Introduction


When we started walking the coast of England we had no intention that this would become a major lifetime project. Having to make a last-minute arrangement for our summer holiday in 1987, we said "Let's go to the nearest piece of coast and see how far we can walk along it." It turned out well and we started adding further stretches of coast, initially once every two years, but soon annually, or even twice a year.

We had always enjoyed the coast - there is something refreshingly "edgy" about having the sea always at our side, and one of us was into marine molluscs. We also enjoyed long-distance walking and had long been involved in general natural history recording. This project enabled us to combine all three interests.

You soon discover when embarking on a project like this that you need a few rules, which evolve from the first experiences. Our main rule was that we should walk as close to the coast as possible, which meant beach-walking whenever we could (unlike the official coast paths that largely remain above shore, recognising that at high tides the beach may be inaccessible). The route should also be capable of being a continuous walk, so that when we came to an unfordable river we walked inland along its banks to the first place at which we could cross, whether a bridge or a ferry.

We only carried light packs, so that at the end of each day's walk we had the problem of getting back to our car where we started. Initially we walked back, but soon realised we would be walking the coast twice this way! We used public transport whenever this was available - buses or trains, sometimes adjusting our start and finish points to make this easier. Failing this - and it was often not possible - we would phone for a taxi (an increasingly costly option over the years). Having our car with us gave us more freedom as to where we could stay at night - and after a day walking and only light food we were usually ready for being spoiled by a good meal and a comfortable bed! Even so, we stayed on the coast itself whenever there was a decent option.

Each walk was made for enjoyment, it was not a route-march to see how quickly we could get it finished. We therefore took it gently at times when passing through pleasant scenery or where there were many plants or creatures to record.

In terms of biological recording, we systematically noted every bird, butterfly, creature or sea-shell that we came across, sometimes spending time searching for the shells. We could not record every plant in the same way - there are too many common ones - so we were more selective, noting all coastal plants and any others that were not run-of-the-mill.

In our daily posts, edited from our original diaries, we include a star-rating from no star to **** according to our subjective estimate as to how special that day was from the point of view of natural history. This score (and our daily records) will, however, have been affected by the weather - it is difficult to appreciate the environment fully, for instance, in torrential rain, and there are many more butterflies and other insects to be seen in warm sunshine!

A summary of all our natural history records on the walk can be found using this link: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B1LLGD55lKRHYXd1SGU1QndrcUU/edit?usp=sharing





Friday, 24 January 2014

Cumbria: North Walney Island 10/6/2005****


 

Bloody cranesbill with pale Walney variety
 
Pool on North Walney
 
Moonwort
The station at Barrow is right on the coast walk.  We followed streets down to the bridge over to Walney Island, seeing perennial wall rocket growing high on old walls of the dockyards and the Vicker’s factory.  On the Island we decided to cover the north end today and leave the south end for tomorrow, so we followed the wide road on the east side by the saltmarsh, past the built-up area and airfield, with views of a large slag-heap across the channel in north Barrow, until we reached the sign announcing North Walney nature reserve.  We continued past white willows along the edge of the marsh, a narrow path cut through reed beds with reed buntings.  As the reeds got higher and the path muddier we came across a clump of scaly male fern.  It was well after noon by the time we reached the dunes at the end of the island, but the display of flowers was worth the trouble.  The first dunes we crossed were acidic with a flora of tormentil, fine-leaved sheep's fescue and heather, but towards the west they became calcareous and there was a fine display of bloody cranesbill including the pale pink variety known as Walney cranesbill, kidney vetch, sticky storksbill, burnet rose and dune pansies in the drier areas, and northern marsh orchids, marsh cinquefoil, dyer’s greenweed, ragged robin, water and marsh horsetails, and lesser marshwort in the slacks by a large pool with frogs.  We were also pleased to see some excellent specimens of moonwort in the dry areas.  There was not time to search very thoroughly before we had to follow the western edge back to the centre of the island.  The shore here, facing the ocean, has an extensive clean sandy beach below a line of pebbles with much sea kale in full flower, plenty of sea holly and yellow horned-poppy.  We passed the airfield again and a golf course before returning inland and catching a bus to Coronation Gardens near the station, with its odd stone “cushions” on low walls.
Bridge from Barrow to Walney
Perennial wall-rocket
 
Burnet rose
 
Frog

 
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