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Tag Archives: sea mayweed

Wales Coast Path-Colwyn Bay to Pensarn

05 Tuesday May 2015

Posted by theresagreen in Nature of Wales, North Wales, Wales Coast Path

≈ 8 Comments

Tags

colwyn bay pier, goldcrest, grey wagtail, herring gull, Llanddulas Point, Old Colwyn, sea holly, sea mayweed, seashore walks, yellow horned poppy

One of my ambitions for this year is to walk more of the North Wales section of the  Wales Coast Path, which begins, or ends depending on which way you’re walking at Chester and continues around to Caernarfon. Some of the walks I do fairly regularly are part of the Coast Path, and there are other bits within reasonable striking distance that I could do fairly easily and I am keen to see more of the wildlife found along this amazing and varied coastline. On a sunny day back in the middle of March I set off in the opposite direction to that of my usual routes planning to walk the section from Colwyn Bay to Pensarn, the seaside part of Abergele. I cheated a bit as I have done the Colwyn Bay part so many times before, and drove to the pier to take some updated photos of the route along the promenade.

Colwyn Bay Pier, in a sad and dilapidated state

Colwyn Bay’s Victoria Pier, in a sad and dilapidated state

As a result of a long drawn-out dispute over its ownership, the pier is in a sad state of disrepair and dilapidation but there is much ongoing effort locally to save and restore it. It must be a bit of an embarrassment to the local council, particularly as a lot of money has been invested in providing a new sandy beach and in the building of the new water sports centre, known as Porth Eirias, just a stone’s throw away.

The water sports centre at Porth Eirias is finished but not yet occupied..

The water sports centre at Porth Eirias is finished but not yet occupied..it’s meant to look like a ship

From Porth Eirias the path continues as a promenade and cycle path and is my favourite stretch, particularly in the winter when stormy seas send waves crashing into and over the sea wall and flood the road, which may be closed off on exceptionally wild days. On the opposite side of the road the railway track runs parallel atop a high embankment, which provides habitat for an interesting array of wildflowers. There are great views from the trains too.

The view from Porth Eirias that shows the route of the Coast Path  towards Llandulas

The view from Porth Eirias that shows the route of the Coast Path towards Llanddulas

At the end of the promenade is a small parking area from where the path and cycle track continue towards Llanddulas. I had intended to park here and walk, but it was full of works vehicles as yet more work was being carried out on reinforcing the sea defences. Instead I crossed over the road and turned in towards Old Colwyn and stopped by the river at Min-y-Don.

Celandines

Celandines

Celandines smothered the grassy bank on the sunny side of the road and King Cups lit up the shadier side of the path along the river.

The river was running fast and at a fairly decent level, although nowhere near full.

150318TG-Old Colwyn- King cup

Golden yellow King Cups

This is a favourite spot for Grey Wagtails and I had timed my visit perfectly as a pair of them flew down from upstream to land almost right in front of me. I watched them for a good while, darting after flies from stones in the water and running along the stone wall.

Grey Wagtail - the female of a pair

Grey Wagtail on the river Colwyn- the female of a pair

150318TG-Wales Coastal Path-Llanddulas- Sign board

I drove on to Llanddulas Point and parked facing out across the flat rocky shore to the sea. The views from here are expansive to say the least, and if you were walking the Coast Path seriously I can imagine it may be rather daunting to be able to see where you are heading and will arrive at in a few hours time.On a sunny and warmish day like today it is pleasant enough and as the land is almost pancake flat, easy walking. I’m not sure if I’d fancy it on a wet day when the wind was blasting you in the face.

Leaving the car park and crossing a small bridge, the path follows the lower stretch of the River Dulas for a short distance until it reaches its end and flows towards the sea.

Path alongside the river

Path alongside the River Dulas

The coast here may appear to stark and empty, but it provides important habitat for a good range of marine plants and the eastern end of Llanddulas beach is designated as a SSI as locally rare plants such as sea kale and yellow horned poppy grow there. It was too early in the season for plants to be flowering, but there are new leaves pushing up through the shale.

New leaves of Sea Holly

New leaves of Sea Holly

New leaves of Yellow Horned Poppy

New leaves of Yellow Horned Poppy

New leaves of Sea Mayweed

New leaves of Sea Mayweed

As I neared the last stretch of the river I heard, then spotted more Grey Wagtails, another pair I’m sure, that were hunting flies from stones near the banks, flitting low across the water from one side to the other. As you round the bend in the path where the river ends the narrow ribbon of trees that follow the line of the cliff reaches the path edge. As I got close to this point a wren flew from the tree cover across to a rock and belted out his song.

