshore. We were lucky it was low tide; three parallel tide lines - mostly made of straw - draw the shore. The beach is made of chalk cobbles, flint, and much smoothed out brick and glass, with the lower level exposing the mud of the Humber. A loose flock of Turnstones feed amongst rocks, and Black-Headed and Common gulls rest on the shore. There are fantastic views of the estuary and the Humber Bridge. We reach a muddy creek, Hessle Haven, a small repair harbour. This is the official starting point of the Wolds Way. It felt good to be able to go for a walk and have some fresh air.

Redshank

Turnstone

sea defences at Hessle Haven

A view of the Humber shore near Hessle Haven

Yellow lichens covered a group of shore boulders

Location map

View Larger Map

Normanby Hall Country Park

A beautiful autumnal day, we visit Normanby Hall Country Park, site of a stately home surrounded by extensive, beautiful wooded grounds and including a deer park. It is rutting season so we hope to see some action, and we are not disappointed. There is a large herd of hinds kept compact by a stately stag, who ruts every now and then, in between bringing a stray female or two back to the herd. He trundled into a creek and had a splash, and then proceeded to dig some bracken to adorn his antlers.

The gardens - including a walled garden and a butterfly border - are still carpeted in flowers, and the butterflies oblige, with large numbers of Comma, Red Admiral and a few Small Tortoiseshell and Speckled Woods visiting the Verbena bonairensis and Michaelmas daisies. Many old trees, including oaks, sweet chestnuts, and beech, some of them ancient and an impressive avenue of Giant Redwoods.

Red Admirals gorging on Michaelmas daisies, two more were on sight.

Old Sweet Chestnut

 The grounds, deer park and walled garden are easy to access and the deer have a 'sanctuary' where visitors aren't allowed. There is a cafe, public toilets, a gift shop (selling some of the grounds' produce) and picnic tables under each large tree in front of the hall.
 As for birds, we saw jackdaws, jays, robin and woodpigeons and heard a goldcrest.

Official Website

Normanby Nature. A blog about birds and other wildlife in the local are and beyond.

Location map

View Larger Map

Burton Bushes and the Westwood

This weekend we visited Beverley Westwood and the little woodland on the western side of the pasture called Burton Bushes (of which more here). A Skylark sang over the wide expanse of grassy pastures, and we also saw a Kestrel hovering nearby. There was a thick carpet of Wood Anemones (Anemona nemorosa) around the edges and inside the wood, and there were also Lesser celandine, Wood Sorrel (Oxalis acetosella) and Dog's Mercury (Mercurialis perennis) in bloom. The bluebells still on leaf, we saw no flowers. The main tree species is Oak, although there is also Birch and Field Maple with an understorey of Holly. Many dead trunks cover the ground, covered in thick moss, so I expect this to be a good site for fungi. Robins, Chiffchaffs and Blackcap sung their songs, and a Great Spotted Woodpecker drummed. Other interesting birds that are known to live in the wood are Treecreeper, Marsh Tit and Tawny Owls.

A view of the Westwood with the Black Mill in the background

Oaks at the edge of Burton Bushes wood

Wood Anemone

Dog's Mercury

Wood Sorrel

Another old oak trunk inside the wood

Location map:

View Larger Map