Walking the Humber. Stage 7. King George Dock to Salt End

I start the stage at Holderness Drain. The tide is high and ebbing, but there is no exposed mud. It's cloudy, with a steady SW wind, but not too cold. King George dock, built on 1914 is the most recently built at Hull Port. The land it uses was reclaimed from marshes and pasture commons at the foreshore of Marfleet village. The Public Right of Way on this stretch follows the sea wall, with metalling fences on one site separating the container and ferry loading area of the Port of Hull from the concrete path just by the sloping stone wall.
  The P&O 'Pride of Rotterdam' ferry sits by its dock (top shot). The path climbs over the access road to the ferry loading area. There are many gulls about, especially Lesser Black-backs, Common Gulls and Black-headed gulls, which I check with my binocular. An adult Mediterranean gull flies just by the ferry close to me, but it is too fast for photos.
 I reach King George Dock lock and just then the alarm starts sounding and flashing and the lock opening, so I have to wait. Two cargo vessels, the Frif Jord and the Rix Owl leave the dock in quick succession. The whole operation takes just about just 10 minutes.

I cross the lock. The path then becomes straight and pretty monotonous, a whole km with little on it, just the sea wall and the occasional truck passing by at the other side of the fence. I imagine this must be impassable in windy, high tide conditions, when the Humber must be splashing against the sea wall. It makes for claustrophobic walking despite the open skies!

There is a large flock of gulls feeding in the distance and that provides some entertainment. There is mainly Black-headed gulls, with a few Mallard and Teal, which are feeding in a spot that smells like a sewage outlet.

I arrive at the end of the solid sea wall into an area that was reclaimed from Marfleet marsh, formerly known as 'The Growths'. The side nearest to the estuary is a large brownfield site. Huge mountains of coal and grit on the coal depot loom to the north of it.

One of two Roe Deer with the background of a large deposit of grit.

The Coal depot behind the grassland.

A Carrion Crow sits atop the coal.

The flat brownfield area is covered on grassland, reed patches and some scrapes holding water. The straight path is mowed and appears well trodden, but I haven't come across anyone. A Skylark rises and sings. There are plenty here, I count six one or two singing all the time.

Singing Skylark.

Skylark.

Mowed Public Right of Way.

 I flush four Curlews, then two Fieldfare and a Snipe. I feel like an interloper, as the area seems to have very little human disturbance as it is a dead end. There is a group of Teal on the scrape, piping.

The large cranes servicing the container port, looking west.

Teal.

I reach Lord's Clough and glimpse its extensive mudflats, with the jetties of Salt End in the distance. I stay away from the wall edge, trying not to be too visible and flush the feeding birds, as there are so many birds on the mud: Curlews, Redshank, a large flock of Dunlin, Lapwing, some scattered Grey Plovers, a few Black-tailed Godwits, Teal. I wish I had a telescope at hand! Then I just see four Avocets at the other side of the fleet.
 I carry onto the path parallel to Lord's Clough, leaving the wonderful mudflat view behind. The path becomes muddy, between reeds. I reach the end of a railway line. A strange, repeated piercing call that I cannot recognise draws my attention, under a hawthorn bush I glimpse two weasels chasing.
I'm just opposite Salt End Chemical plant and power station and Lord's Clough marks the boundary of the City of Hull. There is no access around Salt End, so the next stage will begin at Hedon Haven. I didn't like that I had to miss a stretch by the Humber but I wonder if this is done to reduce disturbance in this large stretch of mudflat, which extends to the village of Paull, and is likely to have areas used as roosts at high tide.

Lapwing.

Salt End jetties.

Shelduck

Grey Plover

Time to turn round. A kestrel hovers over the grassland and two Roe Deer bound over the grass away from me. The tide is very low when I return to the car. A Curlew and a Black-tailed Godwit feed, funnily enough, almost in the same position as a couple of weeks ago, when I finished the last stage.

Common Gull on summer plumage.

Curlew feeding on ragworm.

Curlew.

Black-tailed Godwit by Holderness drain.

Featured Bird: Avocet

This beautiful wader is at home in wetlands and estuarine mudflats, feeding on midge larvae, small shrimps and other invertebrates, which picks up from just under the surface of the water with its upturned bill, sweeping it side to side as it wades. The Humber is of international importance as breeding and wintering area for this amber listed species. About 250 pairs breed in several sites in the Humber, the main one is Read's Island. A few pairs have also bred at Kilnsea Wetlands, Blacktoft Sands, North Cave Wetlands and Far Ings. Over 1000 winter in the Humber as estimated by WEBS counts. (note: the photo above is of Avocets feeding at Cley Marshes, which I took on31/3/2015). Today's Avocets were unfortunately too distant for photos.)

King George to Salt End Today's stage. 3.6 km each way.