Red-brown lichen

Red-brown lichen

I attempted to get a bit closer to him and he moved off, but I was soon distracted by a rock face smothered in a red-brown coloured lichen, I have no idea what it is, and another rock with some sort of quartz trapped in it.

Quartz in limestone

Quartz in limestone

Sheltered on this side of the rocks there was a clump of sea mayweed that appeared to have been blooming for some time as many of the flowers were already beginning to go to seed.

Clump of flowering Sea Mayweed

Clump of flowering Sea Mayweed

A green-bottle fly on Sea Mayweed flower

A green-bottle fly on Sea Mayweed flower

Highlighted by the sun there was a pretty little clump of moss or with seed-heads on a nearby rock too.

Moss or lichen with seedheads

Moss with seedheads

Moving back to the path I spotted two tiny birds flitting about amongst the twiggy tree branches. I thought at first they were wrens, but then excitedly realised they were too small and were actually goldcrests, a definite pair. I watched them for a good while as they continued to forage amongst the lichen-covered twigs, but didn’t have much luck getting a clear enough view for long enough to get a good photograph. The one below is the best I could do but it does confirm the sighting!

A rear view of one of a pair of goldcrest

A rear view of one of a pair of goldcrest

I would never have imagined seeing these delightful little birds here within a metre or two of a busy walkway, but there they were and no-one else seemed to notice them at all. These trees are mostly ash that have been regularly pollarded to prevent them growing high enough to block the view from the wooden chalets that line the clifftop above them and appear to be a popular spot with a variety of other species of birds too. In the short while I was there I saw blackbirds, dunnocks, robin, the wren I already mentioned and blue tits and great tits.

A view of the shore lined with herring gulls

A view of the shore in the direction of Abergele then on to Prestatyn and Rhyl

A few metres away the shoreline was lined with huge numbers of herring gulls. During the winter months, there are oystercatcher, curlew, redshank and turnstone feeding here and some years there are snow buntings.

The shoreline stretches on to Pensarn then on to Prestatyn and Rhyl

The shoreline stretches on to Pensarn then on to Prestatyn and Rhyl

I was surprised to find some little yellow coltsfoot flowers pushing up through the stony ground next to the path here.

Coltsfoot

Coltsfoot

Wooden chalets line the path for a good distance along this section of the path and there were a growing number of people out walking dogs, so I turned round and walked back the way I had come.

Limestone quarry

Limestone quarry

Mist obscured much of the distant views today, but it was still possible to make out the outline of the old limestone quarry which rises up behind the shore, separated from it by the A55 Expressway. For 300 years quarrying was a major occupation in this area, second only to farming and lime kilns dominated the skyline from 1890 to 1940. There is a working quarry operational today and between Llanddulas and Colwyn Bay the path passes a jetty that serves it. There used to be another jetty, closer to Llanddulas where during stormy weather in April 2012 a cargo ship that was loading there was forced on to the rocks and had to be dismantled.This event made the national news and I recall it causing chaos on the A55 as people stopped their cars and got out to have a look or to take photographs.

Linnets on the raised stony sea bank

Linnets on the raised stony sea bank

Final treats were the sight of a small flock of linnets that flew on to the raised stony sea bank to feed on seeds and a lovely pair of mallard by the footbridge.

Mallard pair

Mallard pair

 

 

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Of a temporary nature

18 Monday Aug 2014

Posted by theresagreen in coastal walks, coastal wildflowers, Nature, Nature of Wales, nature photography, Wildflowers of Wales

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

acorn barnacles, creeping cinquefoil, fat-hen, flowering in August, hedge bindweed, kelp fly, mussel beds, ray's knotgrass, rhos on sea, sea mayweed, sea plantain, seashore walks

Beauty is where you find it and often in the least likely of places, but in nature it may also be fleeting, so needs to be appreciated when the opportunity presents itself. Here are a few images of some things I found beautiful along the way of a short walk I made from home into Rhos-on-Sea village on a windy, sunny-ish morning last week. Some would most definitely not be there if I were to look for them again.

I had set off to see if there was anything interesting to see down on the seashore and walked along the promenade to reach a point from which to access it. The promenade is on a lower level to the road and pavement for a short stretch here and the intervening space between the two is a steep slope covered with grass. This grassy embankment is mowed every now and then, but the times between cuts are often long enough to allow opportunistic weed wildflowers to pop up and bloom and in different seasons I have spotted a good variety of species here.

