Mike's Natural Musings: Cleethorpes Dunes

Showing posts with label Cleethorpes Dunes. Show all posts

Friday, 15 March 2024

A Windy Walk from Buck Beck to Tetney Marsh.

It was a poor start to the day but by the time Brian and I arrived at Buck Beck car park it had stopped raining and the sun was beginning to make an appearance, although there was a brisk SW wind. Despite this it was quite mild at 13C. We had arranged our visit for high tide but it was not as high as I expected. There were none of the hoped for wheeling flocks of waders; perhaps most have already moved north to breed. Disappointingly there were no bar-tailed godwits to be found. We saw 30 species in total and I was pleased to find my first coltsfoot flowers out.

Coltsfoot

Wednesday, 28 June 2023

Orchids, Butterflies and Birds at Cleethorpes Dunes.

I was keen to check out the orchids in Cleethorpes dunes so set off full of anticipation early in the afternoon. It was overcast but very warm so I had high hopes of butterflies too. The orchids here comprise magnificent displays of common spotted orchid, southern marsh and the hybrid crosses between the two. They hybridise freely and the resultant crosses have hybrid vigour and the flowering spikes are often very tall and robust. I was surprised when I set off into the dunes to find that most of the initial plants I came across had totally gone over. I did eventually find some fresh specimens but even these looked somewhat care worn. I usually expect them to be in their prime round about my birthday on 23rd June so was surprised that they were well past their best. They seem, as do so many plants and insects, to be appearing earlier every year because of our changing climate.

Butterflies were plentiful, especially meadow browns and I stopped counting at 50. There were good numbers of small white and a few large skippers still and my first small skippers of the year. Ringlets were also on the wing in good numbers. Moths included 6 spot burnet and narrow-bordered 5 spot burnet as well as mother shiptons.

Although I was not birdwatching, I did manage to record 22 species.

The sea lavender on the salt marsh looks a picture.

Common spotted orchid

Common Spotted x Southern Marsh cross

Southern marsh orchid

Large white

Meadow brown

Small Skipper

Narrow-Bordered 5 Spot Burnet

6 Spot Burnet

Cleethorpes Dunes

Sea Lavender

Saltmarsh and Cleethorpes

Monday, 13 June 2022

Orchids, Butterflies and Close Encounter with a Fox.

Aware that I wasn't alone, I looked up to see a fox only yards away watching me inquisitively but with caution. It had found a sunny spot in a sea buckthorn clearing and was indulging in a spot of sunbathing. It was quite happy to watch me and didn't seem to see me as a threat until I moved slightly to try and get a better view when it retreated into the undergrowth and continued to study me from the security of the thorns. It was an absolute joy to experience this close encounter.

I had decided to have a walk through the dunes at Cleethorpes to check out the orchids and to do a butterfly and bird count. I had been full of doom and gloom when I was last here earlier in the year when the scene was one of devastation. Scrub clearance, as part of Lincolnshire's Dynamic Dunscape Project, had been undertaken leaving the area not looking its best. However my despondency had been totally misplaced as the dunes were looking stunning and the orchids perhpaps better than ever. There are two main types of orchid here: common spotted and southern marsh and also their hybrids. As if the identification of some of our orchids was not difficult enough, some species have a habit of cross-pollinating with each other to produce hybrids. These hybrids are often fertile and can continue to cross not only with each other, but also back cross with either of the parents. The result is a 'hybrid swarm', where a population at a single site can show more or less a full spectrum of intermediates from one original parent to the other. Marsh and spotted orchids seem most prone to this behaviour and their hybrids are usually a tall and stately plant with a large number of flowers in the spike. This happens here in Cleethorpes Dunes but also at Saltfleetby/Theddlethorpe NNR. A challenge to identify they may be, but in Cleethorpes Dunes they make a tremendous display.

As well as my encounter with the fox and the enjoyment of the orchids I found 25 bird species and 8 butterfly species so, an excellent afternoon.

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Cleethorpes Dunes

Common Spotted orchid/Southern Marsh hybrid

Fox

Meadow Brown

Small Tortoiseshell

Monday, 21 March 2022

A Day at the Seaside with Black Swan.

Keen to try and see the black swan that had been spending time on the boating lake/country park and to catch up with the country park grebes, I decided to treat myself to a Cleethorpes day taking some lunch with me. I started off in Cleethorpes dunes with a diversion to the boating lake where I found the fabulous black swan, and then moving onto to the salt marsh, outer dunes and beach. The weather warmed up as the day went on becoming 12C and, yet again cloudless. Once back at the car I drove the short distance to the yacht club carpark overlooking Tetney marsh and the lagoons. I sat on the edge of the dunes with my flask of Heinz tomato soup, the number 1 comfort food, while I scanned the beach and mud flats with the scope. After lunch the lagoons proved fruitful with shoveler, teal, black-tailed godwit, dabchick and snipe being present. I finished the day at the country park with some excellent views of the great crested grebes. Although paired up, they weren't really displaying yet. I was most surprised when the song of a cetti's warbler exploded from the willow bush I was standing next to and I even had reasonable views of it. although no photographs as the there were too many twigs and branches in the way for the camera to lock on.

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Buck Beck Beach Shelter

Crow

Magpie

Meadow Pipit

Woodpigeon

Barnacle Goose

Black Swan