Bridlington Harbour and Danes Dyke after the storm

I headed to the coast again this morning to watch the effects of the storm of last week. There was still some remains of snow drifts by hedges and drains. As I approached Bridlington it got increasingly foggy. At the harbour the tide was ebbing, but the seas were still very rough on the north beach. I got a bit excited thinking I had a young little sitting on the pier for a bit, but it was a young Kittiwake. A Rock Pipit was at the north pier, a site tick. I moved to the south pier and beach. I was watching young herring gulls manipulating mussels when four godwits passed through the camera screen. On closer inspection they turned to be Bar-tailed Godwits. They fed on the sand with a pair of Oystercatchers, Turnstones and Redshank. An adult Herring Gull successfully opened a mussel by dropping it a couple of times onto the sand from some height, but some young ones dropped mussels while standing and other adults appeared not to know what to do with mussels. Some appeared to know they had to drop them, but not that they had to fly and drop them to crack them open. I guess many will manage to open those mussels that have already died of exposure.
A group of Purple Sandpipers fed on the exposed lower wall with some Dunlin I saw 8 but they are tricky to count as they appear to merge with the seaweed then they don't move.

Turnstone.

A group of Turnstones on the pier.

Rock Pipit.

Young Kittiwake.

The north pier is still closed.

Purple Sandpiper by the south pier.

Bar-tailed godwits.

Bar-tailed godwits.

beached mussel.

Bar-tailed Godwit and beached mussels.

Herring Gulls, Turnstones and Oystercatchers.

Dunlin at the harbour.

 I drove to Danes Dyke next. I made a long stop at the car park feeders, which were well topped up and very busy with birds. Even a Treecreeper was feeding on the cherry tree. Goldcrest, Coal Tit, Nuthatch, also in attendance. A Great Spotted Woodpecker drummed once. The sun was now breaking the fog and as I walked through the woods and into the beach the cliffs were shining, the tide almost out. As I focused on some distant Fulmars, a Woodcock flew into my field of view and I could follow it as it came in front of me and dove into the Dyke. A Grey Wagtail with a Pied Wagtail and at least 23 Fulmars in the cliffs were the highlights. I returned to the carpark on the nature trail, the signs of spring strong with the wild garlic, lords and ladies and bluebell foliage greening the ground.

Tree creeper the right way up.

The wild garlic and bluebells greening the ground.

The shining white chalk boulders at the top of the beach.

A non-conformity on the west side of the cliffs by the dyke.

Fossil sea urchin?

Icicles still remaining.

Danes Dyke at low tide.

Fulmars.

Danes Dyke from the beach.

Starfish.

Grey Wagtail on the white boulders.

Periwinkle.

Rock Pipit. An individual was singing and displaying today. 

Waterfall onto the beach.

The beck at the bottom of the dyke.

Snow and ice in the park

I walked around the park on my way to work yesterday and today. The pond was iced up, with only two small patches around the fountains free if ice. There was a layer of snow a few cm deep and the strong Easterly made it for very cold feeling. The whiteness of the ground and dark grey skies make a noticeable difference to how bird plumage reflects the light. The underwing of Common Gulls looks very dark, reminiscent of Lesser Black-backed gulls. The wings of immature Herring gulls in contrast, looks very pale.
 The milder weather that was encouraging birds to sing brutally stopped and was replaced by much harsher conditions. Still, the Blackbird below insisted on singing. It looks in beautiful breeding condition. The glow from the snow on the ground gives it a strange ashy colour.

The flock of Common Gulls loafed on the icy pond, pointing east to minimise the impact of the wind on their plumage. I took lots of photos as they are such photogenic subjects. I didn't notice when I took the photo below, that there was an unusual bird walking amongst the Common Gulls.

 This Carrion Crow called repeatedly. It pecked the snow later, looking a bit annoyed that it wasn't easy to see what lay beneath.

The Stock Doves called from the tree above the crow, seemingly undeterred.

 More lovely Common Gulls.

At some point one of the Common Gulls appeared with what it looked like a stick and roused the interest of other gulls

 But then I noticed this absolute rarity in the park, a Ruff!

 Eventually was flushed by a gull and disappeared.

A Moorhen walked about on the ice.

When checking the photos last night. I saw there was an unusual gull in the flock. It looks like a Mediterranean gull, but other photos show it might just be a Black-headed gull moulting into its summer plumage. I looked for it today but no luck. 

 The young Mute Swan is still about, looking whiter everyday. Its mum departed a few weeks ago, but the young one came back after leaving, according to one of the park wardens.

 I returned today. I started checking the gulls, but people feeding them meant they wouldn't stand still.

 This is a young Common Gull, looking like it hasn't moulted many of its feathers.

 A young Herring Gull amused itself with a dummy, making for some comical photos.