Reaching the top of the path leading down to the prom I heard first, then saw a man on a sit-on mower working on the flatter grass verge going in the opposite direction towards Penrhyn Bay. This prompted me to get a move on and have a look to see what might be flowering lower down as it clearly would not be there for much longer.

First to catch my eye was a tangle of white-flowered bindweed. Generally similar to the large flowered bindweed that abounds in waste places and on road verges, as well as being the bane of many a gardener’s life, this was the smaller-flowered Hedge Bindweed.

Flowers are smaller than those of Large Bindweed

Flowers are smaller than those of Large Bindweed

Lower down in the grass there was Creeping Cinquefoil, some of the golden yellow flowers fading around the edges.

Creeping cinquefoil-potentilla reptans

Creeping cinquefoil-potentilla reptans

Small flowers attract small insects

Small flowers attract small insects

There were insects nectaring on most of the available flowers, including bumblebees, hoverflies and various other flies.

I hope they all escaped the blades of the mower that was about two minutes behind me as I took these photographs. I’m glad I got there when I did, otherwise I would not have seen the flowers at all.

The tide was turning and beginning its journey back into the shore and although I could see and hear a lot of birds out on the tide-line, including curlew, redshank & oystercatcher, they were way too far away to see properly.

View across the mussel bed from the shore

View across the mussel bed from the shore. (click for a bigger image)

With or without the added interest of birds though, I can meander contentedly  along this rocky seashore at any time, finding the rocks themselves endlessly fascinating.

Perhaps the rounded shapes on this rock were made by molluscs attached to it

Perhaps the rounded shapes on this rock were made by molluscs at one time attached to it

We don’t get much variety in the seashells on the shore here, although not surprisingly there are an awful lot of mussel shells.

Seashell collection amongst the rocks

Seashell collection amongst the rocks

Textures in rock with periwinkles

Textures and patterns in rock with seaweed and periwinkles

Acorn barnacles make a pretty lacy patterns on rocks

Acorn barnacles make  pretty lacy patterns on rocks

Rock pool

Rock pool

I spent a few minutes watching a cluster of Kelp Flies, appropriately on a length of brown, leathery Kelp seaweed.These are the insects that fly up if you walk through or even past clumps of dryish seaweed. They are quite tiny, so I thought it might be interesting to have a closer look at one. Not beautiful maybe, unless you are another Kelp Fly, but the wings are nice and they have dainty white feet.

Kelp Fly - Coelopa frigida

Kelp Fly – Coelopa frigida

So I travelled slowly along and eventually arrived at the sandy beach area next to the small harbour area of the village. The beach is protected by a barrage of more large rocks that has to be surmounted  to reach it and as I clambered over them I spotted a colourful splash of flowering plants growing at the back of the building that is now a fishing-tackle shop and kayaking centre. This is not a particularly attractive spot and any wind-blown rubbish from the beach tends to get caught up here, but I have come across some interesting plants here, so is always worth a closer look at. 

What had caught my eye today was a large clump of Common Mallow that had found shelter in a corner tight against a wall and was clearly thriving there.

A large Common Mallow plant thrives in a sheltered corner

A large Common Mallow plant thrives in a sheltered corner

Another common plant in waste places, especially on sandy soils is Annual Wall-Rocket and there are usually a few of these plants growing around this location.

Annual Wall-Rocket-diplotaxis muralis

Annual Wall-Rocket-diplotaxis muralis

A large specimen of Annual Wall-Rocket

A large specimen of Annual Wall-Rocket

There was a large plant of Fat-hen too, and another one right on the edge of the sand just a short way from the sea.

 

Fat Hen

Fat Hen- Chenopodium album

Fat Hen flower spike

Fat Hen flower spike

Amongst the commoner plants I was pleased to  find this Ray’s Knotgrass, an annual plant that is most often found on undisturbed coastal sand and shingle beaches.

Ray's Knotgrass- Polygonum oxyspermum

Ray’s Knotgrass- Polygonum oxyspermum

The flowers & fruits of Ray's Knotgrass

The flowers & nut-like fruits of Ray’s Knotgrass

There was Sea Plantain, whose flowers are almost over now.

Sea Plantain-Plantago maritima

Sea Plantain-Plantago maritima

Then the prettiest of them all, the lovely Sea Mayweed.

Sea Mayweed-Tripleurospermum inodorum

Sea Mayweed-Tripleurospermum inodorum

A clump of Sea Mayweed at the beach edge

A clump of Sea Mayweed at the beach edge

 

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